That Stripper is Awesome

The paint stripper that is....

It is however really messy and the cleanup takes almost as long as just sanding.  The good thing is that it doesn't score up the surface and gets into corners that I really couldn't have reached easily with a sander.  This stripper (Peel Away) had been sitting in my basement for years (~10) and I wasn't sure if it still worked or not.  It certainly did!

I'm not really up on the latest chemical stripper news but when I first bought this stuff long ago, it was one of the first 'environmentally friendly' strippers out there.  I think it's soy based but I don't know because the label has long since worn off.  In any event, another cool thing that it uses is a paper backing that you adhere to the gel once it is applied (maybe they all do this now).  This serves 2 purposes; the first is that it keeps the stripping gel from drying out so it works longer.  The second is that when you peel it off all the paint is supposed to stick to the paper.  It sort of works, but doesn't get all of the paint off and certainly a lot of the gel is left behind on the surface.  This is where I spent my time.  Most of the paint does indeed loosen up on the surface your stripping, but removing it along with the leftover gel is just a really messy proposition.

So, armed with a garbage bag, a carbide scraper, and a set of cabinet scrapers I set to work getting it all cleaned up.  At first it didn't seem all that bad, and it was kind of satisfying seeing big sheets of paint come off, but after I'd been on my knees in the cockpit covered in the stuff for an hour it gets old.  Couple that with the boatshed temperature approaching the high 90's it gets old.  Mmmmm, fun.  Anyway, it was a job that I was dreading and it's done now.  I finished up with a bucket of hot water and washed everything down to get the residue off.

As I was finishing up, I stepped on part of the bridge deck that I normally reserve for the shop vac and felt something bad.  Further inspection revealed that a 2 foot section of the port side bridge deck was at the very least delaminated, but I suspected worse (wet core).  I drilled out a few test holes and sure enough, the core was completely soaked in that area (&*#^!@$ CRAP).  I really don't know why it was wet there, because there aren't any through holes other than an icebox access hatch that the previous owner had installed.  The only other spot water could possibly have gotten in was a small spot where the boom crutch has supported the boom for years.  Over time it had worn away the paint and had gotten into the roving (visible).  I didn't think that it had gotten all the way through the skin though.

Finding this was a complete kick in the nuts and I wanted to cry.  I thought I was done with core repairs and actually had hopes of getting the cockpit primed this weekend.  I threw myself a full on pity party and went back to the house for dinner.  I need to apologize to Steph and the kids because she had made a really nice dinner and we ate out on the deck, but I was in a foul mood so I don't think there was much merriment.

During dinner I resigned myself to the fact that there was more core work to do and it wasn't going to get done unless I did it. So after eating, I went back over to the boatshed with the cordless circular saw and my dremel multimax (poor man's Fein) and cut out the offending area.  Today, I'll clean up the bottom skin, grind the bevels, and epoxy in a new core.  With any luck, I'll be able to get 3 new layers of biax on over the weekend.  It's a setback for sure, but in reality it isn't a big deal considering what I've already done to this boat. 

Slower Than Snot

I've spent way too much time on the original cabintop (the only section that wasn't completely recored) this week.  I thought it would be the easiest part of the whole boat, but the old paint ended up being harder than granite and I stubbornly thought I could sand through it with 40 and 60 grit paper.  I even tried a flapper wheel with 36 grit paper to no avail.

Since I'm planning on using a 2 part LPU paint, it can't be applied over a 1 part paint and since I'm not sure what the old paint is, I figured the safest bet would be to get rid of all of it, but short of busting out the angle grinder (I just don't want to go there), it just wasn't coming off.

After speaking with an Interlux rep. for the second time this week, he told me that I can do an MEK test to determine the suitability of the underlying substrate.  Basically you soak a rag with 2333N (Interlux brushing reducer), place it on the substrate (deck), and tape a bag over it so the solvent can't evaporate.  Leave it for 24 hours and see if the underlying paint blisters or cracks.  If it does then it has to be removed, if not then it's fine to use as a substrate for a 2 part primer.  So I ordered a gallon of Interlux Primekote primer and a quart of 2333N Brushing Reducer to perform the test.  Hopefully the test will come out positive (I don't have to grind it off) and then I can move forward with at least thinking about priming.

On the fairing front, I continued longboarding the recored section of the cabintop (yep gonna need more work to make it fair) and did a final fill on the holes that I did my test bores on at the beginning of this project.  It feels like I'm barely moving along and just making more dust, but I guess it's going in the right direction.

