Rudder Bushing Over Haul

                                    

                                                              Rudder Bushing

During the scraping of the bottom I did found some silicone around the nut of the starboard rudder bushing. I did not pay much attention to it until later this year when we started to paint the inside of the boat under the water line.

What I noticed was that the bushing from the inside looked a bit loose and further investigation from the outside showed that there was quite an amount of silicone placed around the nut, more or less covering the nut, could be to protect the vessel from water ingress.

Could not find any information on the internet about this rudder bushing how it was installed or fitted into the hull.

So I started to dismount the area. First thing to do is to remove the arms from the actual rudder stock.

Next step is to remove any damage scratches from the rudder stock to prevent when the rudder is pulled through the rudder bushing that scratches can occur on the bronze bushing which can create friction when the rudder is placed back.
Also the compression nut for the packing is loosened.
The rudder is then removed.




















To be able to remove the bushing with gasket one needs to remove the plank above the rudder bushing.

When the support plank is removed the compression nut for the gasket after which the two lock nuts can be removed to be able to push the rudder bushing outboard.

In my case when I start to remove the compression nut for the gasket the complete rudder bushing started to turn resulting that I was able to pull the bushing inside.

Next step was to clean all thread bushing inside the compression nut removing the gasket. Checking the hull of the ship for wood rot and to my amazement the hull was sound no rot could be detected, hull inside was cleaned as well.

Inside the compression nut is the gasket which was removed to be changed for a new one, this is pretty easy when all is removed compared to when the complete construction is in the boat.

As can be seen from the next picture the gasket material was not properly inserted, one should not make one long gasket like a spiral but one should make individual gaskets for each turn this to make it able to compress the gasket better.

  

When all was cleaned and de-greased with acetone the bushing was placed back into the hull.

To prevent that when the locking nuts were tightened inside that the complete bushing would turn again, like when the bushing was removed the outer nut was installed with thread lock.

Next step was to install the bushing in place and to seal it against the hull, for this I used seal and glue, as from the picture can be seen I used an excessive amount to make sure that I would have a guaranteed 100 % sealing between the rudder bushing and the ships hull.  Excessive amount of sealant glue was removed shortly after the installation.

Nuts were tightened on the inside, rudder installed and new packing placed.

The easiest way to cut packing on the right length is to pull the packing around the rudder stock make a small cut as reference point then remove the packing and cut under a 45° angle on both side the packing to the correct length. Insert after the rudder is in place with the 45° cuts on top of each other. This way when the compression nut is tightened each individual packing will be compressed. When the packing is installed the wooden support can be installed as well.

Below pictures are from the propeller shaft packing but the principle is the same.

Teak Deck Installation Part II

                                                      
                                                      Teak Deck Installation Part II

                                                  
                                              

Due to my day to day work, need the money to finish the boat, I have not been able to spent too much time the last 12 months on continuing with the repairs, the same is expected for the next year. I have been working on the boat but most of the repairs were repeat repairs of earlier described work onto the boat.

Although it looks like a long time that I took to have the caulking cure of the teak deck this was intentional.  Idea was to finish the outside roof of the main cabin first before continuing with the deck. Will describe the roof of the main cabin painting in another blog.

We continued where we left the teak deck after calking between the planks.

The first thing to do was to course sand the teak deck, grade 40, to get all the excess of caulking of the deck, when this was done the deck looked great, from a distance.

A closer look showed that there were area’s in the calking which showed smaller and some larger holes. One can leave these smaller holes in place but as I have seen, even under a tiny hole in the caulking a large hole can be present. Reason for these holes can be to quickly filling the groove between the planks with caulking, not taking enough time to fill the groove completely, working slowly and diligent.  Or when one starts with a new tube of caulking and forgets to let the air out.

How to solve the issue of the holes, one need good tools: sharp knife and I used a chisel slightly smaller than the groove. One then carefully cuts the caulking out of the groove where the holes are. I cut all the caulking out till I reached the wood to make sure that no holes in the caulking would be present. Also cleaned the sides from caulking.

Next step is to place masking tape on the sides of the groove we do not want to get to much caulking onto the sanded teak deck again.

Clean the groove make sure all the dirt and loose rubber and wood are vacuumed out completely, prepare the groove with Sikaflex primer, Sikaflex is the system I used but as mentioned in my earlier blog there are other suitable caulking’s for teak decks. Most important is to follow the manufacturers instructions and do not make short cuts.

