Bow Replacement August 19 2011

A new part has been added as well to the original blog firts inspection to make it a complete story explaining how the bow was replaced

                                                              The Bow Replacement

Although I was aware that some of the hull planks under the deck connected to the bow needed replacement I was not really prepared to replace the complete bow, a so called nose job.

Earlier repairs had been done by removing planks of the hull which are connected to the deck and replace them with plywoodn due to rot.

The result was that, in my opinion a part of the strength of the construction was lost. Not only the hull planks were rotten away , but also the longitudinal deck beams running under decks were rotten and gone in several places. Especially where this beam is connected to the actual bow beam. Although new wood was added and rotten wood removed,  I have the impression  that the actual problem, water leakage from the deck down, was never addressed.

After removing all the rotten and bad wood from the hull as well as under decks of the actual bow the situation did not improve, more repairs were found, which in my opinion were not done professionally. The result of these further inspections resulted in that it was decided to remove the complete bow from deck to the keel.  Although this is not a difficult job it has to be well thought through. Luckily I have my neighbor who helps me more than regular and who often thinks outside the box. His solution was simple: cut the complete bow out and just built a new one. So we did .

The actual bow beam consist of 3 pieces one center piece from top to bottom and two side pieces, these three  pieces are hold together with long screws and threaded bolts. The next step was to find oak beams from which the new bow had to be built and shaped. To prevent a lot of cracking and distortion of the new bow I have bought old used oak which normally will not move or crack anymore. The next step is simple just copy paste the old on the new.  To do this a lot of measurements were taken as well as shapes on different positions of the old beam which were transferred to the new beam.

When all measurement were transferred from the old bow beam to the new to be built bow the actual work started with cutting out the wood of a square beam and shaping this piece of wood into a new beam.

When the new beam was shaped and several times checked against the old one it was time to install the new beam, we must have done it right since the moment we placed the new beam against the ship it fitted exactly in the correct place no changes had to be made. The height was correct and even it ended up in the center of the deck. The beam was now placed in position with threaded bolts , connection between the inner bow beam and the new bow beam, and positioned at the top in the center of the deck and temporarily hold in this position  with some screws.

With the bow in place the next step was to install new hull planks, although this sounds simple it is far more difficult than replacing the hull planks from the aft side as was done in an earlier stage. The challenge is that the planks from the bow do have a different form than from the stern. They do not only bend from aft to forward but also bend from the keel to the deck as well as they are tapered from the  stern to the bow. The first plank at the keel was not to difficult but the next one had to much torsion that after three attempts it was decided to make this piece out of a laminated piece of wood. From there on it was just placing plank after plank one left one right to keep the bow beam in place.

Than the point is reached where the last plank reaches the top of the bow, at this point the new longitudinal deck beams have to be installed before more bow planks can be inserted.

The Planks were screwed against the beam and glued/sealed with Sikaflex Glue and Seal, this to create a flexibla seal between two different materials mahogony and oak. The planks were not glued with an epoxy glue or any other type of glue. This is the is done in the same way as original built.

The fabrication and installation of the replacement of the longitudinal deck beams will be another subject at the same time the finishing of the hull planks against the bow beam will be further explained.

Winter Time

Winter Time.

Winter time is not the right time to work on the hull or any outer construction of the boat especially with the weather conditions of rain and snow and the cold temperatures which prevented me from using any type of glue.

   

One thing which needed to be done was the cleaning of the bottom not only in the cabins but also in the engine-room.

As with all older ships when one cleans the engine room bottom a lot is found which should have been removed in an earlier stage.

A clean oil free bilge is not only important for the environment but also in case of leakage or minor flooding of the boat one minimizes the risk that dirt will enter the bilge pump which can result in a failure of the bilge pump.

Due to the hatches in the steering cabin to the engine room the Engine room of the Storebro 34 is good to enter and one is able to clean almost the complete engine room bottom.

This process has been taken several weeks to clean and removing dirt and grease from the bottom is time consuming, also since I’m not as flexible as 20 years ago and it was freezing cold.

At the same time an inventory has been made from all overboard outlets and valves.

I was a bit amazed that a lot of overboard openings do not have a shut off valve although they are below the water line, while this type of boat has been designed for voyages across big lakes and coastal travel.

I will install on all overboard openings new valves.

Also I noticed that the engine cooling water inlet filters are placed below the water line which normally is not seen in small yachts.

Now that the bottom is cleaned a start was made with the removal of the paint, this is done for inspection of the hull from the inside as well as to apply linseed oil on the hull.

The same has been done with the aft cabin and after removal of the paint on the bottom two small area’s were discovered which will need some attention in the summer, wood is damaged.

This means removal of parts of the bottom planks and placing new inserts.

The cleaned area’s received several layers of linseed oil to protect the wood.

Electrical Installation:

This is another part where one can work on during the winter time it is important to get familiar with the electrical installation and layout in case situations arise which do need a quick follow up.

I have the impression that most of the electrical installation is still original and the projection at this moment is to leave the installation as it is with upgrades where required.

