Minor Winter/Spring Surgery

[joshmon71]

Finally got a bay in late winter, early spring for a few weeks in Orleans. Pat(Wildman) is patiently waiting behind me for the bay.

Issues being addressed:

-Soft spot starboard side of console

was able to locate good wood under console and t-top, and chased bad wood forward about 3 feet, and out to liner and to abutting of center fishbox. I got lucky, this could have led to an entire deck project remove t-top and ended my fishing season. serious sweat stress beads during the cutting out phase. I got to plywood in spots, and balsa in others, guessing prior deck repairs in places? left 2" around edges if could and at least 1", and lots of fein tool extraction work. used system 3 epoxy, and marine plywood in 1/2" and 1/4", and had to sand off one layer of the 1/4" to make it just below existing outer glass skin. 3/8" would have been perfect but that was the only size I did not buy. figures. 2 layers 6 oz top and 1 18oz were employed. scarfed out perimeter to lay glass over.

I left the bottom skin intact of deck fyi.

-some cracks that have gone beyond awlgrip into glass around boat

mainly in edges of liner to deck, some on console seat under hatch. dremel out till good glass, careful to never go through glass entirely, filled with thickend g/flex epoxy. super pricey, but state of art flexible epoxy. most of these cracks had underneath significant gelcoat with awlgrip over explaining the cracking. bit of whack a mole ala crack fixes.

-stern fishbox/transom well, has a removable Kodiak 40 gallon on top and has been flexing

I created a 2x4 brace from one side to other, glassed over the 2x4 prior to install with 6oz and epoxy. screwed on each side. lots of test fitting with the hatch up and down solo.

-unsupported decks on stern either side of stringers-flexing

was not sure how to address, clearly the core has some issues. the edge of the deck at the transom fishbox was exposed and had rotted wood. dug it out anywhere from 1/2", to maybe 1"ishy, got to good balsa. injected thickened epoxy a couple times sealed with blue painters tape to hold in, pull tape after cures. I determined that recoring not needed. not yet. I created a couple 'shims' to fit over stringers and extend under deck. port side was 1/4" with stringer portion sanded one plywood layer. epoxy'ed coated it, then installed. same for starboard side, but no sanding needed. lots of hatch test fitting involved. sanding some spots on hatch needed. since had room on stbd side I glassed over the shim down into stringer box and glassed over interior of the box with 18 oz and 6 oz-way overkill but good practice. had to use CSM under the 18oz to make it adhere vertically. this deck is now rock solid. quite pleased.

-replace crappy rule bilge pump switches with blue seas

rule bilge pump switches blow. blue seas rock. lesson learned.

-running out of time in bay so will recore the casting deck fishbox in yard

easy job, nasty work spot. head in box. ugh. no core there left at all.

-recore 2 hatches that go over tank and extend under console. 3-4 hours in 4200 removal alone to get out. genius way to build a boat-pull 2 hatches, leave console, and you could pull the tank. cool.

-touch up bottom paint with a couple scratches

I used aquaply m-epoxy pigmented non toxic paint. boat is a trailer queen, but I get mooring access to squat around the outer cape-ptown, Orleans, chatham even. maybe on a mooring 1-2 weeks hence. def 3-4 days over long weekends. beatch to paint this stuff up north-here is the secret, mix each part well, heat the pigmented resin till can is burning to touch with lamps and heater it gets real thin then mix. mix small batches. roll with mohair solvent resistant rollers. only use a foam brush for runs. will pull hairs out of badger brush. when epoxy kicks it gives off heat and the paint has a runny moment, foam brush it then. hang around an extra hour or 2 than you want, and catch any runs.