AWOL

Ok, so maybe I disappeared for a while, but I'm back on the job again.  I pretty much squandered the winter doing nothing but I was burned out from my previous efforts and needed a bit of a break.  I feel a little guilty about it, but this is a long term project and I'm not going to kill myself getting it done.

With that said, I did about 1.5 hours of work sanding the foredeck to see how fair it is.  I'm happy to report that it looks pretty darn good. Not perfect, there are a bunch of spot fills I'll have to do before I'm really ready for paint, but given that the vast majority of the deck will be under Kiwigrip (which will hide many a sin), I'm not too worried and can live with a few imperfections.   I decided that I would spread a quick coat of primer right at the bow to see how it looks and I'm very pleased.  Of course, I slapped the primer on in just a few minutes with a brush and will have to sand it off before I get the real primer on, but it was really satisfying to get a glimpse of the finished project.

Those are brush marks not fiberglass scatches.

Without a uniform color, it is hard to tell if it is fair.

The biggest problem I'm finding as I sand my way aft (6" Rigid Random Orbit) is along the bulwark/deck junction.  I'll have to go along the whole edge on both sides and do a small radius filet from bow to stern.  Then I'll have to fair that in, so it's a bit of work.

I'm putting the toerail project on the back burner for the time being while I re-assess my method.  I was going to do 3 - 1.25 inch strips laminated together and bent on a jig, but some helpful advice on the plastic classic forum has me rethinking the project.  Stay tuned!

Let the Torture Boarding Begin

I made myself fairly scarce at work this week and spent 2 afternoons finishing up adding the fairing compound to all the decks.  Now the first coat is on the entire boat.  I used just a tad less than a gallon of epoxy mixed to a 2:1 ratio of Q-cells to Aerosil.  Some spots are better than others but overall I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I certainly will need more in some spots (particularly the cabin top which seems low), but it will be a lot less than the first pass.  No surprise but the hard parts were around the chainplates and rear deck scuppers.  For a final pass I will re-install the chainplates with a layer of tape around them and fair with them in place. But that's a ways off.

I have to say that I'm not sure what people are complaining about.  Long (torture) boarding isn't that bad.  I find it somewhat soothing.  Sure it's slow going, but it sure as hell beats grinding bevels in the decks with the angle grinder.  I will not miss that one bit.  I may build another longboard that has a little more flex to it to conform to the curved areas on the deck, but the two that I made so far seem to be working well (17" & 11" for tighter areas).   I spent about 2 hours this morning long boarding the foredeck and as expected, there were a few low spots but nothing major and a small amount of additional compound should make it right.  Once I make it around the whole boat with the longboard (maybe another week or so), I'll pull all the ports and start sanding and prepping the cabin trunk sides.  Then a final (hopefully) coat of fairing compound to fill out the low spots and another round of longboarding.  At that point things ought to be ready for primer, but depending on weather (temp and humidity), that may have to wait until spring.

Woohoo, decks!  

Hard to see, but the foredeck up to the forward part of the cabin trunk has been longboarded.  The darker areas are low spots that will need to be filled again.

Fairly Difficult

So it looks like I need some practice with this whole fairing thing.  I took advantage of the still green epoxy on the aft deck and decided to get a head start on laying down the fairing compound.  I wish I could just spread it all nice and perfect, but it just doesn't seem that easy.  I kept dragging an edge or putting too much pressure on the spreader and as a result I couldn't get it perfect.  The main tool I was using was a 12" steel edge drywall knife for the open areas and 4" and 1" plastic spreaders for the tight spots.  The aft deck was actually not a great place to start because there are lots of complicated edges and corners, but all in all it came out ok for a first pass.

Ok for first pass

To build the long boards I used a few pieces of plastic wood cut into 2-3/4 inch strips; one 17 inches and one 11 inches.  I countersunk screws through the bottom and mounted 2 cheap kitchen drawer handles to the top for a good handhold.  I ordered a few 25 yard rolls of pressure sensitive adhesive (psa) long board sandpaper and it showed up on Saturday.

The next day I came back and attempted to try out my newly built long boards.  Unfortunately, the cold weather the night before had slowed up the cure and I found myself gumming up the board quickly.  I was a bit worried because I thought that I may have improperly mixed the last batch and wondered weather or not I would need to grind it all off.   Fortunately, when I stopped in this morning I could tell that things had hardened up much better overnight.   I decided I would let everything harden up for a few days because the cold is expected to continue throughout the weekend.  Not much time left; ideally I'd like to be able to get a coat of primer down before winter, but I don't know if I'll make it before it gets too cold.

