Evil Is...

Snapshot of what it looks like under the cockpit sole.

The dark underbelly of an Alberg 35 below the cockpit is no place for humans of any size, let alone someone who happens to be 6'5".   My helpers (kids) were away this weekend so I couldn't finish bolting on the rubstrake because I need someone to hold one end, so I turned my attention to the cockpit and how I am going to drop the rudder.

I started under the boat and began chipping away many years of bottom paint from the rudder fasteners.  To my surprise, once I scraped all the junk off, there were clean shiny bolts underneath that were actually serviceable.... amazing.  The rudder post is actually 2 pieces, the upper part goes up into the boat is 1.5" stainless and the lower end that terminates in the rudder shoe is 1.5" bronze.  There is one bronze strap located at the top of the lower post and keeps the rudder from riding up and out of the shoe. This gave me the most trouble but considering it's age, it wasn't bad at all.  The strap is pretty badly corroded and will need to be replaced, but I it came off easily enough. Once that was off there was nothing else on the outside that needed to be taken off to free the rudder other than lifting it off the shoe, which meant it was time to go into the dreaded 'under the cockpit hell'.

The slender lines of the Alberg when you see her sitting at anchor or sailing along make for some of the most diabolical access under the cockpit which is where a good chunk of the important stuff lives. My particular Alberg is further compounded by modifications by a previous owner that make access to the rudder from the engine/quarterberth area nearly impossible.

So basically I have 2 options, the aft lazarette is a good place to see (upside down) the work that needs to be done but none can be done from there because it is too far away from the rudder post to reach anything.  The other option is the cockpit lazarettes.  These are the only workable solution to actually accessing the rudder.  Of course if you are somebody who is 4'10" and works as a contortionist at the carnival, this might be a decent place to practice your craft, but for someone like me it is mainly suited for torture.

Anyway, given all my complaining things were actually going well.  I expected a corroded mess but was able to unbolt the quadrant from the rudder shaft with little difficulty. It still took close to 45 minutes because I had to keep coming up for air in the locker, but the bolts were completely free of corrosion.  Once the quadrant was free, I moved onto the wire rope sheave assemblies.  The port sheave was also corrosion free and didn't require me to reach too deep into my bag of profanity.  The starboard one was another matter.  The first 2 bolts came out fine, but the forward 2 were completely inaccessible.  I suspect they were installed when the previous owner's modifications were made.  My theory was reinforced when I finally found the last 2 bolts; they were encased (with fiberglass) in a bulkhead that made up the aft end of the quarterberth.  Unfortunately for me, this meant that if I really wanted to remove the sheave (I did), then I would have to cut the bulkhead. To make a long story short, I ended up using a drill to cut out a small (1"x 1") piece of the bulkhead where each bolt was located and then get an open ended wrench in to slowly turn the nuts off.  It took a ridiculously long amount of time and the only saving grace is that I was able to extract the sheave without any damage and will be able to sell it and the other bronze jeweler I dug out to help bolster the boat fund (Stuff for Sale).

The Dog Days are Over

Well, August was pretty much a bust for boat work.  Vacation, kids, house projects, and boat shed heat all conspired to keep me away from the boat.  Now that temps are starting to drop though, it's time to get a few things glued up before it gets too cold.  With any luck I should have the rail and part of the cockpit done before winter.

While not much has been done, I haven't been completely idle.  I tapped all the screw holes for both rails (every 8") and routed the inside edge with a roundover bit to give a 3/8 inch radius.  I had my wife and kids help me take both rails off the bulwark and cleaned up the underside and sanded the lower bottom inboard edge so nobody sliced their toes when walking on deck.  Finally, using Sika-Flex 291, I layed down a bunch of goop on the bulwark (I forgot to take a picture), and layed the rails back on with the help of the family.  It's definitely a multi-person job trying to lay down 36' of caprail onto a pile of sticky goo without making a huge mess.  All went well though and once they were seated, I screwed both sides down tight.  They are not going anywhere.

I also started working on the stern caprail over the past few weeks.  This has been something of an enigma to me, because I just really wasn't sure how I was going to do it without it looking really crappy.  In fact even after I had made the initial board cuts, I wasn't sure if it was going to work. Originally, I had planned on using a single piece to span the whole stern, but a miscalculation on my part left me without a piece of Sapelle long and wide enough to fit.  I do have more Sapelle stock, but I am planning on using those boards for the cockpit coamings and rubstrake.  I guess I'm cheap, but I couldn't justify spending another $100+ on a small section where more than 50% is waste when I already had several smaller pieces that could be glued up to accommodate the job.

Figuring the proper cuts for this section really gave me new found respect for wooden boat builders.  Not only are you challenged with figuring the cuts for a curved piece that has different radius's on each side, but you have a third dimension (the camber of the bulwark) that requires you to bend the board as well.