Notes:

Boat had transom redone and tank(2003) by prior owner Donny. tank looks fab.

when bought boat it had soft glass spot on bottom of hull, turns out over the years I think Donny had a crappy trailer, and not fully able to tilt. water would pool in bow, and there is a small finger sized hole to center stringer which is cored with wood. wood held water, softened glass. when buying Donny had a scratch from a bad roller. turns out this was a professional repair needed at time-1/23" holes in hull till good glass, pie plates cut in fishbox on stringer, drilled into stringer to let air out. microwave heater things to dry. then vinylester repair. my first intro to owning a 35 year old boat after purchase gulp. at same time we noted the brass tube cast box drain was leaky. pulled it and glassed it in same time. I also think this is the source for the water into deck core repair, as I think it intruded from liner side stbd front of console and worked its way down. no soft spot on port side. maybe that brass drain or pooling water, who knows.

Couple years past I cut out the transom fishbox, and placed a thru hull with tee, one side to livewell pump the other to be a washdown pump this spring. already ran the wire when open. as well have a 1KW thru hull ducer, for tuna, super wide. yellow tank is a in hull shoot through 1KW ducer. console has a manual switch.

am doing last primer layer, using epoxy 545 primer from awlgrip. mixed with cold cure accelerator and splash of brush reducer. all rolled and tipped. may use preval sprayers for touch up of hull spots later. badger brushes. lots of VOCs so respirator required.

for fairing am mixing in system 3 silica(cabosil?) and west 404 dense filler into 545 primer. much easier than awlfair. and its white. time saver. tip from another board.

for general epoxy thickening am using silica and some times 404 high density filler,for example under the deck shim spot. hard to sand but strong.

g/flex epoxy for cracks. followed by 545 primer.

will be using awlgrip snow white-with crater x, and x-98 accelerator. roll and tip. tried to color match with the awlgrip paint sample sheet.

Marine plywood from Botellos in Mashpee. Would have considered non wood but hard to source and pricey. Talked with boat builders locally they use luan and underlayment for building 300K downeast tuna boats around the corner. but price is an issue in production. for me 240ish for 3 sheets marine plywood is okay considering my time. epoxy is pricey but again cost to strength tradeoffs, the most cost is my time and shop rental. only concern is different flex in deck compared to original glass.


In the end it's a fishing machine, not a yacht finish. fairing is my down side for sure. cod season awaits.

will post finish shots. out to bay now.

[Normagain]

I like how you used the DieHard PM-1s for weight. 150lbs. ought to do it!

[joshmon71]

Fairing notes-it sucks. The awlgrip545 epoxy primer mixture with cabosil and microballoons method works only in skim coating for the deck patch recore, but works well if kept skimmed. any depth it cracks when drying. still a good trick to eliminate epoxy primer/sand/fair compound/sand/repeat cycles. as it keeps the fairing compound white basically same as primer.

finished my 2 hatches today-awlgrip rolled/tipped 2 coats. next 1/2" 3m tape to duplicate original deck look. used all the fancy additives-cold cure accelerator x-138, craterx,skidtex additive. redtree rollers. awlgrip prep liquid forgot its name. Yikes on cost. Lots of paint used when rolling. My first time with awlgrip. the hatches are my test case before I move onto doing my deck recore project painting next. Deck patch decided to sand out the rest of the deck to stern on each side and prime/topcoat, otherwise will have a noticeable line. couple of spot touch ups here in deck for cracks. I wont know if my fancy GFlex epoxy in the dremeled out cracks to the glass, around the boat, will work till later in the season. these were not major but through the awlgrip and thru gelcoat. one of the downsides to awlgrip is spot repairs and patches for sure for a DIY'er like me. hence sanding/prime/paint a chunk of the deck now will avoid the spotted white cow albino syndrome and move the line out to the perimeter of deck with gutter edge 90%, except the crack repairs those will have a line noticeable. I plan to use some preval sprayers for the spots to final topcoat and be less obvious I hope than brushing, and found a tip to use a 100% reducer spray to blend in the edges...course this all pre-supposes a good sand/fair job first. its a fishing boat though worst case! the boat is prior alwgripped. I would not use awlgrip again if starting from scratch as a DIYer. and go with something like signature paint based on research here and results.

oh and having to buy the awlgrip blue book was sort of insulting...

[thehermit]

pretty work Josh!