So, onto making 36332 seaworthy again. After email discussions with Team USA, we're set to do the fiberglass matting and epoxy patch technique we mentioned earlier, with, perhaps, a bit of bevelled ply fitted in the soon-to-be squared off hole. We'll see how quickly we can progress as the weather here is fairly warm and we'd like to get this out on the water.
Despite the best intentions of doing things quick and dirty, we ended up agreeing we might as well strip the hull back to wood and do a proper job, plus we get to see the true state of the wood underneath. As we thought, most of the hull is pretty solid but the bit where we made the hole was actually somewhat weaker than the rest and shows some signs of stress from the past 33 years of use. It was a hole waiting to happen so just as well we found that out on the test float. We also found a few small spots of rot (mostly not serious) under the paint that we'll clean out, soak with epoxy, and fill with epoxy/403. We also decided to use fiberglass matting across much of the bottom of the boat so we reinforce/stiffen the weaker spots we found back to their former glory. This, of course, leads to fairing the outer hull, then, of course, the inside will look scruffy. You can see where this is leading...
The repaint color is decided. Looks like it's going to be Cal Bears Blue to celebrate their many great Rugger victories over the various barbarian teams (like Stanford), yet another activity that distracts us from actually getting on with it. This this will be good practice in using the always on-sale (Harbor Freight Tools - where else) electric paint sprayer which may or may not work. Never tried it so who knows.
We also had a chance to look at the mast and rigging, finding it all to be in excellent condition - and fiddled around with it a bit to get a more familiar with how the bits fix together. All good experience for 70407 when we get there. We recommend getting a second boat to help you puzzle out the first, but recognize this may not always be practical. Wives hate this, and you will end up sleeping in the garage.
(4) So after a couple of evenings of paint stripper (will there be any brain cells left after all this and the epoxy?), we're down to primer and wood. Went over it a couple of times with a palm sander (and a rotary disk for the tough spots) to remove any last vestiges of yellow. We did find several more areas where there was some local rot that we'd never have spotted if we didn't take the paint off so we felt suitably smug. We cleaned them out and epoxy/403 filled ready for the next sanding before we get to the mat and fairing.
(5) And onto the epoxy coat. Rolled on as usual and left outside to cure. Also refixed a couple of things that were working loose. As you can see, we didn't take it down all the way as we'd have weakened too much good wood. This'll work fine (we think).
(7) So, next we turned the boat over to patch the hole. Decided against a wood plug, and went with no less than 8 layers of fiberglass matting epoxied in, with a cover patch which set up really hard and will really do the trick - also epoxied the bowshapes as they'd warped a little over time and clamped them till set. Filled a couple of minor rot holes (which we will tidy up during fairing) and moved onto the final sanding of the gunwales. We do plan on leaving the interior alone for now. Really. Trust us - we won't be tempted. Honest.
(8) After much sanding, Mark collected up the sawdust from inside the boat to make an epoxy/wood paste for a few fill ins where microfibers would look too weird. Mixed it up to a stiff paste consistency and applied it with a West Fillet Tool (aka a plastic stick, but more expensive and sold in bags). Drizzled some pure epoxy onto the exposed edge of the ply at the gunwales to seal them up, then rolled on a couple of coats to seal everything in. While the wood doesn't look new (well, it isn't so why try to pretend it is...), we succeeded in getting all the pitting and grey out so the gunwhales now look suitable 'dignified' and 'age appropriate'. Probably one more fine sanding and a light coat of epoxy and we're done for this part of the project.
Et voilà, the rear view of the gunwales and rear transom. Notice the tiny drain holes from the 70's.
So, that's it for the basic repairs, so onto making it look good, at least on the outside.
Basic repairs being done, it was very tempting to plunk the boat in the Petaluma river (OK, technically a slough, which for the uninitiated is a tidal finger of the San Francisco Bay) as it's functional enough with a few bits of hardware refitted. Wifely demands to go out to dinner put the mockers on that, which is probably sensible as we were getting a bit ahead of ourselves.
Curiousity did get the better of us so we decided to see whether we had all the bits and rig the boat. So, we did, and we do. Actually only takes a few minutes, despite never having done one before so there's hope yet. Below Mirror 36332 gives us a glimmer of a bright future, albeit as a land yacht at the moment.