Anatomy of a Toerail

Curiosity got the better of me this weekend after reading a post on the Plastic Classic Forum regarding the Alberg 35 toerail.  I cut out a 2' section just to see what the damn thing looks like under the mahogany.  Even though I will be replacing the toerail on Magic, I have deliberately left it in place because it acts as a nice epoxy 'splash guard'.

But I have been building up a disaster in my head for some time now, wondering what I would find when I opened it up.  It seems like whenever I uncover something on the boat or my house (built ~1860) I am usually greeted by something wet and rotten that I can't cover back up without fixing and doubling my original estimate for cost and time.

This happened to me this fall when I needed to replace 2 rotten boards on my front porch.  Of course as soon as I pulled the boards out to replace I found that the entire structure of the porch was built by beavers who had never heard of dimensional lumber (the main porch beam was literally a log with some bark still on it).   Anyway, to make a long story short, I spent 2 weekends and several nights after work gutting the entire porch and rebuilding from scratch.  This is the story of my life.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I pulled the toerail section off on the starboard bow, it seemed really clean.  No gaping holes, no delamination, and a hull to deck joint that actually appears sound.  I'm sure that once I take the rest of the rail off things will be different, but let me have my fantasy for now.

On the deck front, I finally got around to taking the port side deck off.  Now that it is too cold for more glassing, I decided to focus on getting ready for next spring.  First, I pulled the chainplates with little drama and found that 2 of them were 'new'.  By 'new' I mean that they were not the originals.  I haven't cleaned them up yet to see if they are worth keeping but they do look a lot cleaner than the old ones where they pass through the deck.  Once they were clear, I broke out the circular saw.

It's amazing how comfortable I am with taking a circular saw to my deck now.  When I first started on this project last spring, I agonized over cutting into the decks and actually lost sleep over it in the days preceding the initial work.  Today I just went to town and had the entire port side deck off in under 20 minutes.   As expected, the entire core was soaking wet and it didn't take much work to get the core out.  In fact, I was able to pull up most of the balsa in strips with my fingers and no chisel.

The areas around the chainplates were soo bad that there wasn't even any wood left around them.  I think it just completely dissoved and leaked into the cabin over the years.  There was just a top skin, a bottom skin and a bit of brown soup in between.

I didn't have the time (or desire) to grind the bevels on the edges this weekend.   That will be next, I hope to get it out of the way over thanksgiving weekend, but given our tight schedule, I wouldn't be surprised if it got put off. 

Cool Stuff

One of the regular contributors on the Plastic Classic Forum contacted me the other day because she had found some references to one of the previous owners of Magic.  As it turned out, I had bought the boat from him almost 10 years ago and have kept in touch with him since.  Anyway, it got me to thinking about the first keeper of Magic (I am the 3rd) so I started digging through some of the paperwork that came with the boat.  I never did find the first keeper's name (I'll have to make some calls), but I did find a few cool items that I thought I'd share.  The first was a handwritten note still in the envelope with a an actual blueprint of the Alberg 35 line drawing.  Unfortunately, the drawing had been sitting in the envelope since 1984, so it wasn't in great shape, but the interesting thing about this find was that it was sent by none other than Carl Alberg, the designer of Magic and many, many other boats.   He was retired by 1984, but must have still had a stack of line drawings in his office.

So even though the blueprint was in poor shape I am going to see if I can get it flattened out to frame, but in the meantime, below is a copy of the same blueprint I had purchased from the Peabody-Essex Museum a few years back.

Oh my... what nice lines!

 

Back to reality for Magic though.  It's gotten too cold to really expect that I can do any more glass work over the winter, so I have to start deciding what projects I can get done.  There are way too many to count, but I will probably at least get the sanding prep for the third layer of biaxial cloth in the next week or so.  Beyond that I will probably get the port deck and poop deck cut off and grind the bevels over the next 1-2 months.  I sure wish I had some sort of dust collection system for the grinder because there is nothing more messy than grinding bevels in glass.  It just gets everywhere.

Once that's complete I think it will be time to pull all the ports (I pulled one last year just to see) and maybe get to working (or at least thinking about) the cockpit coamings and toerail.

Starboard Sidedeck

It seems like whenever I estimate time for a particular segment of this boat project I am WAYYYY off. Even when I estimate how long it will take, double it, and then add a 50% overage factor, I still seem to be wrong. If this were my business, I think I would quickly go bankrupt. Anyway, true to form, my estimate was off again, but the starboard side deck project actually took less time than expected even though I almost blew it by laying up the epoxy when it was too cold.

I started Friday afternoon and used the same approach as the foredeck. Cut out 2 layers of biaxial cloth, the first covering just the balsa core and the second covering the core and the beveled taper along the cabin and edge of the deck. The only notable difference from the foredeck section was the chainplate cuts. I wrapped each chainplate with 3 or 4 turns of clear packing tape and set them about 2" in their holes.

