September 16, 2017
With Irma having passed through, I got back to work on Joule; as dull and uninteresting as it may sound, it was good to get back to 'normal'. The hurricane brought significant flooding damage to a number of my neighbors and to me a realization of just how quickly our lives can change through circumstances outside of our control. That Monday morning as Irma arrived with her chaos, not being able to sleep, I watched in the early morning hours as an airborne river of water blew down the street. The sound of even a cat 1 hurricane is a scary thing, so I really can not imagine the experience of those brave should enduring Irma from Barbuda, St Marteen, the BVI, and other harder hit islands - thoughts and prayers go out to those impacted by this devastating storm. As my street turned into a waterway, as water approached the front of my home, we made preparations to evacuate and did so. Responding to neighbors in need to also evacuate (I was able to get through the water with my truck), I eventually made two trips back into the neighborhood. On the first trip in I could see water less than a foot away from the front entry of my home, but by the second trip in I noticed the water beginning to recede. The shift in the winds came just in time, and with that shift the water was funneled northerly and out to sea. It was a humbling experience, and many are now beginning to rebuild their lives. ...thoughts and prayers.
Prior to beginning work for the day, I removed the strapping I had secured Joule with in preparation for Irma.
I started the day with opening up a couple places in the cockpit sole that were obviously delaminated - flexing under hand with gentle pressure applied. Using hand pressure, I marked a general outline of at least the worst areas that I could feel.
Using an oscillating tool with a carbide blade, I opened up the first of the two spots identified for coring work. Sure enough, water was saturating the core and allowed the top skin to separate in this heavily traveled area of Joule.
I repeated this step for the second area requiring attention. The initial cuts allowed me to remove the worst of the affected areas, but inspection of the exposed core revealed water damage further into the sole. I expanded the openings of both areas until I arrived at dry core.
Happy with both areas expanded to sound material, I removed the last remaining bits of glass and sodden core material and then sanded down to the top surface of the bottom skin.
I prepared patterns for the new core material as well as the new fiberglass top skin (1708 biaxial cloth).
I first cut the glass patches, and opted for just one layer for the first layup effort. As I examined the thickness of the surrounding top skin, I was worried that two layers of the 1708 would created two newly cored areas standing proud of the balance of the cockpit sole. After these patches cure, I will examine again to see if another layer could be accommodated or if I proceed with fairing filler to begin the process of blending the new work with the old.
With the fiberglass cloth prepared, I cut of the balsa core material. With the new core material ready to go, I prepped the voids to be filled: vacuumed, solvent washed, vacuumed once again, and then wet ted out of the voids with neat epoxy.
With the voids in the cockpit sole prepped and ready to receive the new core material, I turned my attention to the new coring itself. I also applied neat epoxy to the underside of the new core material. I mixed a batch of thickened epoxy and liberally buttered the bottom of the new core material. I then pressed both core patches into place, making sure that I could see squeeze out on all sides. Prior to preparing the 1708 for layup, I applied neat epoxy to the top of the core material.
With both patches in place, I mixed an additional round of thickened epoxy and applied to all remaining voids surrounding the new core material. Back down at the epoxy work station, I wet both fiberglass patches and then placed them into position their respective areas.
Finally, I covered the new work with a layer of plastic and then weighted the new core material to ensure a consistent bond across the entire worked surfaces.
With the cockpit core work in place, I turned my attention to filling the balance of the toe rail and rub rail fastener holes. In a previous work session I had opened up each of the fastener holes with a tapered drill bit to provide addition bonding surfaces, creating more of less an inverted cone. I solvent washed each of the old fastener holes to be filled in order to remove any contaminates or debris that might have found its way inside.
Over the coarse of the filling work I mixed several small batches of thickened epoxy (West System 406 silica and 407 low-density), and using a squeegee firmly pressed the material into the holes to be filled. On most the holes, I applied tape to the underside to limit squeeze out from below.
There will be a second - potentially a third - round of filling after an initial sanding, as can be seen below with the settling of the applied thickened epoxy in one of the aft deck cleat installations.
My last order of business for the day was to applied a first round of fairing filler to the poop deck coring work. Again, I mixed the usual thickening agents into a large batch of epoxy, and using a drywall trowel, then pulled the material across the recent layup to fill the weave of the glass and begin the fairing effort. There will be additional work here no doubt, but the finished product will yield a solid deck that is ready for deck hardware!
I had meant to get to filling the numerous voids in the cockpit seating gelcoat but had run out of time - I was actually hot, tired, and hungry from having worked straight through the day.
I used a spiral saw to open up and remove and loose gelcoat, or to remove gelcoat that had voids underneath and may be prone to additional future issues. While it may not be totally possible, with mind to a reasonable approach to restoring a boat this 'long in the tooth, to eliminate all such future cracking and crazing...care was taken here to remove the obvious problem children.
A significant void was removed on the aft portion of the port seating, at the transition from the seat to the coaming. I will address these voids in the coming work session.
Total Time Today: 7.5 hrs
No comments:
Post a Comment