Anyway, I spent a few hours today sanding and prepping the cabin top with the 5" deWalt (the big Rigid is STILL in the shop... grrrrr) and got a first coat of fairing compound down.  It was a lot easier on the cabin top because there aren't many quirky corners and edges.  For the fairing compound I mixed up 48 oz (in 3 batches) and added roughly a 2:1 mix of glass Q-cells to Aerosil.  I probably won't even try any long boarding for a few days because my schedule is pretty busy this week, but it's just as well because the cold will slow the cure down anyway.

A Long Time Coming

It was late January 2010 when I first plunged the circular saw into my squishy old decks on Magic, and as of 8pm last night I can finally say that I have finished recoring the decks.  Of course the project started long before that first cut, and will continue long after today, but this is a milestone I hope to never achieve again (at least not with Magic).  Given the ridiculous schedule our family is on right now with a myriad of school related activities and shuttling all over New Hampshire, I pretty amazed that I've gotten this far without throwing in the towel. 

Early on in this project I found myself getting overwhelmed with everything that needed (and still needs) to be done, but I found that by just focusing on the task at hand and working that to completion, I could manage and move forward without wanting to cry (at least during the day).  A few months back I found a quote from Mark Twain that absolutely floored me and literally gave the project a new lease on life.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

Simple and obvious, but it has become my mantra.  I have thrown away my big list because it's too big, and now just focus on the immediate task and those right after.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the aft deck that I completed last night.  I may jump right into the fairing this afternoon while the aft deck is still green and I can avoid sanding, but that will depend on whether the edges of the glass are flat enough and don't need any cleanup.  After that, the boat and shed are in dire need of a top to bottom cleaning before I start the bulk of the fairing.

Aft deck pre-faired and ready for glass.

Glass cut and ready for lamination.

 

Aft deck laminated, bagged, and tucked in for the night.

Looks like the first picture above but now has 3 layers of glass.

Sloppy

Over the last week I was able to tackle the port sidedeck and the areas adjacent to the cockpit but I found myself rushing just to get it done and as a result, I was a bit sloppy.  For the port sidedeck I used my standard technique of pre-fairing followed by sanding and then lamination of the third layer on top of the pre-faired area, but this time I decided to do 3 adjacent laminations together instead of one at a time.

So the process goes like this:
1. Cut and fit all the biaxial glass for each section to be laminated (50" sections).  Remove and set aside.
2. Mix up 16 oz of epoxy and spread a thin coating on the deck where one of the 50" sections of glass will be laminated.
3. Set the glass in place and wet it out.
4. Cover section with plastic sheeting and then put sandbags on top.
5. Move to next section and repeat steps 2-4.

Stoopidhead

It all seems reasonable, but when your rushing you make mistakes.  The mistake I made was on step #4 of the first lamination.  Nothing huge, but enough to be annoyed with myself for rushing.  I laid down the plastic but failed to see that I overlapped about an inch of the plastic into the next lamination area.  So when I moved onto the next step I set the glass in place but didn't see that there was plastic on the deck and as a result, I laminated about an inch of glass on top of sheet plastic.  Ooops.  I'll have to cut out that seam and redo before I fair the decks.  Oh well, one more thing to do...On the bright side, the rest of the lamination looks good.

Add caption

Over the weekend I tackled the forward part of the decks adjacent to the cockpit and changed my technique a bit.  Normally I have been pre-fairing and letting it cure before sanding it down in preparation for the top layer of glass, but I decided it mostly at the same time.  First I prepped the decks by sanding and wiping down with acetone, then I cut all the glass to fit the areas to laminate.  Next I mixed up 24 oz of epoxy (thickened to mayo) and pre-faired both sides of the decks adjacent to the cockpit.  I leveled it out as best I could and then let it sit for about 2 hours.  That gave it enough time to harden up but it was still somewhat malleable if you worked it. 

After I was convinced it was hard enough to proceed, I mixed up another 24 oz of un-thickened epoxy and spread it out over the still tacky pre-faired layer.  Then I laid down the cloth and wetted it out.  I finished up by covering with plastic and weighting down with sandbags (I was much more careful this time).
I'll post a few more pictures when I pull the sandbags off today.  I hope this new (for me) technique works out; I have no desire to do any more sanding than I have to and if I can eliminate any along the way, I won't be disappointed.