The following step is to fill the groove with caulking and use a putty knife to make sure that the groove is full and that the caulking is not sticking to high above the deck.

Reason for not having too much caulking sticking out above the deck is that sanding will be more difficult as well as that when there is too much caulking onto the tape that the tape cannot be removed before the sanding is started.

With a little thin layer of caulking onto the tape, the tape can be removed after the caulking has dried. If the tape cannot be removed one needs to sand it off, which will make the teak deck dirty with glue from the tape

What is left then is sanding of the area’s where new caulking has been filled into the groves between the planks. As can be seen from below picture there is no difference between older caulking and new caulking .

Hull Painting

                         

                                 Hull Painting above and below the water line.

Although it looks like most of the below described work was done this year it actually has been taken place over several years due to the extensive repairs onto the hull and other maintenance which I thought was required before even starting on the painting of the hull.

Also since the hull is made from wood the paint choice might look easy but it took some time to decide, lost of information from the internet and specialist I know through my daily work before a final decision was made for in my opinion the best paint for the boat.

I have chosen to go with International paint system.

Above the water line with Yacht primer, Pre Cote and Toplac, below the water line Primocon as primer and a later to decide anti fouling paint.

As can be seen from the next picture the paint was in such a condition that I took the decision to completely strip all the paint of the boat and start all over with a new paint system.

First step was to remove all algae and shells which had grown over the years onto the hull.

During the course of the hull repairs paint was removed where required and where old and new wood were joining the hull was sanded smooth.

After sanding the wood was protected with several coats of virgin linseed oil.

At a certain stage of above mentioned repairs the complete hull above the water line was removed from paint, scraping and sanded smooth followed by treating with linseed oil.

This year the plan was to paint the above and under water line, more or less the complete hull.

First step was to remove the linseed oil from the hull and sand the hull again smooth before the primer would be applied. This was not as easy I was hoping for since the linseed oil although it entered the wood also build up a layer on the outside of the wood, could not be easily removed.

Sanding was not possible since the paper was full within seconds. Only thing left was to scrape the hull clean again from the applied linseed oil.

After all linseed oil was removed the hull was sanded smooth.

Hull was then cleaned from dust and degreased with acetone followed by the first layer of yacht primer. The first layer was diluted with thinner to make sure that it would impregnate the wood.

After the first coat of primer one could also good see the deficiencies in the hull which are not so clear after sanding.

Those were filled with International Watertite filler, the spaces between the planks were not filled those will close naturally when the boat gets into the water.

All was sanded again to my satisfaction.

Than another 3 coats of yacht primes was applied as per manufacturer’s recommendations.

The following step was to apply 2 coats of Pre cote an intermediate paint between the primer and the final coat.

Before the final paint was applied the surface was lightly sanded with grid 320 to create a smooth surface. The final paint I used is TopLac white, 3 layers were applied.       

                                       Before

After

Before the boat will be launched another two layers of Top Coat will be applied, of course after first sanding and degreasing the present installed finished coat of paint.

The below the water line anti fouling was in reasonable condition but I did not know which paint system has been used therefore all paint needed to be removed.

First stage was to remove the growth on the hull.

Then from the complete hull the anti-fouling paint was removed with scarper and hot air gun which mainly has been done by my wife.

As can be seen, red paint, which I presume is the old fashioned wood protecting primer, most likely with led, I left on the wood since it was in a good condition.

After scraping came sanding, since it is under the water line the surface was sanded but not till a very fine grid, last paper used was with grid 180. For better access to the hull the propellers with shafts were removed as well the rudders. Both systems require attention as well which will be worked on in 2015.

First coat of Primacon was applied which was diluted with thinner as per manufacturers recommendations.  Than the small holes, mainly where the plugs for the rivets were inserted were filled with two component filler. I have used the International filler to make sure that there would be a good bonding between their materials, filler and paint, this way preventing the chance that there would be over time separation between the two.

Before the boat will receive its antifouling paint the hull, below the water line will be lightly sanded again and two more coats of Primacon will be added before the actual anti fouling is applied.

After all was sanded smooth 3 more coats of Primacon were added. Following pictures show the present condition of the boat.

