I'm completely unsure of exactly how many parts this is.. all projects have been rolled into one, engine, galley, head.. Either way, here is Terry's latest!

First, an iPhone self portrait showing the non-functional knotmeter above the compass in the aft cabin bulkhead. It's gone now, and the hole is filled in, along with various other bolt holes on both sides of the companionway.

The light is shining into the open end of a seat back where I am about to take the piece of fiberglass on the bench and glass it into the floor of the storage space behind the seat. The original plywood stopped about an inch short of the hull, leaving a gap that small objects dropped through, and since it didn't connect the seat to the hull, it also didn't provide any strengthening to either the hull or seat. The top and aft end of the seat back were not properly connected either.

This shows the port side aft on the boat with fiberglassing tools and the holes in the forward end of the cockpit where the engine instrument panel and blower had been. These have now been filled in. Details below.

**Quick note by Graeme** - If you have ever seen the show "Breaking Bad" on AMC you'll quickly realize how much Terry looks like the character Walter White. It's uncanny here...

I have connected the seat back and seat to the hull, filling the gap, and am about to install a level floor in the storage compartment, which will more securely attach the seat to the hull.

The floor and upper connections to the hull are in place, along with a connecting fillet to the aft end bulkhead, but are not cleaned up yet.

The hole in the aft cabin bulkhead where the non-functioning knotmeter was removed prepared for fiberglass repair.

This is the space where I have to work to strengthen the aft bulkhead under the cockpit, and install supports for a diesel fuel tank. It's roughly the size of a coffin, and may become one if the fiberglass fumes become too strong while I am crammed into there. On this occasion, I was doing preparatory grinding on the aft bulkhead and hull to prepare for fiberglassing. It's actually much longer than it looks in the photo, which sort of telescopes the aft end forward.

While I'm under the cockpit grinding fiberglass, Marlise is getting the dinghy painted in it's new colours, which will match the new paint scheme on the boat.

The holes in the forward end of the cockpit where the old engine control panel and blower were have been ground to a taped edge and blocked off with wax paper and plywood to create a temporary backing to fiberglass against.

This stick is jamming a piece of plywood and wax paper against the aft bulkhead of the cabin where the old knotmeter hole is to create a temporary flat surface I can fiberglass against.

Here is how it looks from the cockpit side of the hole with the blocker in place and the hole ground down to a taper so the fiberglass will get a good bond without creating a bulge in the bulkhead. It will later be reinforced from the inside.

Meanwhile, back at the rudder shaft, I need to remove the old bolts holding the lower end of the shaft to the aft bulkhead so I can replace the corroded bolts and reinforce the bulkhead and rudder support. The bolts had unfortunately been crudely fiberglassed over, so I had to chisel the fiberglass away from them, and from various other areas where it had been poorly laid up and was not well bonded, saturated with resin, or had air bubbles around sharp bends that had not been radiused off to a gentle curve that the glass would bend around without forming a bubble. More on that later.

Back at the cockpit bulkhead, the holes have now been fiberglassed in and the area is ready for a couple of layers of mat and roving wrapped around the sides of the cockpit to restore it's strength.

A small hole where the sink drain pipe had been run aft and out through the side of the bunk support was also filled in.

The damaged bunk sides where some past owner had sawed them in half to remove a sewage holding tank were also repaired.

Back in the aft lazerette at the lower rudder shaft post support, I chiseled off a large air bubble that had formed when someone had tried to bend inadequately saturated fiberglass around a square corner; something that never works. The bubble had gradually filled over the years with dirt and debris including grease and needs to be removed and replaced with a solid well saturated glass layup around a properly radiused corner. This is typical of the things you find when working on older boats that have had many owners, some of whom were not what you might call craftsmen, or even competent. The fiberglass reinforcing that someone had added over the original rudder support was poorly saturated, full of air bubbles, and not well bonded (or even bonded at all in places ) to the hull and bulkhead. It was also covering the bolt heads, making it impossible to replace corroded bolts without chiseling it off the bolt heads. It all needs to come out and be restored properly.

The storage locker behind the seat back is now properly glassed to the seat back, seat, hull, top shelf, and aft bulkhead of the locker, sanded out and ready for painting.

The hole where the knotmeter had been is now glassed in from the outside and the inside has been prepared for glassing the reinforcing support in place.

And the reinforcing fiberglass is now in place on the inside, completing the repair of that particular hole except for fairing the new fibreglass in to the aft cabin bulkhead on the outside and restoring the vinyl cabin liner on the inside. This is how fiberglass work is supposed to look: clear, completely saturated, and with all excess resin and air bubbles rolled out.

And that's it for this set of updates. The fiberglassing of the knotmeter hole was completed around 4 AM, so time to head for home and do the laundry and have a good shower to get rid of some of the itchy fiberglass dust and particles. This is one job I'll be happy to see disappearing in the rear view mirror.

This entry was posted on July 9, 2011 at 10:22 PM and has received 179 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.