Am I done yet?

Um... NO!  Not even close.  I ordered another 12 yards of 1708 biax cloth (from ebay) for the final layer yesterday.  It should be here sometime late this week, so in the meantime I decided to start cleaning up the existing layers of glass so that the third layer lays flat and will minimize the amount of fairing at the end.  I started up forward and found that there was a lot of resin lumped up in ridges from where I put the plastic and sandbags when I did the lamination.  It was clear that I wasted a lot of epoxy here and consequently, I needed to do a bunch of sanding.  I only had 15 - 60 grit sanding disks for my 5" DeWalt (my 6" Rigid is still in for repairs) so I was only able to adequately sand about 3 feet from the bow before I ran out of disks.

Since there were a fair amount of imperfections in the form of little valleys caused by laying down the plastic and sandbags when the layup was done, I vacuumed everything up and wiped it down with acetone and the mixed up a 12 oz batch of epoxy and thickened with a 50-50 mix of Aerosil and glass microspheres.  This mix should provide much better sandability (is that a word?) to the job once it cures.  I troweled it out on the prepped area and spread a thin layer over everything to fill in the bumps and valleys and called it a day.

Hopefully the 6" Rigid will be fixed soon (especially since I have over $100 in sandpaper sitting on my bench), but in the meantime I will need to purchase large quantities of 5" 60 grit disks.  The glass job gets better as I go aft (on the job training, I can see my improvements), but there are still a few resin ridges here and there.  As much as I despise it, it might make sense to break out the angle grinder for the really high spots so I don't spend a fortune on sandpaper.

Just keep on movin on...

Bad picture, but the white section is actually fairly flat.  Flat enough for the third section of glass anyway.

Chipping Away

With the high temps in the low 60's over the past few days, I couldn't allow myself to squander the good layup conditions so I have been carving out a few hours here and there to get some core layed up.  Of course even using my work estimation algorithm 3x + 2.754 where x = my estimated hours, the area around the cockpit has lots of curves, cut outs, indentations, and generally annoying things that cause my progress to go even slower.

When I tore up the mess aft of the cockpit, it appeared that the old recore job had replaced the top skin, the core (with plywood), and at least part of the bottom skin.  Unfortunately, the bottom skin was not very sturdy and appeared to be some sort of matte that was very porous and not particularly strong.  There was also an old deck blower vent from when the boat had an atomic 4 that I didn't want anymore, so I decided it would make sense to reinforce it with a layer of 1708 cloth prior to installing the core.

I left the section directly aft of the locker opening to give a little rigidity to the structure while I was laying up the core.  Otherwise I ran the risk of the entire deck sagging under the weight of the sandbags while laying it up.  I could have reinforced from the underside, but thought that this would suffice (it did). 

After I cut out the cloth, I did the same with the balsa core then taped up all the deck holes from the underside and mixed up a 24 oz batch (16 resin, 8 hardener).  I wet out the deck then the cloth and layed it in.  When I was satisfied that it was fully saturated, I wet out the underside of the balsa and then added Aerosil to the remaining epoxy in the pot and thickened it up to spread.  I layed the balsa in, seated it and then mixed up a 20 oz batch and added Aerosil to make a peanut butter mix that I used to fill the gaps under the existing deck flange and around the balsa.  Finally I covered it all with plastic, followed by sandbags and let it kick.

The next day I went back and cut and ground out the area aft of the locker opening and repeated the same procedure as above.  While prepping this section I pulled the backstay chainplate and made sure that there were no issues with the area where it attaches to the stern.  It appears that the chainplate isn't original because it seems to be a different type of metal and not as thick as the shroud chainplates.  It doesn't look like stainless steel, nor bronze.  I don't know my metals very well, but it almost appears to be galvanized.  In any event, it looks to be in good shape, but I think I will be replacing it to be on the safe side.

Yesterday I only had about an hour (my son set his watch to keep me honest), so I set to work on the starboard side along the cockpit to see how much I could get done.  I ate up a good 30 minutes prepping the area with the grinder and sander to ensure a good smooth mechanical bond to the bottom skin (this area still had the original skin intact). 