Since there are no drawings with the boat and since Storebro in Sweden did not reply on my request for copies of electrical drawings I was more or left stuck with how all the fuses were connected to the electrical system.

Luckily I was supported by a Gentleman in Germany from the Storebro club who has sent me pictures of the drawings which are clear enough to check the present installation.

As with all older projects over the years more wires are installed than sometimes really needed and not always in a proper and professional way.

I found a type of spaghetti in the fuse cabinet and around the batteries.

First thing was to determine which wires could be removed which had no use, this was not only the 12 volt circuits but also the 220 volt installed in the boat.

The next step was to shorten all wires which were to long and could be shortened.

The 220 volt circuit with outlets were checked and upgraded to ships standards although not finalized it gives me the necessary outlets on board the ship which allows me to plug in tools for the coming work inside and outside.

The drawings were checked against the installation on board and most of the fuses are still serving the circuits as per drawing.

Some changes had to be made to allow to new equipment to be connected and changes we made to connect original installed equipment on the correct way.

At this moment about 50% of the electrical installation has been checked and cleaned up.

Installing Rivets

New part has been added to the original blog, to make it a complete stor, informing about the removing and installing of the rivets.
March 14 2011

                             Update March 14 Removing and Installing Rivets

The hull is riveted to the oak frames as well as on certain locations bronze screws are placed to hold the planks in place I presume during the actual placing of rivets.

Since the hull is flush, rivets are not shown on the outside of the hull; it has to be determining where the rivets are positioned in the hull.

Since the positions of the frames are know the paint is removed with a sharp scraper and hot air gun on the positions of the expected rivets.

This is an easy process which does not take to much time but make sure that all the paint is taken away so that the plugs visible.

In case of the Storebro wooden plugs can be located now after the paint removal, under the wooden plugs the rivets are fixed.

The good thing of the Storebro original built is that the wooden plugs are not glued into the planks and are easily coming out.

The easiest method I found was to use a small chisel to knock the plug out; one does not have to be to careful since the planks where the plugs are removed from will be replaced eventually.

The next step is to remove the actual rivet, going over the internet it is often mentioned to use a small angle grinder and cut the burrs of the actual rivet from the inside.

I have tried this but found out rather quickly that this is not an easy method for a wooden boat since damages to the oak frames occur rather easy.

Also on a lot of places the angle grinder can not reach the burr of the rivet.

Therefore I was looking for a different method in removing the rivets.

The easiest method I have found till so far is to drill the head off the rivets from the outside to the inside, when the head was removed the rest of the rivet was than punched out to the inside of the boat. The head of the rivets were drilled off, actually this is quite simple with a sharp new drill bit, and copper is a soft material. If you do not want to use directly a drill bit slightly larger than the shank of the rivet you can first drill a small pilot hole with a small drill bit followed by a bigger seize drill to remove the complete head.

Also in this case one does not have to worry that the wood is damaged since the plank will be renewed.

Then the rivet can be knocked out with the burr to the inside of the boat.

After the new planks have been glued in place and fixed with a screw the new rivets could be installed.

To prevent that the frames become a Swiss cheese the planks were drilled from inside to outside on the position of the old rivet.

The next step was to prepare the hole for the plug which covers the actual rivet.

This was done with a taper point drill which is of a set with a matching wood plug cutter.

After that the rivet was punched into the hole one has to do this carefully since the rivet is from copper and when one wants to make this a fast job there is a big chance that the rivet will bend in the hole.

For the next step you need a good friend or a neighbor who also loves wooden boats, I my case I’m blessed with all three a friend who is my neighbor and he loves wooden boats.

This since the next step the actual riveting is not that easy especially with rivet heads which are sunk into the wood. The rivet head on the outside needs to be kept in place with a punch and hammer while from the inside the rove is placed over the nail with a rove punch.

Nail is than cut to the desired length and than with a hammer rounded over the rove while from the outside pressure is placed on the nail head to prevent that the nail is pushed back through the hole.

Additional information can be found on the below web side.

http://www.faeringdesigninc.com/instruct.html

After all the rivets are in place the wooden plugs can be inserted in the holes.

Make sure that the grain of the plugs is in the same way as the grain of the planks.
In this case I glued the plug into the planks to make sure that they would not come out, boat will be out of the water for at least another year.

 

Next step is to remove the part of the plug which is sticking out of the plank this goes the easiest with a small sharp chisel. Sanding an in my case protecting the wood with several layers of linseed oil to protect the wood against rot.

Aft side Repairs february 2 2011

The Aft Sides

This short description tells you how we have handled the sides next to the deck house of the aft cabin.

Since the same problems exists on both sides only one side, port, will be described how changes were made.

First step was to remove all hardware and document the position of all hardware on the deck.

Next step was to remove the toe rail of the deck, this all was done by removing the plugs where needed and removing the screws to minimize the damage to the original construction.