Anyway, to get the job done, I decided to use 2 long pieces and a third, small piece like a keystone.  This solved 2 problems for me. The first as I already mentioned was that I could use existing scraps and not destroy one of my longer boards and second: my carpentry skills are decent, but doing it this way made the board length calculations based on the deck camber radius moot, so I didn't have to worry about the length of the two long boards, I could just cut the 'keystone' piece to whatever length the other 2 boards didn't (I think I am making it sound more confusing than it was).

I cut the 2 longer boards, fitted them to the outside caprail and then screwed them down.  There is about a 3/4" radius bend that I had to get, but the boards bent easily into place.  Using my power planer, I rough planed down the outside radius. After that, it was just a matter of fitting and cutting the 'keystone'.  Once I was happy with the fit, I placed a piece of plastic underneath the middle section and glued the 'keystone' in place.

Over the years I have grown weary of mixing up epoxy and adding thickener until I get the right consistency, so lately, I've been using Jamestown Distributors epoxy tubes Thixo for my 'glue'.  I think West System came out with it first a few years back and others soon followed. Basically, it comes in a caulking gun size tube and has a mixing chamber in the tip.  The 2 parts in the tube mix in the nozzle as you squeeze the trigger and you get a nice consistent flow of mayo like epoxy that is great for small jobs and the tip allows you to be very neat. The downside is that while you can store a half used tube of the stuff, the tips are only good for one use and there is a fair amount of waste in the tip.  Fortunately each tube comes with 2 nozzles.

I gave it a few days to cure and then scribed the inner bulwark radius onto the boards and pulled the whole thing off and took it back to my shop for a date with the bandsaw.  The blade on my 14" Reliant bandsaw has probably seen better days and the guide blocks need to be tuned/replaced so I usually cut proud of the line so the blade doesn't wander into the no-cut area but this time I decided to go for it and cut right to the line and just went ridiculously slow and I'm pretty happy with the result. It will need some sanding and a little cleanup, but overall the cut looks great.  I took it back over to the boat and carefully screwed it back into place for a test fit and I'm happy to say that it looks pretty good.  It's not perfect, but it's something I can live with.  I still have to clean up the epoxy lines on the 'keystone' but other than that and some sanding it's good to go for some Sika-Flex, screws and the roundover bit.

Stowaway

Notice that the a lot of the material is
pieces of 1708 biaxial fiberglass.  Must be
a strong birds nest. 

It's a bit hard to see, but if you look close, there is a Phoebe chick desperately trying to hide from me.  Over the past week or so I've noticed a bird spending a lot of time in the shed (including pooping on the deck) and just noticed yesterday why she was hanging out in there so much.  I thought she just liked my company.  I showed the kids and will try to steer clear of that area of the shed until the chick has fledged.

Despite my new shed mate I was able to get the outboard edge of the rails planed down and pretty much ready to fit the rubstrake.  I'll probably have a few areas to touch up as I dry fit everything, but for the most part it is done.  I ended up doing the vast majority with the power planer, it saved a ton of time but in the end it still took close to 4 hours over a few days.  My arms and shoulders are pretty sore today from holding the planer at eye level for so long and stretching into weird positions so I could see the underside of the caprail while working.





I'll probably drill the rest of the screw holes for the caprail next and then clean up the inboard edge.  I'll need to sand and put a slight radius on the bottom inboard edge of the caprail so it won't catch any unsuspecting toes with a sharp edge.

After that, I'll be bedding and screwing the whole caprail down for good.  I'm still not sure what bedding compound to use but I'm leaning toward a polysulfide like Boat-Calk or similar.  Once complete I can start on the rubstrake although I will probably try a few test pieces before I do much more of anything just to see how it looks.

Slight Change of Plans

New caprail plan

In the last post I talked about how the caprail and rubstrake would fit together differently than the original design (see here).  I had planned on nesting the rubstrake underneath the caprail and screw it in from the top.  Joel (A35 #52 out in Washington state) had originally turned me on to the idea and I thought it was a better solution than the original layout. Well, as it turns out, I will be installing the caprail using the same design as the original despite my plan.

The problem I ran into was that I just didn't have enough width on the top board to allow for the rubstrake to be nested underneath and screwed from the top.  I cut the top board slightly too narrow and my plan for a 5/8" width rubstrake just wasn't going to work.  I think I may have been able to pull it off, but I only had enough width for a 3/16" rubstrake and that would have been pretty tough to screw into.  I knew that this was a possibility as soon as I cut the top boards for the caprail, but it wasn't until I had everything in place that I was able to come to terms with it.  Oh well, not the best solution, but since the original had lasted 45 years, I can make it work again.