Because the winches will be located in this area, I decided to do a solid glass layup on part of it to accommodate the large loads it will be subjected to.  Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure exactly where (or how) I will be mounting the winches - the old winch bases were rotting and I am considering using bronze pedestal bases like these.  So I cut out 6 layers about 2 feet long and cut them to the shape of the area in question.  Next I cut out balsa to fill in the remaining area forward of that.  I laid everything in place to see how it fit and at that point my son popped his head up from the ladder and told me my time was up.  The next few days are going to be busy, but I hope to get this section laid up before the weekend (no work this weekend, going to NY). 

I'm reaching the point where I can break the core job up into smaller manageable pieces that I don't have to spend as much time on.  It also works out fairly nicely because I am doing this after work when the temperature is on the downslope so I don't have to worry about the epoxy outgassing.  Ultimately it may take longer, but given how busy my life is right now, it's tough to block off full days.  With that said, I think if I were able to get one full day in, I could probably get the rest of the core in. 

Puzzle Time

I cut out most of the remaining deck areas alongside and aft of the cockpit.  Found the same soggy plywood mess as on the port side.  Even the pattern was the same.  I don't quite understand why the plywood was cutout in a jigsaw like pattern, but I'm sure there was a reason.

Puzzle anyone?

It was clear that the top skin wasn't as thick here and I am wondering about the bottom skin as well.  When pulling up the plywood, I pulled out several sections of the bottom skin (small silver dollar sized holes) and it appears that the bottom skin in this area is only 1 layer of matte.   A note on the matte; I'm not sure what the previous owner's layup schedule was, but it really seemed brittle, the matte was tearing quite a bit.  I'm glad I went with 1708, it seems much tougher.  I ended up leaving the section right in the middle because I don't want the aft deck to depress due to the lack of supporting structure.  I'll get the core in place in the adjacent areas before I tackle that small section. 

Slow Going

Life has been pretty busy the past few weeks so I haven't gotten anything done (on the boat anyway). About the only thing I have had time to do was to order sandpaper and tyvek suits with hoods to keep the itchy fiberglass dust at bay.

Fortunately I had a few hours to spend today so I got back to the forward cabin top. I had finished up a few weeks back by identifying some of the bad areas (or so I thought). As it turned out, not all were bad. In fact only 2 areas actually had water in the core, but a few of the others I had to pull the core out anyway because when I pulled up the top skin, it yanked half of the core out with it.

I am pretty happy with the lack of work I need to do in this area. I know there will be lots more to do and any time I can save is a good thing.

While I was cutting out the area around the starboard hatch hinge, I kept finding more wet core, so I kept cutting out a larger area to find the extent of the water infiltration. I eventually butted up against the solid core under the mast step that runs the width of the cabin top. It turns out that the water was mostly coming from a wiring chase that straddles the solid deck and the cored area. Two of the pictures show the exposed solid core. It was cool to see what I had sounded and drilled and know for certain that it was exactly what I had thought it was. It's also good to know that I won't have to deal with recoring the step or rebuilding the deck beam. Now I know for certain that these areas are solid (I had previously inspected the deck beam and found that it is oak with a 1/4" steel box beam for added support. I don't know if this is original or not.

Next up is to feather the edges of the mess I have created and get down to Mertons in Springfield to pick up epoxy and core materials. I hope to get down to Springfield in a week or two and then get ready for the 'week of doom' (I'm taking a week off work to focus on the boat sometime in April).

Decisions, Decisions

After bracing up the main cabin last week I was able to remove the rest of the top without worrying about falling through or distorting the curve of the cabintop. The big surprise was that the entire port side was in great shape... perfect, so I really didn't need to remove it. Yet the starboard side was a wet rotten mess and I dug it all out (and under the remaining deck skin).  It was really difficult to remove the top skin and now that I have I can see that somebody had taken the time to fill all the through deck screw holes with epoxy and then retapped for the screws and bolts (See second picture below). The same can't be said for the starboard side and is exactly why that area is rotten.

Because the port section of core is perfectly good and pulling it up would be a real pain, I think I am going to leave it in place but enlarge the areas of the through deck screws to make room for a plug of solid glass layup (See first picture below).   Armed with the new Dremel Multimax I was able to easily cut out the squares I needed around some of the existing through deck holes.  I'll finish up the rest of them this week.  I had heard mixed reviews about the Multimax but given that the Fein was completely out of the question (way to costly), I decided to go for it.  So far it works great and I haven't had any of the issues that I had read about in some of the reviews online.