Layer 1

Layer 2

It was about 4:30 by the time I got everything ready to go and didn't have anything else going on so I decided I would do the layup right then.  The only problem was that it was cold; probably in the low 50's by the time I started.  Because of the cold I wasn't worried about anything kicking too quickly so I mixed up 2-24 oz batches of epoxy (16 resin, 8 hardener) and got to work.  I got the first layer and part of the second wetted out and in place before I ran out of epoxy.  By that time I was really feeling the cold and decided that I would finish in the morning because the epoxy was getting pretty thick (not from hardening, but from the cold).   When I got up Saturday morning it was about 35 degrees and no more than 40 degrees in the shed.  The layup was hardening up, but Very slowly.  I had hoped to finish the layup right away since it was still very green, but it was clear that an amine blush was starting to form (the surface felt greasy).  This worried me enough to post to the Plastic Classic Forum to see if I should proceed prior to washing the surface and removing the blush.  I'm glad I did because Tim thought that it would be best to get the blush off before I continued even though the epoxy was still green.  I put 3-100 watt work lamps close to the layup and left it to warm up for a few hours.  When I came back everything had hardened up more and I was able to wipe the blush off with some soapy water and a sponge.  I put the lamps back on and let everything dry for a few hours and then finished the layup.

I ran the 100 watt lamps all night last night and it hardened up nicely. Still green but on it's way. I'll probably keep the lamps on again tonight to make sure everything cures properly. It's certainly not perfect, there are a few bubbles that I would rather not see, but all and all I am happy with my progress. Below is a photo of one of the chainplate holes. I think it looks pretty clean. Note that you can still see the solid glass plug underneath (6 layers of biaxial, no balsa).

Given how cold it is starting to get (and no warm days forecast for the next 10 days), this may be my last layup for the season. I'd really like to finish up what I've done by getting all 3 layers of biaxial down, but I might be pushing my luck at this point.

  

Something Sticky This Way Comes

With warm weather in the forecast I decided to take advantage of it and took the day off to get part of the top skin on.  While the weather was warm it was also raining hard so I had some concerns as to whether I should start on the glasswork.  Fortunately the Stimson shed has held up extremely well (its been up a year) and there wasn't a drop of water on the boat.

First layer laid with first section of second layer to
show overlap of seams.

 spent the first few hours this morning measuring and cutting the biaxial glass for the foredeck.  I cut and laid out the first layer and then cut out the second layer so the seams would be staggered.  The first layer was cut to only cover the balsa and the second was cut to cover the balsa and most of the 2 inch flange that I ground into the adjacent deck edges earlier this year.

Once both layers of glass were cut and labeled, I rolled it up and set it aside and vacuumed the deck followed with an acetone wipe down.  Next up I poured 16 oz of resin into 5 yogurt containers (I save up my used 1 quart yogurt containers for this purpose).  I made a final check to make sure everything was ready (chip brushes, plastic spreader trowels, paper towels, etc...).

First layer biaxial cut and ready to glass

Mixed up 8 oz of resin into the first 2 yogurt containers and got to work.  I wetted out and laid the first layer without incident and then started over with layer number 2.   9 yogurt containers later (16 oz resin, 8 oz hardener) the foredeck was done.  I rolled out the layup with the air bubble getter-outer to get everything flat and clear and then put a layer of plastic followed by 30 bags of sand.  Now I wait...  I hope to get 2 layers on the sidedeck this weekend and with any luck I can get a third layer on too.

2 layers of sticky goodness just prior to
rolling out air bubbles and covering
for the night.

Lovely isn't it?

Cleanup, Sanding and Ready To Go

The sanding discs from McMaster-Carr showed up the day after I ordered them (really fast shipping with standard ship rate) and I blocked off a few hours on Sunday to prep the foredeck and starboard side deck for the top skin.  I haven't torn up the port side deck yet and plan on getting that ready before it gets too cold to work.

After a summer of doing next to nothing on the boat there was a lot of cleanup to do before I started sanding the deck in prep for the new skin.  I filled up 2 garbage bags of detritus that had accumulated and tidied up the workbench so I could get some work done.

Once complete I setup the 6" sander and 20 foot shopvac hose and got busy.   The big sander coupled with the shopvac made for a really pleasant (except for the noise) experience.  I started out with my respirator but quickly found that zero dust was escaping and ended up taking it off. 2 hours later (and 25, 60 grit discs) the balsa and surrounding areas were are ready for the top skin.  Of course I still have to wipe everything down with acetone to make sure there is no contamination, but I am tentatively planning on taking a day off this week since the weather looks to be warm.  With any luck, I'll have the first 2 layers of top skin on by the end of the week.

Summer is Over

Well, time to get back at this thing.  Summer is done, my knee is better (has been since July), Mountain bike racing is done, house projects done, sailing the daysailer is done, what's left?  Oh, right Magic...

Well, I ordered $100 in sandpaper this morning and will start getting the foredeck area ready for the top skin this weekend.  My plan is to get the top skin all in place before it gets too cold.  Then I can pick away at the fun task of prepping the top skin for fairing over the winter when all I will need is power and my sander.

Bum Knee

I should learn not to mix passions too close together.  Mountain Biking is one of my other passions in life and I managed to crash a bit too hard on Thursday night.  I clipped a sappling and was forced into another tree and went down with all my weight on my knee in a really sick and twisted position.  I knew right away that something was terribly wrong because I attempted to sit up and almost threw up.  After a few minutes I was able to get myself together enough to ride the mile or so back to the trailhead and my car.  Most of my lateral and rotational stability had been replaced by sharp searing pain.

I had a miserable night's sleep and went to Concord Orthopedics Friday where the doctor told me that I was to put on a brace and keep a close eye on the couch for the next 4-6 weeks.  No surgery is good, but a 2nd degree MCL tear puts a damper on any boat related work.  After 3 days, I feel like there is some healing going on, but it looks like I won't be able to monkey around on the boat ladder for several weeks.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!