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.

Small Hull Repairs

                                                      Small Hull Damage

The plan is to paint the hull above and below the water line this summer.

Above the water line with a finished coat and below the water line just the protective coat , anti fouling will be added before the boat will be returned to the water.

The painting process will be a different chapter in this blog.

Before is started to sand the hull I checked it once more for other hull damages.

Although I was aware of them I decided this time to repair them in a way which is in my opinion better than as original planned.

The original plan was to fill the small 5-10 mm deep holes with putty of any other kind of wood filler.

I'm afraid that over time water will get behind the filler resulting that the wood will rot away with the chance of more damage to the hull than the present small holes.

It was decided to drill the bad wood out and replace it with a wooden plug which would be glued into the hull.

First in the center of the wasted wood a small hole was drilled as guidance.

The second step was to drill the hole on the size of the plug .

The plug was fitted and glued in.

The biggest challenge was where do I get a mahogany plug of  +/- 21 mm and a wood drill of 21 mm.

The size of the plug was decided by the hole saw I had, as we all know the trick of the hole saw is the drill in the middle which would have me ended up with a plug with a nice round hole in the middle, something one would like to prevent.

What I did was that I placed the holes saw in a stationary drill.

The next step was that the drill bit was kept as high as possible into the hole saw to prevent that the plug would get a deep hole in the middle.

The wood for the plug was chosen thicker than the actual thickness of the hull resulting that the plug on the inside cut be cut to length after the glue had cured.

As we all know the hole saw diameter is decided by the outside dimension and not the inside dimension.

To get a plug which fitted I first drilled with the hole saw the plugs, than measured the plugs and started to look for a wood drill of the same dimensions which I did not had nor could buy.

To make sure that the plug would fit tight in the hole I grinded a wood drill, as in the picture to a smaller dimension. Both side were grinded till the desired dimension was reached.

This resulted that the home made wooden large plug would fit tight in the drilled hole.

       

Storage bin Steering Cabin

                       

                                               Storage Bin steering cabin

A while, few years, ago I noticed that a part of the aft port-side floor board was rotten away as well as the support beam for the floor board mounted against the storage bin.

The first part I did was to remove the rotten beam and replace it with a new beam.

I left it for awhile but further investigation at the end of last year showed that the front wall of the storage bin was rotten as well and did not give enough support for the floor beam as well as that the front panel was badly damaged. It was then decided to replace the rotten  wood of the storage bin completely good thing is it is only the port side bin  .

Since I did not know how the storage bin was built together I started slowly taken it apart and actually it is not a simple construction as I expected.

I did not take any pictures during the dismantling of the bin but will describe how I built it together again.

When the complete bin was taken apart I ended up with a lot of small support wood for the actual bin.

All were sanded and varnished, due to the outside temperature I took them home and placed them in a warm area for curing between the different layers of varnishing.

A small electrical heater does wonders.

Several of the small pieces of wood are from the inside windows between the main and forward cabin.

With the whole storage bin apart I had now also the opportunity to make a proper heat resistant blanket around the exhaust of the cabin heater.

New inside panel was made this is an important panel it holds several support wood squares for the floor in the bin as well as for the top cover and front wall cover.

I have copied this panel as well as drilled the holes for the screws in the same place.

Pictures or a drawing is important when taking this panel apart since on both sides square support wood is mounted. Although difficult to see one can notice the two rows of screws.

The bin bottom support against the aft wall is screwed against the new the new side wall panel from behind with screws one does not notice when the unit is taken apart.

The next picture shows the support planks against the inside aft wall panel.

There were a few nice warm days and I was able to sand and varnish the inside aft wall of the bin.

The wall was varnished also at the area where the floor support is mounted against the aft wall.

The new bin is than put together with the side wall and the front wall both made of marine plywood of which the front wall is with a layer of mahogany veneer.

All has been protected with varnish or the front panel with a layer of epoxy and two layers of epoxy varnish to give it more strength against future damages.

Next part to be installed is the support for the top cover with drain inside.

Also this wood has been protected around with varnish.