I hope this won't be a mistake leaving this part of the core in place (I have several opinions for doing either), but I guess I'll find out.  I don't think that I will find alot of good core on other areas of the boat, so I don't believe this is a decision I'll have to make very often.   Next week I'll be putting more bracing in for the forward cabintop and start beveling the edges of the cuts for tabbing in the new skin when the time comes.

Upcoming Weekend

Looks like the weather is going to be warming up to near 40 this weekend so I hope to spend a fair amount of time on Saturday wrapping up the deck destruction. I still have 5 of the 6 chainplates and the hinges for the forward hatch to remove, but with luck that should take under an hour of grunting. I did remove one of the forward ports a while back but I think I am going to leave all the others in until I finish the recore and fairing to help keep dust out of the cabin (along with taping off the new openings I have created).

One thing I need to deal with before I seal off the cabin and shore up the deck from underneath is the holding tank... I do not remember ever emptying it out when I hauled the boat 2 years ago. It is a bladder type tank and I am VERY AFRAID of the contents of it and figure I should probably get it out of the boat and hauled far away while the contents are frozen solid. I am sure it is extremely nasty.

Picking Away

This weekend was cold and never really got much out of the teens temp wise, but I managed to get a few things done despite the cold. I had been considering the best approach for setting up a staging platform for the recore this spring. I finally decided to build a 'dock' across the front of the shed about 2 feet below the level of the boat's deck. Basically, I spanned the entire 14 foot shed with 2 rows of bolted together 2x4's with a 2x6 support in the middle of the span that was not up against the endwall. Onto this I screwed a few 2x3's and my last 7 foot piece of bowshed frame template plywood. I didn't spend a ton of time on this; knowing that it is just going to be ripped out at the end of the project. I only need it to support myself and provide an end platform for setting up side plank staging. The picks below aren't very good, but give you the idea.


On the destruction front, I continued stripping the decks of any hardware and woodwork that will get in the way of the recore. I pulled the companionway hatch, slide tracks and the wood underneath it (I was surprised at how much rot was in it). I am really close to ready to go with only the forward hatch hinges, mast step, and chimney to pull.

On the not necessary at this time, but I just needed to know front; I pulled up the middle three teak strips on the cockpit sole to find out what was left of the rudder post that had been long ago buried when the wheel was installed. I had never been a fan of wheel steering on a boat this size, I much prefer the feel and simplicity of a tiller. However, somewhere along the way before I owned the boat, a decision was made to cover up the rudder post and offer no means of emergency steering should the wheel fail. Being 6'5", if this were to happen, there would be absolutely no way for me to get in and under the cockpit to get control and would need to hope that I was in a place where I could drop the anchor and call for help. To me, that is not a good option. My hope was that when I uncovered the steering tube the rudder post would be right there with some sort of keyway still in place where I could refit another tiller head.

This morning I decided that I just needed to know what was in there even though the cockpit sole is not part of the recore (I need to stay focused). Anyway, the result was disappointing; the rudder post was about 2 inches down in the tube and no keyway visible (I am guessing the post was cut). I knew I would have to spring for a new tillerhead, but don't like the prospect of buying new rudderpost as well. Oh well, it probably is due for replacing anyway... Not going to think about it for now; I have enough things to do. Speaking of which, I have had a todo list in my head for some time, but I think it might be time to actually write it down and prioritize a few things. Right now I just have dollar signs in my head, and need to put things in perspective. Breath deep, one thing at a time...

Slow Month

With the associated madness of the holidays I didn't get too much done over the last month. I spent a few hours over a couple of days removing the hardware from the decks. I think I have everything except a few hatch hinges removed. I spent a fair amount of time labeling and cataloging everything so I know what goes where. I plan on posting pictures of the mess I've made when I am finished removing everything. At that point there won't be much I can do until the spring when temps warm up enough for the epoxy work. I am going to take a week off sometime in April.

A few notes on the shed. It holds up to snow very well and now that it is starting to pile up, the bottom edges are closed in and the salamander heater heats things up nicely. I was working yesterday and had the temp around 50 degrees in the shed while the outside temp was 25. I put up a plastic vapor barrier on the top inside of the shed to keep the moisture down, as the propane heater puts out a lot of moisture. The picture probably can explain it better than I can, but by stapling the plastic up on the inside on the top of the shed, any condensation caused by excess moisture will go to the upper skin and will not fall on the boat as the condensation (when not frozen) will drip on the stapled plastic. Seems to work well so far.