Fabricating Toe & Rub Rails, Spot Filling & Fairing

December 15, 2017

Having the entire day to work on Joule was nice, and meant that I could tackle more time-consuming projects requiring a fresh mind and body, as well as plenty of daylight hours.  I attended to the morning conference calls, per usual, and then got to work on filling the old fastener holes on the cabin top.  These deck plates were through-fittings for the mast wiring.  Joule's owners were looking to make a fresh start with her electrical system, and so were looking to return her deck to a 'blank canvas' of sorts.

I tapered the holes, vacuumed up the debris and thoroughly cleaned the surfaces with acetone.  I taped off the exit holes in the cabin's overhead, after also tapering and cleaning with a solvent.  I then mixed up a thickened batch of epoxy, leaving the consistency less viscous than I would for vertical or overhead application.  I worked the material down in the through holes, and then filled the fastener holes that secured the through-fitting to the deck.

The night before, I had sanded the patches for the old navigation lights, and was now ready to apply a layer of fairing compound.  I also thoroughly cleaned the port and starboard patches with solvent, and mixed up a more viscous batch of thickened epoxy.  

Starting with the port side, I applied the fairing compound with a squeegee, ensuring that the application was standing slightly proud to the surrounding surfaces and extending beyond the patch itself.

I then repeated for the starboard side.

Straightforward.  I will come back tomorrow to begin fairing the surface out to blend with the balance of the cabin sides. 

With work completed on Joule for now, I returned to the wood shop to begin fabricating the rails.  Given the length of the teak stock I would be working with, I had to position the table saw near the shop's doors and on an angle so that I had enough space behind the saw to line up the stock to enter the blade.  I also switched out the blade on the saw for a finer cut.

I grabbed the teak board selected for the rub rails, and set it on top of the table saw to help me determine where to position an out-feed "shelf" to support the board as I moved it across the blade of the saw - you can see the supports just in the background of the photo below.  I also took the opportunity to decide how to remove the individual rails from the 6" wide by just over 10' in length piece of teak.  It wasn't so much as how, but which side of the board to begin removing lengths of rail.  The decision was due to a short section of sap wood on one end of the teak.  Having decided a path forward, I cut the teak board into 5 rails at just over 10' in length.  I set one of the rails (the one with the short section of sap wood) onto the lumber rack, thinking it could be a go-to piece in the event of a catastrophic failure of one of the rails!  The rub rails have a 3/4" base, and are roughly 13/16" in height. 

Next, I took the four rails and decide the pairings - two for each rub rail.  The two rails for port and the two rails for the starboard side would be joined by a 12:1 scarf joint, installed and then trimmed on the aft portion as it extended beyond the transom.  I thoroughly reviewed each piece, paying attention to overall aesthetics, potential problem areas in the wood as it took the shape of Joule's sheer line, and taking into account defects that would be removed through the scarfing process.

Happy with the rub rail pairings (port and starboard), and determining which board of the pairings would be forward and which would be aft, I took out my scarfing sled - built for Alva Anne's restoration.  The scarf sled would give me a 12:1 joint, and was the recommended 12" length for a 1" thick piece to be joined with another.  I ran a test pass with a scrap piece of wood (shown below).

Satisfied with the results, I started with the port rub rail...and worked through all four lengths of material.  

I marked the pieces and bundled them together with tape for future work.

Next, I grabbed the teak board selected for the toe rails.  I also determined which side of the board to begin with removing the lengths of toe rails.  This board would also produce the new companionway hatch slide rails; since my focus was on the quality of wood for the toe rails, I determined the choice material for the four toe rails and began ripping the length of stock to that end.

Just as I did for the rub rails, I used various criteria for the selection of boards to make pairs with and also how to orient them as the "forward" board and the "aft" board.  With the pairing and orientation finished, I proceed to cut the scarfing joints for each board; again, a 12:1 cut ratio.

As I did for the rub rails, I paired and bundled them with tape to set aside for later work.  The next steps on the rails, both toe and rub rails, will be to cut a rabbet on the underside (the side adjoining the hull or deck) to allow for a layer of polysulfide sealant.  I will also need to glue (epoxy) the two pieces together at their scarf joints, and then mark and drill for fasteners.

With the toe rails and the rub rails well on their way, I got back aboard Joule to address the cockpit drain hoses and through-hull valves.  The valves were from a hardware, or big box, store and were of the brass persuasion.  The valves were to be replaced, and in the process, the hoses and hose clamps would also be freshened up.  I removed the valves, hose clamps and hoses with relative ease.

