Here's Waldo!
05 January 2016 | St. Mary's, GA
Capn Andy/Cold and Wet
The beam repair set up properly, the floor jack didn't lose any pressure overnight. The surfaces of the beam were faired with the angle grinder and flap disc, then hit with the belt sander. A fairing coat of epoxy and colloidal silica was brushed on.
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Work began on the surfaces left over after the skegs were cut off. First the angle grinder with the chain saw teeth disk went over the rough surface to even it out. This was working under the end of the keel, flat on my back, and debris raining down, not pleasant. The disk with chain saw teeth came from Harbor Freight, no other store seemed to have it. A knowledgeable carpenter at the boatyard said they had tried them out at the restoration shop in Mystic, but found them to be too dangerous. A small modified electric chainsaw was used instead. The chain saw bar was reduced in size by a machine shop.
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After doing the rough fairing, next the power planer was used to make a flat surface. It was then hit with the belt sander. The glue lines of the original skeg were visible and the multitool was used to cut further up into the keel to begin making the slot for the new skegs. The chain saw teeth disk was used to hog out material. At some point I stopped due to the chain saw teeth being dulled by hitting fasteners and old fiberglass.
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The teeth could be resharpened using the dremel tool and an appropriate grinding bit. I broke the chuck on the dremel, putting an end to the chainsaw teeth escapade.
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We had some rain and cold weather that closed down the project for about a day. Too cold to glue, too wet to do any work outside. A laundry day.
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While in the laundry I listened online to the NY Jets, losing a must win game and falling out of the playoffs. A lady came in and asked if I was the Russian. I said no, and he was off to St. Augustine with his newlywed sister and brother-in-law. She said she was on a boat to Cuba and understood the Russian was going there too.
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Back at the boat I stowed laundry and did a crossword puzzle. It was now clearing up so work could resume. The patch of the hole in the galley planking had begun and the stringer that had been sprung by the collision with the jetty could be clamped in place using the cut out hole to get access.
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Another lady came by asking if I was the Russian. She turned out to be the owner of the boat that was going to Cuba. I said I was Polska, not Russki. The two ladies blog at sailtoconnect.blogspot.com. They did not hit the jetty but had a repair to their prop shaft strut. The job was done while they were in the slings of the travelift and they were able to get underway the next day.
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The Russian showed up and I dragged him over to the ladies' boat where he could discuss travel plans. He had more work to do before he could get underway, but he would be leaving soon.
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The patch on the hole in the galley planking needed a backing plate. There were two stringers crossing the patch hole leaving a small area between them for the backing plate. The piece of planking for the patch was marked for the stringers and then lath was clamped on to it to simulate the edges of the backing piece. I decided to use 3 3/4” wide overlap of the packing piece inside the hull, so the lath was cut off that much oversize, and two more short pieces of lath were glued on to make a four sided pattern for the packing piece. The pattern was clamped to plywood and cut out, then tested for fit.
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There was an obstruction to the backing piece, it was more of the styrofoam and plywood “ceiling” that lined the insides of the hull sides. I began removing it, but only ended up removing it on the outboard planking of the galley and only up to about a foot and a half above the galley sole. Now the backing piece fit except that the sole didn't allow the piece to sit flush on a stringer. The sole was cut back using the multitool and now we had our backing piece ready to install, along with the planking patch.
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The picture is of an employee of a popsicle shop in St. Augustine that features a theme from the “life aquatic” movie. He looks to me like the subject of “Where's Waldo?”.