Repairs Steering Cabin

                                          Repairs Steering Cabin

The next step in replacing rotten wood was the upper plank of both sides of the steering cabin. These planks are fitted under the polyester covering on which the window frames is placed of the steering cabin.

The main reason in my opinion for the rotting of the wood to be started is that where two pieces of the polyester are meeting no proper seal was installed or has been disappeared over the years. This resulted that water could ingress between the polyester part and the wood not only resulting in that the upper plank was rotten away but also resulting in rotten wood on the inside of the forward cabin and the wet cell. Earlier repairs were made with looks like polyester but the root course was not attended according to me, the gap between both polyester parts.

The plank was removed until the original connection with the other side plank. Rotten support wood on the inside of the removed plank, which supports the window frames, was removed as well. From the inside the window frame was supported to make sure that when the plank was removed the position remained the same thus preventing that after the repairs the window still could be opened.

New wood was glued in place with colored epoxy and kept in place with supports from the inside with wooden blocks. The new plank was shaped in such a way that the angle was the same as the original plank. This to prevent that in future water ingress can happen.

The plank was than screwed in place as original onto the window frame support beams, holes were plugged. To make sure that the plank is protected from water ingress a large amount of epoxy was inserted into the space between the polyester and the inside support beams, more or less the not visible part of the plank is embedded into epoxy.

After both sides were in place all was sanded at the same time all old screw holes in the sides were drilled out and filled with plugs. The reason for this is that the wood showed a start of rot on the positions were screws were inserted and where screw holes poked through from the inside.

When both sides were sanded forward to aft port as well as starboard side the old sealant was removed between the polyester roof and sides. After cleaning and de-greasing new silicone seal was inserted in this opening. Painters tape was used and removed before the silicone dried.

Cracks between the two polyester parts were closed and glued together and both sides of the cabin were sanded again.

Instead of using varnish for protecting the wood I have used Owatrol Deks Olje D1 and D2. I have followed the instructions as can be found on the internet, it took 15 layers of D1 oil before the wood was saturated the next step was to apply the D2 oil which was another 6 layers.

Main reason for using Oil instead of varnish is that the D1 oil penetrated deeper into the wood than varnish and in my opinion protects the wood better from weather influences.

Replacement window frames

                                       Replacement bottom window frame aft and forward

The bottom part which rests on the teak deck of the forward cabin window and the aft cabin window were rotten away and cracked.

These window frames needed to be replaced as well.

The first one which was done was the aft window frame since it had the less roundness onto the deck and a less round curve as the front window. More or less this was a practice frame for the more difficult frame of the front cabin window frame.

 

The window frame is made from 2 pieces of 12 mm thick mahogany planks which are roughly shaped and glued together with colored epoxy and placed on a jig which had a larger curve than the actual window frame required.

 

                                                    

After the glue had cured and the clamps were loosened it showed that the new made plank had a curve which was less than when the plank was clamped onto the jig.

The next step was to shape the plank in the form of the aft deck and with an angle to make a good contact with the teak deck.

For checking the new plank/frame it was clamped onto the top frame with supports.

One can than check if the angle of the bottom is correct as well as that the new frame follows the actual curve of the deck. Next picture is taken during the shaping of the frame.

This shaping is timely since the deck is curved and the frame needs to rest completely on the deck in the correct angle. When preparing and gluing together the bottom frame it is made over-sized due to the fact that during the shaping the frame increasingly gets smaller and when the old frame is exactly copied one will end up with a to small bottom frame to fit the windows.

When the bottom frame was shaped to the deck curve and with the correct angle it was time to start with the renewal of the sides and the center part of the window frame to complete window frame renewal, except of the top part which is still in a good condition.

The above picture also shows the over sized bottom frame while test fitting the actual window in position. This extra wood is in a later stage removed after the window frames were glued in place.

When all was dry fitted correctly the side, center piece and the bottom part of the window frame were glued together with colored epoxy glue.

The next step was to glue the window frame with sides and center piece into place.

The complete unit was screwed onto the deck as well as onto the sides of the ship. The center piece was installed as original with a pin into the hole of the top window frame.

The bottom window frame was also screwed from the inside onto the deck.

The bottom frame was not glued with epoxy onto the deck but with double sided marine flexible tape.

Deck was degreased to remove the natural oil of the teak deck.

To hold the complete frame in place and fix it straight onto the old still in place window top frame clamps were used with blocks which were covered with duct tape, Epoxy will not stick to duct tape.

Left over epoxy glue was used to insert the wooden plugs at the same time.

When all was dry the whole area was sanded and the sides shaped in round corners as original.

The actual glass windows were fitted in the top window frame and the bottom window frame and the sides were shaped to the correct seize. After that the actual groove where the window is placed into the frame was made with a router.

The next project was to renew the bottom window frame of the front cabin.

                 

First attempt failed since the curve used for this window frame was not enough, the glued planks when the clamps were removed and the tension was taken off them came back to almost a straight plank. I used a curve of +/- 3 cm in the middle and this was not enough.

