Sailboat Progress

Been working on the sailboat (of course) trying to get it ready for painting the deck. While we were down south visiting Kim and family, Luann, Karen and I made a point of stopping by Sailorman's Store (www.sailorman.com) to see about some running lights for the bow of Udara Tanda. Not only did we have some fun there, but I got some great bargains. And thanks Karen, for finding that great multi-layered tiller, it was an exact fit for the boat. I'll install it later when we start putting the boat together after the deck is painted.

The right hand side of the boat was damaged (you can see the huge crack by the clamps) so I had to fill the crack and build it up with epoxy. Then I had to fill the laminate on the inside of the boat with epoxy by drilling holes halfway through then using epoxy in a syringe to fill up the gaps caused by the cracks. And finally, I had to add more epoxy and fiberglass cloth on the inside in order to make the repair solid and strong.

After a coat of paint, this will look as good as new.

I also bought a different manual bilge pump and installed it. You can see the cutout I had to make to get it mounted. You can also see the old pump on the deck. Man, it sure is ugly....

Here is the finished piece.

And you know we just had to test it by emptying out the disgusting salt water out of the bilge.

The next task is to cut out this massive patch in the deck that was a result of a "de-masting" and get it back to something that looks a bit more normal.

This is what the inside of the boat looks like. I've got to give Dino credit, this was one strong repair, the laminate turned out to be one and one-quarter inch thick.

After cutting, prying and popping out all of the fiberglass, a replacement red oak newel post was put in and a stainless steel plate (thanks Dennis) was wedged in above the post. There was supposed to be this kind of hump-backed ridge that the tabernacle (mast base mount) should be resting on, so I trimmed a piece of red oak and after wedging the stainless plate in between the deck laminates and literally kicking the post into place (tight fit) I was able to attach the strip to the stainless plate. The next job was mixing up epoxy and laminating all of the pieces into place.

This is what it looks like from the inside now. The newel post has been drilled for a lag bolt that will go through the top of the fiberglass repair, down into the crown of the newel post. The base of the newel post has been drilled and bolted into the lower bulkhead just below the dark trim in the foreground in order to tie the whole thing together. You can also see the epoxy resin molded to a flush fit on each side of the stainless plate.

This is as far as I got tonight, I've been slowly shaping the top of the deck to look something like the original contour. I don't know what I'm going to do about the textured surface surrounding the repair area. The hole is for the lag bolt that screws down into the top of the newel post.

This is what she looks like from the right-hand (starboard) side. Just need to get the top done, finish removing all of the hardware, then start sanding the deck for painting.