More fibreglass

This week has been mainly spent on further repairs to the topsides there are a number of areas which require attention generally in the form of stress cracking in the gelcoat, damage to the paint and a couple of areas where the boat has, I presume, over ridden the fenders which has caused the gelcoat to be worn away. First off I dealt with some stress cracking on the transom which I believe may have been caused by contact with a solid object and a couple of smaller areas on the port topsides amidships. I started by opening out the cracks to their full depth and full length, I was going to use a Dremel to grind them out however I found that the corner of a tungsten carbide scraper was extremely effective.

Tungsten carbide scraper

Stress cracks in transom after opening out

After opening out the cracks I then cleaned them out with acetone before filling with epoxy thickened with West's 406 colloidal silica as these areas will be painted it is not going to show. I still have some more cracks to open out and fill on the starboard topside, hopefully the fine weather will continue next week so that I can complete this task.

The next task was to deal with the worn gelcoat on the port side there were two areas one had only just worn through to the CSM behind the gelcoat and the other was just an abrasion to the gelcoat.

Gelcoat damage

The worst damage is to the left of the photograph the other area does not show up at all well but the area which had worn through to the CSM can just be made out in the photograph below . The two areas were sanded down, cleaned up with acetone and then built up with two coats of gelcoat and a final finishing coat of flocoat.

After sanding

After gelcoating

The gelcoat was built up a little on the high side as the hull curves in two directions at this point both fore and aft and a marked tumblehome it is all too easy to end up with a flat spot in the centre of the repair. Once the gelcoat had cured I then sanded it to match the curves in the hull starting with some coarse, 40 grit, paper to quickly remove the excess and finishing with 180 grit paper, I find that pressing a steel rule flat across the repair helps to show up any high or low spots there is no photograph of this I am afraid as I only posses two hands.

After final sanding

The finished repair does not show up too well in a photograph taken in bright sunlight which I suppose is what we are trying to achieve hopefully it will be even less obvious once I have painted over it.

Finally for this week I masked up and painted the stripe around the hull above the boot top with International Toplac Mauritian blue the longest part of the job was applying the four strips of masking tape the full length of the waterline and then removing it all again after applying two coats of paint.

Fibreglass repairs

On Monday I set too and got three coats of gelcoat on the repair area and then finished up with a final coat of gelcoat with 2% wax in styrene added, also known as flow coat, as gelcoat will not fully cure in the presence of air the wax floats to the surface and excludes the air. To finish off the day I did a bit more to the navigation light wiring that is as far as I can go until I obtain the lights and some more cable.

After applying gelcoat

As applied the gelcoat is a bit rough but I suppose gelcoating a repair is a bit of a back to front job it usually gets sprayed onto a nice smooth mould then the GRP is laid up directly on to it. I spent most of Tuesday sanding the gelcoat back there were a couple of low areas which required a further application which I put on before finishing for the day.

Today I started with another sanding session which leaves the repair looking like this. 

After final sanding

There is a difference in the colour between the original gelcoat, the new gelcoat and the paint which has been applied to the topsides I intend to paint over the repair and try and match it to the existing paint finish if at all possible.

I finished off today by sanding the blue area along the topsides ready for painting next week. This is a short post but filling and fairing the repair has been quite time consuming

Don't you just love boat jumbles

After a bit more research I was convinced that the problem with the oil pressure gauge was down to the replacement head not being compatible with the sender which I was assuming as being original, the replacement gauge was calibrated 0-145psi while the original Perkins VDO gauge was 0-80psi with the engine running the needle was in the right position on the dial for approximately 57psi which is within limits and I suppose I could have repainted the face of the gauge however on my shopping list for the Kent boat jumble last weekend was an original Perkins VDO gauge. After walking almost right round the site I had bought some rope to make up a couple of mooring warps and had just about given up on the oil pressure gauge and then on the very last stall in the far corner of the site I found this.

Original Perkins VDO gauges

So for a few beer tokens I had a set of original gauges the key switch on the panel is beyond repair but the rest appears to be in working order first thing Monday morning I fitted the oil pressure gauge and started the engine and voila I have an accurate oil pressure gauge, a spare tachometer and a spare water temperature gauge.

Replacement oil pressure gauge fitted

Once the oil pressure gauge was sorted I spent some more time on the repair to the port bow I have now got the repair up to a level where it just requires filling and fairing I plan to do this with some gelcoat probably next week once the epoxy has had time to fully cure. It will probably require four or five coats of gelcoat to bring the repair up to the level of the original the weather looks promising for next week. I also spent some time cleaning up the topsides as there are several areas of gelcoat that require some attention mostly minor scrapes and a couple of areas with some stress cracking and also some old repairs that could be better finished hopefully the current mild weather will hold so that I can complete this work.

Port bow repair

I still have some outstanding wiring work to complete this is mainly the internal wiring for the navigation lights and the reading lights in the three cabins and so to finish off this week I ran the internal cables for the port and starboard lamps on the pulpit I have know almost run out of cable over 100 metres having gone into the job so far.

Over the weekend I shall continue with refurbishing the woodwork for the aft cabin I have one of the panels painted it just needs some varnish on the trim round the locker door openings.

Continuing port bow repair

Apologies for the lack of a post last week but I was away sailing for a few days and didn't get home until Friday afternoon followed by a bit of a short week this week however I have been continuing with building up the port bow area the section at the top of the flair has taken most of the time I have been building it up with epoxy and glass tape. It has been necessary to sand this area back  every so often to try and achieve the correct profile.

From the above photograph it can be seen that I am almost at the point that I can begin to fill and fair the repair area but first I need to make a couple of templates up from the starboard side so that I can copy the flair onto the port side, that will be a job for Monday.

While I have been waiting for the epoxy to cure on the bow I finished off the cable links between the sacrificial anode and various underwater fittings namely the 'P' bracket, rudder gland, rudder stock, the engine exhaust skin fitting and the engine. This was carried out in 10awg tinned copper cable.

Links to the anode

Connections to rudder stock etc

The current homework project is the woodwork for the aft cabin, after looking closely at the original woodwork it appears that the ply itself is in reasonable condition it is only the veneer that is peeling off so I have decided to remove all the old veneer clean up the woodwork and then paint it white and then varnish the trim around the locker doors. The original veneer, which I think is real wood with a foil backing, was glued on with an impact adhesive and while the veneer proved to be fairly easy to remove with a wide flat wallpaper scraper the old adhesive proved to be a bit more stubborn eventually I found that the way to remove it was with a tungsten carbide scraper followed up by a good sanding. The internal divider and shelves in the aft cabin lockers have been covered in a red flock type finish which was fairly common in boats of this age it looks as if it was spray applied through the locker doors once the units had been assembled in place so the rear of the front panels will require some work to remove the over spray before painting.

Panels showing peeling veneer

Original veneer showing foil back

First panel with veneer removed

I am not quite sure what to do with the sliding locker doors these are thin ply with the veneer glued to each side and once the veneer has been removed they may be a bit too thin I can think about them while scraping off the old adhesive. I had to remove the door knobs to get the doors out, the knobs are aluminium secured from the back with mild steel screws and after 40 something years of corrosion I had to drill the screw heads off to be able to remove the knobs.

It is the Kent boat jumble this Sunday and one of the more satisfying upsides of a project like New Morning is that I have a legitimate reason to go and with a good chance that I will buy something that I actually will use.