The second attempt I made was with a curve of +/- 6 cm in the middle deeper than the original  removed bottom frame and the new bottom frame came out almost perfect. The jig used is not that professional but it served its purpose.

 

The next step was as described for the aft window frame to shape the frame to perfection and to follow the curve of the deck and the correct angle between the window frame and the deck.

When that was done also here  the sides and center piece of the window frames needed to be replaced.

 

Than the following step was dry fitting the window frame parts together on the top of the teak deck,and against the sides of the deck house this was done with the bottom piece center piece and side pieces.

The bottom fame was screwed against a small support which by itself was screwed and glued onto the teak deck like original. You can see this support on below picture which was made of two pieces of mahogany glued together and shaped in the roundness of the window fame and shaped into the same angle as the window frame is placed onto the deck.

When all was shaped to acceptance all was glued together in place, bear in mind that during the dry fitting screws were installed to make sure that when all would be glued in place it was done correctly,

The same double sided tape was used between the bottom frame and the teak deck.

After installing the plugs the whole area was shaped, actual windows were  fitted in the window frame and all was sanded.

During the sanding I noticed that I minor mistake was made with inserting the screws between the side frames and the side of the deck housing, a few of the screw heads showed through the wood. Most likely this is a result off drilling to close to the edge of the wood and not deep enough into the wood.

Since I was not happy with this fact the wooden plugs were removed again and the screw removed, although this sounds simple it was not the case.

The screw was inserted when the two parts were glued together with epoxy resulting that the screw was fitted in the wood with epoxy and could not be removed easily.

So what I did was to drill a small hole in the center of the screw, making sure that most of the groove of the screw head remained in place and then removed the screw.

By drilling a hole in the bronze screw the screw gets hot/warm resulting in that the epoxy “melts” one can than remove the screw reasonably easy.

New hole was drilled new screw inserted and the whole was plugged and sanded again

Teak Deck installation

                                                      Teak Deck Installation

After the sub deck was finished and before the teak deck was installed all holes in the deck were filled with 2 component epoxy filler .

Afterwards the complete deck was rolled in a thin layer of epoxy to make sure that there were no gaps between the different installed area’s where teak will be glued on, for example between the deck house and the sub deck..

After the curing time the complete deck was lightly sanded to create a good surface for bonding the teak planks onto the deck with bedding compound.

The first teak planks to be installed are the ones onto the side of the boat longer pieces for the straight side and shorter pieces were cut to seize for mainly the bow. Keeping in mind that portside and starboard side should looks the same, planks were shaped in the same length from a wider plank and installed without tension.

The planks were temperately screwed down into position and shaped with the sides of the boat. The planks of the complete bow were kept wider than actually required this gives the opportunity to shape them with the side of the bow as well as after final installation to make them the correct width with a router following the side and removing wood on the inside of the plank till  the sub deck, groove of the teak plank will be discussed in a later stage.  Next picture shows the left side of the bow shaped while the right side is still needs to be shaped. The way the teak pank and the bow are shaped is that a falt almost vertical surface is created to place in alater stage a teak plank for side protection.

When all was correct the side planks were cleaned-degreased coated with a primer and glued down with Sika flex bedding compound. I have used Sikaflex and have followed the exact procedures as can be found on their web side, there are of course other bedding compounds and caulking systems on the market which are suitable as well.

The next step was to clean the excess of bedding compound at the inside of the planks and than figuring out the layout of the new teak deck onto the sub deck, this takes time to came up with an acceptable layout, by placing the planks loose onto the deck. I have tried to follow the original lines of the teak deck and this cannot always be followed due to the wider teak planks which are now on the marked 48 mm almost 2``.

When the layout was decided the planks were cut to the correct length and temperately mounted down with block of wood  and clamps. I made small blocks of wood which were screwed down into the deck beams holding the teak planks in place during the dry fitting and during the actual gluing down onto the deck.
The holes were filed with bedding compound.

As can be seen from the nextt picture due to the groove in the teak plank it is possible to push the plank against the next plank and at the same time holding it down into position this methos was mainly used for the side panks since they are placed under a little tension to able to following the curve of the boat.

The next step was how to finish the teak against the deck house, original built the teak deck was installed and during a later stage the deck house was placed on top of the teak deck. Since I changed the construction the deck house runs now completely till the sub deck the teak will be placed against the deck house. There are two solutions one is to continue from the outside to the inside and make the last teak plank finish against the deck house and make it fit or place a teak plank from the same width against the deck house and fit the plank next to this plank and shape it in position. This is in my opinion the best and most nice way to do it. Although the teak experts will tell us to start installing the teak deck at the deck house and finish at the side it is the first time I  installed a teak deck and I thought this was the best and easiest way to do it.