One of the reasons I choose to use International paint is that the primer for the antifouling can remain for a long time unprotected and it is not required to apply the actual anti fouling paint within certain months or weeks onto the primer. This is required for most of the competitions antifouling paints, primer cannot be unlimited exposed to air.

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Air Inlet Into Engineroom

                                        

During the dismantling of the teak deck it became clear that water was going into the boat through the slotted hole in the deck near the steering cabin. This resulted that in my case the inside deck beam, under the deck house, was rotten away.

Of course there always will be the chance that water will enter this area due to the opening at the front of the cover, with rain or bad weather during sailing.

When removing the fiber glass panel’s port and starboard it was noticed that these were glued against support wood and on top of the teak deck.

At the same time it could be seen that a seal of silicone on top of the deck should prevent water from entering the opening in the deck. 

For me this is not the right solution but must have been a good solution when the boat was designed, not the same types of glue/epoxy available.

The disadvantage of gluing something onto a teak deck is that teak is a greasy type of wood and it is difficult overtime to keep a good seal.

  

The Fiberglass covers were positioned onto the deck hold in place and with a pencil the outside was drawn onto the deck.

From there measurements were made to decide the width of the slot into the deck.

Then pilot holes were drilled into the deck at the center-line of the too be created slot.

With a whole saw larger holes were made to be able to remove the wood for the slot into the deck.

Made a minor mistake in measuring and ended up by removing wood of the deck in way of the wet unit. This was closed with epoxy at a later stage.

The wood of the deck was removed between the two outer holes by means of the help of a multi tool.

Next step was to create a barrier between the deck and the opening by means of a fiberglass “box”. With duct tape a barrier was created between the deck and the slotted opening.

When all was taped close a wall was created with fiberglass cloth and fiberglass against the duct tape but also against the cabin structure as well as against the whole slotted hole, wood was completely covered with cloth and epoxy.

After the tape was removed a small thin ‘box” of epoxy was created into the deck.

Several more layers of cloth and epoxy were added to create strength of the “box”. Also to make sure that there were no holes between the box and the deck an extra layer of epoxy was added at the outside of the “box’ to make sure that there is a watertight seal between the two: box and deck opening.

When all was finished to my satisfactory the box was tested with water on deck and no water passed through, the lowest part of the ”box” is higher than the toe rail so the chance that water will enter the engine space with water on deck will be minimum.

The following step was to recondition the fiberglass covers, wood from the inside was rotten away as can be seen on one of the first pictures and the type of paint used was normal white paint.

After al was cleaned and sanded I noticed 4 mall holes and a bigger hole on the covers.

Placing the navigation lights on the cover the holes matched up with the mounting holes of the navigation light.

Inside was cleaned and loose materials removed and new support wood was made to fit.

This wood was glued with epoxy against the cover approximately 2 mm lower than the cover rim. This way creating space for a seal.

When all was fixed the complete inside was painted with two component paint as protection for not only the wood but the fiberglass as well.

Since I do not plan to permanent fix the covers against the deck house I have been looking into an installation which allows me to remove in not a too difficult way these covers.

Main reason for removing the covers is that once a year I need to protect the wood with Owatrol D2, if the covers remain in place it will be difficult to protect the wood behind the covers.

Covers are fixed with screws original from the inside.

The solution I have is to place the same type of rubber as between the deck house of the steering cabin and the cabin walls.

This rubber was glued with sikaflex, after degreasing of course, onto the wood in the inside of the covers.

This was done with staples and later a thin layer of sikaflex was placed over the rubber with staples. When one does not degrease than the sikaflex will fall off after drying, after degreasing it sticks to the rubber.

Before the rubber seal was added the cover was sanded and painted twice with sanding in between with two component epoxy paint.

The covers were mounted onto the deck house and with this type of seal I can remove them whenever I do require.

As can be seen from the below picture no seal was added between the bottom of the cover and the teak deck, this way no water will be collected between the two and I do expect with the above described construction that the deck and the slotted opening will remain intact over the coming years.

What is left now is the decision where to place the navigation lights on the covers which I do prefer since if there is a water build up between the navigation light and the cover it will not affect either of the materials. When placed where I did remove them at the corner of the steering cabin on the wood there is again a chance that the wood will be affected and will start to deteriorate.

Below some pictures of the navigation light mounted onto the engine inlet cover.

If any of my followers do have the same set up on their boat I would like to hear from them and if possible with a picture.