Day 2

Didn't spend a lot of time on it today.
Cleaned up where I'm going to add a post to hold the side where it is broken. Figuring on screwing the post to the existing post through the bulkhead as well as epoxy and also putting some small screws from the outside into the new post to ensure no movement around the break.

Been wondering about the cracks in the paint on the bulk head...
It turns out that the bulk head was stapled to the thwart... The staples have long since rusted away, bubbling up the paint and leaving rust marks. One of todays mysteries is that what remains looks white, as though they were gone before a coat of white paint was applied at some point. But that doesn't explain the rust marks...


Having a camera in your pocket is great when trying to see into tight spaces. Except when you find big gaps you didn't know about. (Thwart, starboard side). After further investigation, I'm not worried about it, it is well attached to the gunwale at the top.
(the paint under here and on the front side of the bulk head is good evidence that people haven't always had cell phones).

I've been wondering if somethings were actually ever glued. Specifically, the bulkhead, to the thwart. After peeling it back a bit, I noticed the join on one side is kinda shiny and there is some crazing of some material. So yeah, there was glue here. It stuck to the ply but not the wood of the thwart.


I'm suspicious stickers. I know this one covers some screws (matching where the nasty hole on the starboard side is).


But this sticker... Really not sure what its story is.


I've come to a conclusion about the delaminating bulkhead... I'd been planning on replacing it but have come to the conclusion that that is a bigger job than even Rookie really deserves. Unlike other bits, this piece seems to be well connected to everything it touches and is adequately strong the way it is. I considered completely peeling away the layer of ply that is separating but I'm now thinking of re-laminating it. I should be able to force epoxy well down into it and clamp it all up. There will probably be bits where the glue doesn't reach but that should be fine if it is water proof.


The centrecase has come loose in a couple of places. But not loose enough to get epoxy in. It feels like one of those situations where I might have to make things a lot worse before I can make them better... Further consideration required.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 This is Rookie. Possibly the greenest opti ever. I don't know anything about when or who built Rookie. Sail number is 438 so pretty old. She has a Bay Of Islands yacht club sticker so was probably there before arriving in at Pt Chev a few years back. Rookie has some issues... The ply stiffener for the thwart isn't very attached, There are a crack in the side. (Looks like this has been a problem before given the different color paint... There are a couple of epoxy repairs, but they aren't as stuck to the boat as they should be. And notably, this is on the inside of the hull to where the crack is... The bulkhead that supports the centercase is delaminating. There's some splitting around where the sides meet the bottom And there are a fair number of scrapes and scratches.   So, I'm going fix the problems
Read more
Image
Bulkhead in. Yeah... This was supposed to be my winter project but procrastination, spending way too much time worrying about how to do it rather than doing it, doing one or two things around the house and kicking of LTS for the season meant it isn't done yet. But this is a milestone. Today I put in the new bulkhead. It has screws into the uprights at the side, into the centercase and in through the bottom. This last one was one of the major procrastination  worry points. Originally, the screws would have just gone through the stringers in the bottom into the bulkhead, before the ply was put on the bottom of the boat so I wasn't supper happy about putting holes in the ply... But it didn't really feel as though it was going to be held well enough so I drilled the holes.  That basically concludes the bits that need more than some filler and paint! This bit was from a while back but didn't get blogged.  The centre case pretty much came apart in my hands. I knew the top of ...
Read more
Image
 Day 1. Finding that things that join up aren't necessarily attached... A fillet of epoxy between the thwart bulkhead and the side. Not really attached to the side. After removing the epoxy, there is about a 4mm gap. This is the inside, matching the position of the crack on the outside. After removing the paint around the crack on the outside. It has been around for a while, there are 2 different types of screws (Brass slotted screws and stainless square drive). Unfortunately, the screws are all in the front side of the break, going into some timber under the thwart. There is nothing to screw the back part into so it has moved, hence the gap inside. It hasn't been water tight but the wood is still good. While working on the hole, I found the thwart bulkhead wasn't just loose across the top and that it was only attached to the side about half way down from the top. After pulling that clear it is clear that water has gotten in but again, the wood is sound.  The lack of eviden...
Read more