Although difficult to see the transversal support for the longitudinal side wall of the steering cabin is connected to the front wall of the storage bin.

Although the picture does not show this this support was still in a good condition.

Took me some time to find out why I could not remove the front wall when all was loose according to my opinion.

To reach these screws the complete side wall needs to be removed. Which also result that several support beams of the floor need to be removed as well.

The hatch and top cover were cleaned and as one can see I did not have too much trouble with removing the old layers of varnish.

After properly sanding the more or less yellow color was replaced by the original deep wood color of the mahogany. The hatch and the rest of the cover were protected with two component epoxy varnish, 3 layers to protect it against future damage. This also resulted in that the deep shining mahogany color came back.

Last thing which was done after all was screwed together was to glue plugs in and sand the complete top cover slightly.

A final coat of epoxy varnish will be applied when all work has been finished in the steering cabin.

As can be seen from the next picture there is a little gap between the top cover and the walls, this gap will be filled with Sikaflex to prevent that water can run into the storage bin.

Small Items

              

                                                Small autumn items 2013

Weather has not been so good and I have been occupied with my daily work so I have not been able to start with bigger projects.

Cable Tray in the Steering Cabin:

What disturbed me when I bought the boat were the loose wires hanging in front of the steering cabin windows for the window wipers.

As well as that the window wipers switches were mounted on big blocks against the top window frame, further cabling was for the search light, cables for the solar panels and a console light.

Looking for a solution to wrap these cables in a kind of a cable tray and to make sure that the cable tray in future would be accessible I came up with a construction of a mahogany cable tray against the top side of the window frame.

First job was to drill out all the old screw holes and plug them with mahogany plugs.

Plugs were glued in with colored two component epoxy trying to prevent any color difference between the plug and the window frame. As can be seen over the years a lot of screws entered the window frame.

Next step was to sand the plugs flush with the window frame and varnish in two coats the window frame.

The actual cable tray is made of two pieces a square 10 X 10 mahogany piece which is crewed against the window frame, due to the small seize and cutting the wood with the right grain it was possible to follow the curve of the top of the window frame.

About 12 mm was kept as a width for placing the cables in, so the actually cable tray will be 12 X 10 which is just enough to place the required cables in my case.

For the window wipers I do use a multicore cable easier to insert in the cable tray.

The cable tray comes down on port side and will run into the direction of the steering console.

The cable tray is closed with a flat piece of wood which cover the square support and touches against the white ceiling.

This is a flat piece of mahogany of only around 4 mm thick; due to the limited thickness I was able to bend this also in the curve of the window frame.

It is a bit under pressure but not that much that the screws do not hold.

Next picture shows the starboard side of the finished cable tray, at a later point the complete cable tray will be closed when all wires are pulled.

The strip in the middle of the ceiling which covers the sides of the soft ceiling tops was loose and did not completely cover both sides anymore.

Since this did not look very nice and since I needed a cable for the search light I made mahogany strip from forward to aft in the center of the ceiling which can hold two flat wires.

Next picture show the loose hanging strip in the middle,

I took a flat as possible piece of mahogany trip sanded the sides round made with a router two grooves on the inside, one for the cable for the search light which comes out fairly at the beginning and one for a future purpose for example a light in the steering cabin.

The cables were glued into the grooves.

Next picture shows the removed original strip as can be seen there is space available for placing a wire between the two soft ceiling panels, one has of course to be careful with screws of nails for not penetrating the cables.

In my case the two grooves for the cables were left and right of the center line of the wooden strip and therefore there was no chance of penetrating the cables.

Before the trip was installed it was twice varnished inside and outside to protect the wood against the weather it was than installed with brass screws against the ceiling.

At the front of the plank the two wires are coming out and will be guided in a later stage properly into the cable tray.

Next picture shows the finished strip screwed against the ceiling.

Main Cabin Ceiling Light

Originally the cabin ceiling light was round and as I can imagine the light might not have been very effective to read or to have a nice dinner, not enough light above the table.

Over the years before I bought the boat the round light has been replaced by a block of wood with 3 halogen lights, this block is rather large and in my opinion does not fit into the interior of the boat.