The last item for the day was to sand the area around the through-hulls, followed by a pass with the vacuum.

Total Time Today: 5 hrs

Sanding Interior, Exterior and Navigation Light Patches

December 14, 2017

With more vacation days than I have work days left in the year to burn, I decided to take the afternoon off.  Once I arrived home from an afternoon workout, I had lunch and then prepared to get back onto Joule.  I wanted to at least get the previous fill work sanded, so as to be ready for a full day's work tomorrow addressing a few different items, but primarily continued brightwork fabrication.

I started off by water-washing the previous fill work, now cured, and this included the navigation light patches on the cabin sides.  I had pinholes in several areas across the deck and cockpit.  These pinholes suddenly became obvious after getting the first coat of primer on the deck and cockpit surfaces.  I also had some fill work yet to sand on the interior v-berth and overhead liners.  With the amine blush removed, I outfitted the RO sander with 120-grit pads and got to work.

I worked around the exterior of the Joule (deck and cockpit), and then went below for the numerous filled old fastener holes.  Because some of the filled areas were in relatively tight spots (in corners, adjacent to the overhead liner, etc.), I also used the oscillating tool outfitted with 80-grit pads.  For those areas in which I used the oscillating tool, I came back with 180-grit sheets and sanded by hand.  Sorry, no pictures of the interior sanding.  After closing up Joule for the day, I remembered a few more areas that were filled and required sanding; these areas were beneath the cockpit well, in the location of the through hulls.

The starboard side navigation light opening: patched, sanded and ready for a fairing application.

The sport side navigation light opening: patched, sanded and ready for a fairing application.

Total Time Today: 1.75 hrs

Patching Nav Light Openings on Cabin Sides

December 13, 2017

After a some deliberation, the owners of Joule decided to go ahead and have the old navigation light mount and wiring access holes on the cabin sides patched.  The intention for Joule was to be purely a daysailer, and any dusk to dawn operation would be satisfied by utilizing portable navigation lights - lights that can be temporarily mounted on the bow pulpit, and then removed as the Joule is closed up.

Since I was afforded time in the afternoon, I decided to go ahead and patch these openings.  I began by wrapping a couple small mixing sticks with tape and then securing them as backing plates for the eventual patching of the holes.  Next, I marked the area within which to grind a taper, both port and starboard. 

Using a 40-grit flap disc on the angle grinder, I ground a taper around both openings to accept layers of fiberglass cloth.

I used sheet sand paper and roughed up the interior of the openings, removing any remaining sealant that was part of the prior installation process for the navigational lights.  I then thoroughly cleaned the surfaces, both inside and out, with solvent.

My next step was to prepare templates for the few layers of 1708 biaxial cloth - in all, I used three layers on each side, progressively smaller in size.

With the fiberglass cut and marked with orientation lines, I then decided to cut a couple piece of "core" material.  Using a one inch hole saw, I removed two teak "plugs" which would serve as core material for the patching of the cabin sides.  I wiped both of these plugs with solvent to remove the oils that are abundant on teak wood, so as to not interfere with the epoxy bonding. 

Next step was to wet out the openings - both inside and out - with neat epoxy, as well as the teak plugs.  With the surfaces prepped for further fill work, I mixed a batch of thickened epoxy to ready myself for installation of the teak core plugs.

Using a small mixing stick, I applied the thickened mixture to the openings.  I did not totally fill the openings, knowing that I would get squeeze-out as I inserted the teak plugs.  Sure enough, I got a liberal amount of squeeze-out, and so I removed the excess with the edge of the mixing stick.

With both the starboard and port cabin sides filled (core and thickened epoxy), I was ready to apply the cloth layers.

Back in the shop, I laid out the progressively smaller layers of cloth on two separate plastic sheets - for port and for starboard cabin sides.  I then wet out each of the layers.

One at a time, I walked the plastic sheets over to Joule, laid them onto the side decks and readied myself to apply the cloth.  Starting with the larger layer of 1708, I placed it onto the prepared surface, and with gentle pressure, ensured good adhesion without air pockets.  I repeated the steps for both sides.  In the coming days, I will water-wash the cured epoxy, sand, and then get to fairing the patched navigation light openings.

Total Time Today: 1.5 hrs