Following the removing of the hardware was to remove the bottom plank of the aft cabin which rests on top of the deck, also in this case the plugs were removed and screws removed were possible in case it was not possible to remove the screw carefully the head of the screw was drilled of the shank this way it was possible to slide the plank over the original screw.

Before the bottom plank was removed the windows and window construction were taken out.

Since the windows are placed in a unknown compound it was difficult to remove them but with the help of an electrical heat gun the compound became soft and the windows could be cut loose from the wood.

With all above removed it was possible to remove the teak deck in small pieces. This was done till from aft till the forward cabin,

After removing the teak deck, which will be replaced due to the bad condition, earlier repairs were revealed which shows that materials were used which are common in shore side construction but not in ships construction.

That the news ones would be in the same position a temporarily support frame was built under both beams and fixed to the hull frames.

The new blank wood in the next picture shows the temporary supports installed under the rotten deck beams.

Both deck support beams were than removed and new ones were made from pine.

The new beams were placed on the support frame and fixed in position.

To make sure that the construction of the new beams will support the deck and hull the inner was kept longer than the outer this to prevent that on the same position of the ship a weld was made of both beams which could weaken the ships construction.

Stern repairs

The repairs of the stern have also been placed on the original blog to make it a complete story of the way the repairs were performed.

Stern Renewal

After both sides were repaired with new wood and new frames inside it was decide to start with the stern.

During the first inspection the stern did not showed the actual condition where it was really in.

During the summer months and during the repairs of the aft side it showed that most of the inside wood of the stern was rotten away and not only on the corners where the sides do meet the stern.

Going over several web sides it shows that this is a common fact in most of the Storebro 34 built most likely due to the construction and the way water runs of the ship.

First all hardware was stripped of the stern the next step was to document all needed holes in the stern and positions of other removed hardware from which a drawing has been made.

During the removal of the aft cabin it was also noticed that the deck supports had been rotten away and it was decided also to replace these.

To prevent that the hull form would be jeopardized by removing the deck supports and the complete stern first new deck supports were made.

Pine was used and to get the same roundness of the aft deck as original the new deck supports were laminated from pine cut planks and glued together wile strapped from portside to starboard side over the original deck.

When the new deck support was finished the deck end old deck supports were removed.

When removing the stern in small sections and not to loose the hull form the new installed corner aft frames where connected with straps to the center aft frame to keep them in place.

Some minor wood repair had to be done to the 3 frames from the stern ad the point where they meet the deck.

After these repairs the new deck support was glued and screwed in place before the complete stern was removed.

  

The next step was after cleaning all the old wood and making sure it was dry to install first two layers of Okumee sheets of 4 mm and 6 mm thick to create a new base with the correct stern form for the mahogany planks to be placed on.

The okumee sheets were place over each other to cover joints between the different installed parts and to make the base as smooth as possible for the installation of the mahogany planks.

The two different sheets were 100 %  glued with epoxy glue to each other.

After sanding the fitting started of the 20 mm thick mahogany planks which do have a tongue and groove which is better than the original installed planks.

One should be careful not cutting the planks to short since the roundness of the stern does have an influence on the length of the plank

After the first fit and pre-drilling the planks for fastening with bronze screws planks were removed again.

All new planks have been glued with colored epoxy glue to the okumee plates.

Plugs were glued in and than starts the slow process of cleaning the wood from the xcess of epoxy although most had been removed during the installation of the planks.

One important part is to use a band sander and not a rotating sander since one always starts with course and the groves created by a course sander will not be easy to be removed when these are circles on the wood.

Therefore the choice was made to use a band type sander which needs to be moved in the length of the planks in this case horizontal.

First Sanding

After the sanding a thin layer of epoxy was placed over the wood to protect the wood against the nature of the coming winter.

Additional Information of the Storebro 34

To start with some information about the actual boat it is built in 1969 or 1970, this according the production number, 1434, which can be found on the floor boards and seat support gratings.

From this type of boat are a total of 1230 built between 1965 and 1988 original in wood mahogany on oak frames.

In 1969 the hull was changed from wood into GRP but there were still mahogany hulls available until 1978.

The overall length of the boat is 10.35 meter

The beam is 3.2 meter

The draft is 0.9 meter

Displacement between 5 and 7 ton.

The dash board is still original of this boat and has 4 handles for the propulsion, two for regulating the speed and two for the clutch.

For the rest all gauges look original.

Going over the different web sides available as well as the original brochure of the boat it shows that most of the boat is still original as built.

The bathroom, which not only holds the toilet but can also be used as a shower furthers a sink, is installed.

The aft cabin holds two beds one on port side and one on starboard side with a storage cabinet in the aft between them.This cabin is lower than the rest of the boat and one can not stand straight up comfortable.

The main cabin is of the height that one can stand comfortable and holds the kitchen and seating area which can be concerted in a sleeping bed as well.

Kitchen is equipped with a small sink and a Taylor Paraffin cooker which I will leave in place since at the moment I do not see a place where I can create safely a gas bin.

View from main cabin into the steering cabin.