Unfortunately, this change necessitates a lot of planing along the outboard edge of the caprail at a continuously changing angle so it is slow going.  I setup some staging so I could work at eye level and take most of the excess wood off with a power planer and then finish it up with a jack followed by a block plane.  I'm sure OSHA would have a field day with my rickety setup, but I haven't fallen yet.  After about 1.5 hours of work I've finished up about half of the port side and the first 4 feet or so of the starboard bow where the angle is the greatest.  With any luck (and some minor familial neglect), I can have both sides prepped and ready for the rubstrake by weeks end.

Railmeat

I finally moved forward on the rails this weekend after having them sit in their rough cut state for 2 months doing nothing.  In retrospect, now it seems like I didn't do much, but all told, it took about 4 hours of my time not including the 20 minutes clearing the shed of wasps that had decided to build nests in several spots.

I started on the starboard side by getting the rough cut rails aligned as close as I could tell to the bulkwark. My current caprail plan involves hanging the rubstrake underneath the caprail top so I want to have as much overhang as possible on the outboard side of the bulkwark.

Once I was satisfied with the layout I started at the bow and tapped the first screws with my #14 tapered drill bit with stop collar.  From there I measured out 16 inch intervals on the rail all the way to the stern.  Ultimately, I'll be screwing 1-1/2" screws every 8 inches along the rails, but at this point I just need to get it fastened for further trimming.  I tapped and screwed every 32" or so on the 16" marks to make sure it was solidly attached.

Then I pulled out my router with 1/2" shank flush trim bit (I don't remember the maker, but it was expensive ~$45.00).  The 1/2" shank makes it rock solid no matter how thick the wood, and there are 2 roller bearings on the end so you've got a wide profile for finding the surface to use as the guide.  I started up at the bow and using the bulwark as my guide. I slowly routed the inside edge of the caprail.  I had a lot of excess wood to take off so I made a gigantic mess and it took roughly 40 minutes per side to get the whole thing trimmed.  The nice thing about the mess I made is that now the boat and shed smells like freshly cut wood instead of epoxy and chemicals.  I'll be much happier cleaning this one up.

Next up, I have to start working on some test rubstrakes to see how I am going to bring it all together. I'll need to hit the lumberyard this week and pickup a long piece of Sapelle once I figure out the profile dimensions.

Way Too Long!

I have plenty of good excuses for my boat neglect, but none of them matter because the boat is still waiting for me to finish her up.  However, the past 2 months have been difficult because I had to put my mother into a nursing home (she has Alzheimer's disease) and clean out and pack up her home.  All of it very unpleasant.
Somewhat less unpleasant, but also difficult was the fact that I had to build and install a custom picket fence in our front yard that took far too much time.  Lastly and decidedly pleasant, we went to Mt. Desert Island in Maine for vacation where I spent 6 days bombing around Somes Sound in my 17 foot O'Day Daysailer.  I will now stop whining and proceed with the boat restoration mission.

KiwiGrip Part 4

Last year I got most of the KiwiGrip completed but the cold weather in late October kept me from finishing up the last few sections.  I deliberately left the aft deck un-KiwiGripped because that's where I get on and off the boat most of the time and want to reduce the amount of wear that gets until the last possible moment. 

The aft end of the cabintop was the other section that I didn't get to last year and I have been keeping my eye on the temperature and humidity over the past few weeks.  I needed at least 50 degrees and low humidity to get the job done.  Spring has come a bit late in New Hampshire this year and it has been on the cool side but over the last week the temperature has gotten into the low 70's and really dry, making for  perfect KiwiGrip conditions.  The downside of the warming temperatures at this time of year is that it wakes up the black flies and by this time most years, being outside can be pretty unbearable. Black flies just suck and worse than that, they are stupid and love to get into paint.  

Knowing this, I got up early on Saturday and pulled most of the trim off the cabintop and then taped and sanded everything by 8am.  The temperature was still cool (mid 40s) at this point and although it's below the KiwiGrip temperature range, it is also below the operating temperature of black flies and I wanted to avoid them at all costs or I would have lots of black specs in the paint.  Fortunately, once the sun hits the boat shed it warms up nicely so I went ahead.

I had roughly a third of a gallon left from the previous year that I had saved by laying a sheet of saran wrap over the surface of the KiwiGrip before closing the lid to prevent the excess air inside the container from drying out the remaining paint.  It worked and the leftover paint had no dry spots in it and gooped out nicely onto the deck with a trowel.  

I split my work out into 4 sections where I plopped the KiwiGrip goop down on the deck, spread it out with a notched spreader and then rolled it out.  Repeat.  Once everything was done I carefully pulled all the tape off and put a fan on it to facilitate drying.  The black flies didn't show up until I was finishing up and it was still cold enough so they didn't have the numbers needed to make a real nuisance of themselves and jump into the paint.  It was roughly 55 degrees by the time I finished and when I came back an hour later, the surface had skimmed over and was well on the way to hardening up nicely.  I left the fan on for the rest of the day and it was hard enough to walk on (I didn't) by the next morning.  Next up: mounting the companionway trim, hatch tracks, and handrails for real.