Things That Suck

I think I have found a something that sucks right up there with cancer, fried liver, and Keanu Reeves acting ability. This sucky something is grinding a scarf joint along the edge of the deck that was removed. This will allow me to be able to lay new layers of cloth down that will mechanically 'tie' the new skin in with the old.

It took a lot longer than I thought (maybe the grinder was dull) and it just throws itchy dust everywhere. The only saving grace was that the old Makita 4" angle grinder works great as always.

An added note was that last night we were supposed to change the clocks and move them forward an hour. I thought my wife had done it and she thought I had done it (neither of us did). To make a long story short, my wife was out for a run and wasn't around so I had to jump in the car to take my daughter down to a birthday party right after finishing grinding. Even with a full face mask respirator and a tyvek suit, I was still covered in itchy dust. I'm sure the other mother's at the dance studio (where the birthday party was) were less than impressed.

Slow Going

Life has been pretty busy the past few weeks so I haven't gotten anything done (on the boat anyway). About the only thing I have had time to do was to order sandpaper and tyvek suits with hoods to keep the itchy fiberglass dust at bay.

Fortunately I had a few hours to spend today so I got back to the forward cabin top. I had finished up a few weeks back by identifying some of the bad areas (or so I thought). As it turned out, not all were bad. In fact only 2 areas actually had water in the core, but a few of the others I had to pull the core out anyway because when I pulled up the top skin, it yanked half of the core out with it.

I am pretty happy with the lack of work I need to do in this area. I know there will be lots more to do and any time I can save is a good thing.

While I was cutting out the area around the starboard hatch hinge, I kept finding more wet core, so I kept cutting out a larger area to find the extent of the water infiltration. I eventually butted up against the solid core under the mast step that runs the width of the cabin top. It turns out that the water was mostly coming from a wiring chase that straddles the solid deck and the cored area. Two of the pictures show the exposed solid core. It was cool to see what I had sounded and drilled and know for certain that it was exactly what I had thought it was. It's also good to know that I won't have to deal with recoring the step or rebuilding the deck beam. Now I know for certain that these areas are solid (I had previously inspected the deck beam and found that it is oak with a 1/4" steel box beam for added support. I don't know if this is original or not.

Next up is to feather the edges of the mess I have created and get down to Mertons in Springfield to pick up epoxy and core materials. I hope to get down to Springfield in a week or two and then get ready for the 'week of doom' (I'm taking a week off work to focus on the boat sometime in April).