This is primarily about replacing the engine and cleaning up the area, the galley stuff seems to be put on hold a little bit as there is a lot of work to do in the aft end of the boat.

From Terry:

The hull and aft bulkhead after washing but before removing the corroded nuts and wooden washers from the aft bulkhead and starting to scrape the hard black resin material off the underside of the cockpit floor (above the photo) and the hull. Don't know what that stuff is, but it has to come off before I can fiberglass this area.

Closeup showing the corroded rudder post nuts and wooden washers and the crude holes hacked through the aft bulkhead for the exhaust pipe and wiring. I will have to relocate the wire and then cut out a rectangular hole encompassing the three holes and glue in a new filler piece, and then fiberglass it in heavily on both sides of the bulkhead, and eventually cut a new hole for the exhaust pipe close to the right hand side of the photo. The fuel tank will be filling the space to the left. This photo shows a bit of the black resin substance on the underside of the cockpit floor just above the hole on the right where the wire goes through the bulkhead. There were patches of it here and there around the underside of the cockpit floor. I have no idea what it is: might be something to do with the old fuel tank that was once in this location, or it might be some kind of mould growing there. Either way, it needed to come off.

Close up of the crudely hacked holes in the aft bulkhead that need to be filled and repaired. The rudder post shaft is just visible to the left side of the large hole on the other side of the bulkhead. I'll have to inspect the bolts more closely for corrosion. The nuts were quite corroded. The other end of the bolts are buried under fiberglass in the aft lazerette. If the bolts are corroded, I will need to chisel the glass off of them and replace them. There is a bit of soft wood around the bolts, but otherwise the aft bulkhead is surprisingly sound, considering it was not fully glassed on either side and is exposed to some rainwater leakage around the rudder post on the lazerette side.

eneral view of the area as I am cleaning up the resin substance and aft bulkhead. If you look at the size of the tools you get a better idea of the crammed working space. Fortunately, I don't suffer from claustrophobia.

Good job! More from Terry to come as I get it all organized.

This entry was posted on June 9, 2011 at 10:24 AM and has received 115 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.