Overboard Connections

August 2014                     Overboard Stubs removal

 

To be able to perform a good coating of the under waterline hull and the above water line hull it was decided to remove all overboard stubs.

Another reason was that I did not know nor could find out when was the last time these were removed or replaced.

This is where the challenge started not only are some of them difficult to reach but like with new over boards there were no notches on the inside of the stub, to hold them in place when one tries to loosen the nuts on the inside of the hull. 

Next picture shows a new overboard stub.

Several tries with different tools, cleaning of the thread and some heat it was still impossible to turn the nuts loose or completely off the overboard stubs.

One of the main reasons was that the overboard stubs did not have the notches in them to keep them in place from the outside. They kept turning and could not be fixed in place to loosen the nuts.

The only thing left was to cut off the flange of the overboard stubs and push the actual stub inside the boat.

As one can imagine this has to be done very carefully to prevent that too much damage is created onto the actual hull.

Pic 3

The best method I found was to cut off the flange with a Dremel tool with a cutting disc.

Started with a normal cutting disc in the largest overboard stub, toilet outlet, and when the cutting disc was smaller wear and tear, moved to a smaller diameter overboard stub.

With this method all flanges of all over boards were removed.

When the overboard stubs were removed I had the feeling that some of them have never been removed since the boat was build. The impression was due to the materials used that they have been in the hull since day one.

After the removal they were inspected and were actually still in good condition.

The holes were cleaned out and I noticed that they were not protected by paint which I will do.

New overboard stubs will be installed after the painting has been finished and since I might sail with the boat in salt water the underwater overboard stubs to be installed which are made from Bronze and the above the water line from Brass.

Keel Repairs II

August 2014                     Keel Repairs Continued

 

After replacing the keel of the bow in 2013 most of the work has been concentrated afterwards on other projects.

This summer a start was made with the painting of the complete under water ship and the hull.

After the underwater ship has been scraped from the antifouling paint and base coats a further inspection was made of the keel.

The stainless steel rubbing stroke was removed from the keel between two supports, it was noticed when the stainless steel strip was removed that sikaflex was standing like little mountains on top of the strip indicating that there were cracks in the wood.

The wood was cleaned and indeed there were some cracks in the wood and the sikaflex covering the bolts was loose. But the things did not look too badly.

A layer of Priomacon paint was applied as protection. Upon further inspection after the paint dried the wood did not looked to good.

Since it looked like that the cracks were not too deep it was decided, to use a router and remove the wood which was in a bad state.

There is approximately 20 mm wood removed till wood was found in the keel with only hairline cracks.

Wood was cut to seize and dry fitted it was slightly thicker and the depth of the groove, to be able in a later stage sand all smooth again with the original height of the keel.

The next step was to glue with epoxy a new piece of wood in the large groove made in the keel. The good thing was that the cracks were only ion the middle part of the keel and not running into the sides. The new wooden strips were hold in place with screws alto to make sure when screwed ion place that excess of epoxy was compressed in the little cracks left in the keel.

When all was dried the new wood was sanded to the correct height of the original keel.

Screws were removed.

The screw holes were drilled out and filled with wooden plug which were glued in place.

All was sanded again and painted several coats with Primacon

In a later stage the stainless steel strip will be glued back again with sikaflex and stainless steel screws.