The Plastic Classic Forum

Haven't posted in awhile, but stuff has still been happening. I got a sheet of 1/2 inch G10 epoxy and with that and some thinner G10 I had on hand made and installed a bunch of backing plates for every major piece of hardware on the boat. I burned up a band saw blade and trashed my favorite carbide tooth table saw blade cutting through this stuff. The day after I did that I learned that other apparently smarter people use a grinder to cut through this stuff. Sigh.

Here are a couple of photos.

Here is a shot of the massive backing plate for the sink drain seacock/adaptor. I epoxied two 1/2 inch thick pieces of G10 together to get almost 1 inch of thread depth. Obviously this is way overkill. The two holes in the upper right corner are my test holes. I tried tightening a bolt into the threaded one with as much force as I could muster and the threads held fine. So I figure it will be strong enough.


Here is the installation. I had to twist the plate around a little more than I wanted to get a good alignment on the thru-hull.


Here is one of the backing plates. If this comes out its taking half the deck with it...


I also glassed in a couple of braces made from scrap mahogany for a platform to hold a fuel tank under the cockpit. I sealed them with epoxy before installing them.


And finally I started working on repairing the old engine compartment and preparing a battery platform using a bunch of scrap materials I had lying around. The plan is to place two batteries along the centerline, each in a plastic battery box, and strap them to the old engine beds. The plywood panel (which I glassed on both sides some years ago as a test for some other project) will be removable to be able to clean underneath.



Next task- Cutting the glassed-in chainplates off- the prospect of which has caused more than a few sleepless nights and much hemming and hawing. However, once that is done, there will be no more major glass-work, a major milestone. Then I can think about painting again, just in time for warmer weather. But that's a month or more down the road... And in between now and then I need someone knowledgeable to inspect the mast which has some dimples/compression damage around the spreaders along with some extra holes and an oversized compression bolt hole.

More next weekend hopefully.

Well, I cut off the chainplates this weekend. Took me a few minutes to get up the nerve, but I went for it. Of course, none of them looked like they were in bad shape after I pulled them out, so it was probably not really necessary, but I will feel better knowing I can see them and easily replace them in the future.


After removing all the chainplates, and experimenting with various new chainplate designs, I figured out that I will have to put them on the outside. The necessary width and length will make it extremely difficult to install from the inside given the limited space imposed by the liner. This will actually make the installation much easier, since I won't have to build up such a huge pad on the inside. I realize I will lose some sheeting angle, but I will just have to live with it. The chainplates are triangular because the bottom two bolts will bolt through the existing horizontal strap and will have to straddle the welded upright chainplate legs that I just cut off. This is not the final design, but probably close to it.



While my wife was sanding off the old blue stripe around the top of the hull, I ground off the hull/deck joint seam in three places, then we glassed it over and added a few layers of biax along the top to bring it somewhat vertical from the hull so I hopefully won't have to put a bend along the entire length of the chainplate.

At this point I am stuck until i can get our local metalworker to precisely drill the bottom chainplate holes through the metal strap. I don't want to try it because drilling stainless with a hand drill is a real pain and I want these holes to be aligned correctly so my chainplates aren't all cattywampus. Once I have those holes as a reference, i will build up the backing pads/plates inside the hull, then drill back through them from the outside. With the bottom two holes in place, I can then finalize the chainplate design and have them manufactured. But that is a few weeks out I think.

This weekend I had our local boatyard metalworker help me drill the holes through the stainless strap. It worked pretty slick. The key was cutting fluid, lots of pressure (I drilled while he applied extra pressure using a long stick of wood as a lever for accessible holes and hand pressure for others), and a slow drill speed (150rpm). Went through a couple of pilot bits and two full sized bits for 12 holes, but otherwise no trouble. Except for the fact that we could not get the holes lined up perfectly using a hand drill so the hole spacings will be slightly different for each chainplate. Oh well.

Here are the materials used for drilling. The nice curls result from a slow speed and lots of pressure on the drill.


Here is a shot of the cutoff chainplates with all the holes drilled on the port side.


Next step is to glass a bunch of G10 backing plates into the inside, reinforce with bunch more glass over the top to bond it all together, then get new chainplates made. All in all I think it will be pretty bomb-proof.

I'm relieved to have this behind me, it was holding up progress. Now I can finally finish fiberglassing and start thinking about paint again.

Here is a shot of the glassed in backing plates. Used plenty of thickened epoxy to bed them against the hull, then two layers of biax tape. The first layer extended to the deck, the second layer tied the deck and the hull together. I extended the biax about 18 inches on either side of the fore and aft chainplates. It should all act as one unit.


I also discovered that the cabin-top mounted traveller had no backing plates, and the washers had been pulled about halfway through the cabin top. Yikes! I cut away the liner and will install a couple big backing plates.


Just a little more fairing of the chainplate patches and we can start prepping for paint. Again!

1st coat of primer on!


Had a little scare (again!) when a bit of the primer flaked off. It was cool and damp overnight and I think it hadn't fully set up yet. Also there may have been some contamination in this area, since its right where I grab each time when coming aboard. Sanded back away from the area, then solvent washed. I'll scuff with 120 and re-prime during the second coat. Everywhere else was solid.

The deck paint marathon is finally over! Two coats of primer, two coats of Perfection and one coat of KiwiGrip. And a whole lot of sanding in between. It ain't quite perfect, but the hired help was pretty cheap! Sorry, the photos are really lousy.

looken good!

I hope you tied a rope to find your way back to the house - that is a lot of white! Reminds me of the morning after a blizzard :D

Seriously: Excellent! Crankin' right along :)

Rachel

What did you think of the KiwiGrip? Another friend just did his decks with it in preference to Intergrip and liked it - any thoughts you'd like to share?