The above mentioned construction was removed and a new construction of mahogany was made which is thinner and smaller also in this piece of varnished mahogany 3 halogen lights were positioned above the table.

I think the new construction fits more into the interior of a classic wooden boat.

Fixed window installation

  I’m still busy finding a method to make the sliding windows water tight but in the meantime all fixed windows have been removed and have been re-installed

 I'm aware that an easy solution is to remove all windows and replace them with a new window frame and new windows but since I do want to keep the boat as original as possible and due to funds available I decided to install the old windows and find a solution for the sliding windows, therefore this part only explains the fixed windows and the sliding windows will be another chapter in this blog.

The first thing done to remove the windows, which were still as it looked to me fitted with their original white plastic stapled window cord.

Which that at one point I presume due to water leakage was tried to top with silicone.

As can be seen from the next pictures this did not stop the water ingress since the window is discolored with algae.

The pictures used for this blog have been taken from different fixed windows’.

The next steps was to clean the wood where the window fits in and remove all earlier applied varnish and protect the wood with two component epoxy two layers.

The first window I made the mistake, created a lot of extra work for myself by not properly placing tape on all areas where one does not want to have silicone.

For the first window installed I only taped the wood and nothing else, this was the mistake since it was impossible to get straight lines of silicone following the rims of the wood inside and outside.

After the first window installation I did follow the following steps.

Placing tape on the wood on the outside following the window frame taking time also to follow the round curves/corners of the wood.

Than the inside window frame was covered with tape although it is a small rim by not taping this piece of wood one has to clean the silicone of the wood while it is still wet, messy job or clean the silicone from the wood when it is dry with the chance of damaging the wood and the coating as well as scratching the window glass.

Than the window glass was placed into the window frame making sure that there was space between the glass and the wood for expansion/shrinking of the wood around the glass.

When the glass was in the correct position the glass was taped on the outside following the wooden rim on the inside this was when the silicone will be applied one will never look against silicone from the inside to outside.

Also take was placed on the inside of the window against the wood rim.

Then when all was taped and degreased with acetone wooden window frame and the actual glass the fun part starts actual installation.

A small layer of silicone is placed onto the wooden window frame where the glass will be fitted in, the amount must be such that when one pushed the glass into the silicone that between the glass and the wooden frame, inside, 100 % coverage is, in short everywhere between the glass and the wood silicone needs to come out.

When I was satisfied about the above, one or two windows I needed to remove due to not adding enough silicone, the silicone on the outside was installed.

To get a nice finish I used a plastic tool designed for this job.

When the silicone looks nice the area looks like the following picture.

Next is to remove the tape inside as well as outside to get a nice straight line of the silicone this needs to be done carefully by perverting to touch the silicone which needs to remain in place.

The tape is removed when the silicon is still wet to make sure that when the silicone dries it sticks to the window and the wood. When the tape is removed when the silicone is dry, this is possible without extra effort, I have noticed that there is a chance that where the silicone overlapped the tape that a minor gap is visible between the glass and the silicone. 

I waited than 1 or 2 days and the excess of silicone on the window was removed with a razor blade being careful for not touching the actual silicone which holds the window in place.

I did had some challenges with the front and rear windows.

The main reason was the new wood installed at the bottom window frames although this was done carefully the window glass did not fit 100% in the wooden frame.

Although the next picture looks not professional by placing some wood and a strap over the window I was able to get a tight fit between the glass and the wooden window frame.

Letting the silicone dry for over 2 days a then removing the pressure from the glass resulted that the glass stayed in place and was well glued with the silicone against the window frame.

For the aft windows I used some nails by placing them against the glass I got a tight fit between the glass and the window frame.

Two days drying time and I removed the nails, the area without silicone was degreased again and a bit cut from the already installed silicone and fresh silicone was applied where the nails were installed.

The question is why I used black silicone instead of white which was original installed for holding the glass in place.

Main reason white window glass silicone is not UV protected resulting in discoloring to yellow as well as deteriorating over time.

Further I think the black silicone does not look too bad against the mahogany and the black color comes back in the deck caulking.

See also next picture.