The next step was to shape the finishing planks in place bear in mind that I made the mistake to shape a long plank. When a long plank is bend after it is shaped it can not bend well  and start to twist which will result that it will not fit properly, therefore I made sure that the finidhing plank was fitted with the minimum tension in place. This took a lot of measurements and time for fitting and shaping. It is important that I took the time to do this since I otherwise might have ended up with wider grooves between the planks which will not look nice after the deck is caulked and sanded.

When the planks were shaped to my satisfaction they were glued in place with bedding compound clamped where required and hold in position with wooden blocks. I noticed that it is important to have no gap between the planks during gluing down otherwise the bedding compound will fill up the groove between the planks and it is a lot of work removing it in a later stage with the chance of damaging the teak planks. Planks were hold also into position and pushed into the bedding compound with sand bags. No more than two maximum 3 planks were glued down at the same time. First were the two sides finished onto the sub deck.

Next part to be glued in place was the stern deck which was done in two times since it were short plank without any tension to be able to keep into position, also here were block sued and sand bags.

The stern was done after the sides were finished to get a good contact between the side planks and to make sure that the caulking lines would be followed. If one starts firts with the stern deck it will be difficult to match the side decks a small change in the angle between the stern planks and the side deck will result in a tapered gap between the stern deck and the side decks creating a strange caulking line. Therefore I started with the side decks.

Than came the deck of the bow, actually it was a bit easier since the planks can be glued down without any tension compared to some tension in the teak planks of the sides. First thing which was done was to decide the centerline of the deck and the width of the king plank . The sides planks in place more or less decide the layout of the teak planks from the bow deck, angle where the side planks come onto the bow deck. It was than installing one plank at the time port side starboard side and measuring their end position against the side plank to make sure that from the centerline the planks on both sides end up on the same position, If this is not done correctly the planks which end up against the king plank left and right will not match up which will be visible and will not look nice. In my case the planks almost lined up correctly left and right of the king plank with only a few mm difference.

The following step was to glue the teak planks down in position same plan was followed few planks ports side few planks starboard side hold in position by wooden blocks screwed into the deck beams and hold down by sand bags.

When the complete deck was glued down and time for curing the bedding compound was taken in consideration the grooves between the planks were cleaned The groove between the side plank and the teaks panks ending at the side plank were made with a router smaller than the width of the actual groove, a 4 mm router was used for a 6 mm groove. The router followed the side of the ship so creating a groove in line with the side of the ship. A 4 mm router was used this gives some flexibility with cleaning the extra bedding compund between the planks without having the chance to damaging the wood. Only disadvantage is that twice the router needs to be adjusted for the correct width of the groove which is eventually 6 mm.

Another method was also used for cleaning the grooves from the excess of bedding compound and creating the correct width of the groove where required, for example the shaped planks. A straight router was mounted on a base plate with two half round bolts which were out of line with the actual tool bid the two half round bolts gave the opportunity to guide the router through the grooves without removing any wood just removing the excess of the bedding compound while following the groove to be cleaned.

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Since there were some of the grooves not pre-cut the same principle was used for cutting a new groove between the planks. It was made sure that one of the two planks has the original groove which is a part of the plank for guidance of cutting the correct width of the required groove between the two planks. The following picture shows a partly cut groove between two planks as can be seen the original groove is on the plank placed against the deck house which was followed with the router to create the complete groove between the planks.

When all grooves were cleaned and cut were required the complete deck was vacuumed and grooves checked for their cleanliness, it showed that also that the new teak deck was almost the same as the original installed teak deck.

When all the grooves were degreases and prepared for the deck caulking in one day the complete deck was caulked, bearing in mind to push the caulking into the grooves with a flat knife and leaving an excess of caulking sticking above the planks. Other method is to tape next to each groove before the caulking is applied which in my opinion creates a lot of extra work especially since the complete teak deck needs to be sanded and the excessive caulking will be sanded away. It was made sure that where grooves ended against the hull that tape was placed to prevent caulking running out between the grooves.

A finished deck with caulking does not look very appealing but when sanded it will look great in my opinion.

After a period of two weeks caulking needed to be placed between the teak deck and the deck house although enough bedding compound was used when installing the teak planks against the deck housebedding compound was pushed out between the teak planks and the deck house. An extra filler needed to be placed between those two surfaces in my opinion. Before this filler could be placed the teak planks next to the deck house needed to be sanded when this was done all was degreased and tape was placed for applying the caulking. Directly after the caulking was finished the tape was removed and the caulking left to dry.

The aft deck was completely sanded for the installation of new window frames the same was done with the bow deck but only in the position of the new window frame. During this sanding it showed that a few air bubbles were entrapped into the caulking resulting into holes these holes were cut out degreased and filled again with caulking, in this case tape was used to make sure that no caulking would end up onto the sanded deck. Sanding again caulking from the teak planks might result inlower spots on the teak deck which can result in places were water will collect.

The old window frame was placed onto the teak deck of the bow and the good part was that it fitted without any major gaps, only thing left is now to sand completely the teak deck but that will be done in later stage since more work needs to be done at the deck house, new window frames of the bow and stern windows, which will be the next blog.