Boat looks great - congrats on your continued progress.

Thanks, its been a long road to get to this point!

The Kiwigrip was really easy to apply. Obviously I can't speak to its durability or grip when wet, but it looks really good. Its amazing how the boat suddenly comes together when you pull the tape off. I did learn a couple things:

1. When you mask cut the tape into strips about two feet long and overlap them in the direction you will be working. You will want to remove them as you go so you don't get painted into a corner and can't get to them. You need to remove the tape pretty quickly to get a nice clean edge. The short sections of tape make it easy to remove and jettison over the side. Work carefully, the tape line is super crisp. If you don't take the tape up as you go, bring your yoga practice to the task! You know Oceans 12 where the French guy was moving through the laser beams? Its kind of like that!

2. Layer it on with a small drywall knife (we used a 4 inch wide plastic one). Lay it on pretty thick (about 1/8 inch), but evenly. There were some areas that we need to go back over a little since we didn't put quite enough on.

3. Work only one or two feet at a time. The stuff dries quickly.

4. Roll sideways then up and down towards the area you just covered. If you push hard you get more texture but you also get vertical lines. I went back over it really lightly, often on a diagonal to dial back the texture.

Overall its been the easiest job so far.

Oh and I used about 3.5 quarts (I bought a gallon of it).

Doug

Things are finally happening! We got the companionway hatch and trim done, and a bunch of hardware installed with butyl sealant (great stuff!), including mooring cleats, jib tack fitting, jib tracks (ugh!), primary winches, and portlights. I also have my chainplates being fabricated, and a mast repair sleeve, spreaders and spreader bar in the works. Woohoo!

Here are a couple photos.

Looking good Doug. I haven't had a chance to get down to Ballenger's again (reference from the Ericsonyachts site). Have you heard anything from them?

Mark

Your boat looks great, Doug. I hadn't realized you're here in Portland. Is that the yard behind Sexton's Chandlery?

Regards,
Tony Orchard
S/V Bonnie Blue
1974 C-22 #4823
St. Helens, OR

Thanks, guys. Mark- No I haven't heard from Ballenger yet. I'm going to call next week. I'll be ready to work on the mast in a few weeks. Hey Tony, yes its the yard behind Sextons. One of the few DIY yards around! Did you work on your boat there?

Still cranking away this weekend. I'll post some photos tomorrow. .

Hey Doug,
No, my boat is in St. Helens, but I drive by there once or twice a month and my wife and I lived aboard at McCuddy's several years ago across the street. I used to walk my dog in that big field next to the yard (before PYC fenced it in). I thought I recognized your boat. I remember looking at it one day and thinking Wow, someones doing a LOT of work... :-) I drop by Sexton's semi-regularly, I'll drop by if I see you working. Nice work on the hatch. The little triangles really look intentional.

Looks Great Doug!

That new hatch is beutiful! Nice to see it all coming together for you, and inspires me to keep plugging away!

Billy

Chainplates have arrived! We've been whittling away at re-intsalling all the hardware over the past month. Slow work but progress is being made, despite taking last week off to sail in the San Juans.

Here is a shot of the new chainplates. Hah, I think they will be the last thing left of this boat in 200 years...

I just re-read through your whole thread, you've come a long way! It must feel good to be at this stage after all of your work; thanks for sharing your progress!

Doug, those chain plates are beautiful and they look like made for Cape Horn.

Well, yes and no. "Yes", compared to when I bought the boat almost exactly 2 years ago. "No" becasue I have recently determined that there is no way I can make an end of September launch which is what I have been shooting for since early spring. I just sat down and made an updated list of all the things that I still need to do. The exterior portion of the boat list took up 5 pages...

Realizing that i will be on the hard for another winter, I have decided to change directions and paint the topsides before the weather gets cold this fall. They were in decent enough condition, but a new coat of paint will address several issues and bring that area up to par with the rest of the boat. So the 'ol sander will see some more action!

Hopefully I will actually be able to get to work on the boat this weekend, but its looking less and less likely at this point. Aargh!

Doug

New traveler going in.


Spent today cleaning and sanding the topsides for paint. Cleaned all the wax off then I had to sand off a bunch of bottom paint that was put on too high. Then sanded one side to 150. My arms were too sore to lift the camera to take any photos!

Things are rolling again!

Compared to what you have been doing, the topsides will be a breeze.

Got some more goodies today. Here is a photo of the new spreaders, spreader bar, and repair plates.


Spent last weekend sanding the rest of the hull and filling a few dings. Still trying to decide what to do about the weird cracks in the hull. I'll probably do some digging and then decide what to do.

My epoxy was too green to sand this morning so I spent a few hours dry fitting the chainplates. The two bottom holes were already drilled from the inside, but since they didn't align quite properly with the chainplate holes I had to drill them out a bit. Once they were drilled out I tightened the lower bolts in place then drilled the three upper holes. Since the two bottom holes didn't line up on some of the chainplates, the bolt heads don't fit flush to the chainplate (Thats why the washers are there for now). I have yet to figure out what to do about this, if anything. Given the overbuilt nature of this whole endeavour I'm leaning towards leaving it alone and just replacing the lower bolts every couple years. But I have thought about having some angled washers/shims made up by our local metalworker. If anyone has any other ideas I'm all ears!



After that I bailed out to cool down and enjoy the sunny weather with my kids before it starts raining over the Labor Day weekend, which is the normal weather pattern for all major holidays around here.

What a lovely photograph that waterfall one is!

And your chainplates of course look lovely also. Is there anything stopping you (other than having already done too much on the boat) from filling in the lower holes in the hull and redrilling, now that you have the three upper holes to hold the chainplate in place so you can get perfect lower holes also?