Work has progressed slowly since my last update. The New England winter was pretty mild this year. I probably would have been able to complete most of my project but it has been a busy winter. As often happens, the boat work was delayed.

The main reason for enclosing Catalpa was to explore and repair the extensive deck damage. The deck consists of a top and bottom layer of fiberglass that encapsulates a balsa wood core. The gel-coat that covers the deck is very thick but unfortunately the top layer of fiberglass is very thin. This top layer has got many stress cracks in it. This allows water to penetrate into the balsa core which creates all sorts of problems. With the help of a moisture meter, and by drilling core samples, I was able to find the extent of the problems.

Back in November I started cutting into the deck. Where I found rotten balsa, I completely removed the top skin and the balsa core. In areas where I found high moisture, but the balsa was intact, I decided to drill the deck with many holes to allow the moisture to escape the core material. Essentially the deck has been drying out for the last six months or so. It worked well. I checked everything again with the moisture meter and it is dry.

Next step in the process is to grind all of the gel-coat nonskid off of the deck I can’t match the many numerous repairs with the old nonskid so I plan on replacing it with a product called Kiwigrip. More on that later.

Anyway the deck grinding continues on. The shed is acting like a greenhouse now so the temps are probably close to 90 degrees around mid day. Add to that a hooded tyvek suit, dust mask, and ear muffs, you get a very disgruntled boat worker. Most of the destructive work is done. I’ll soon be moving on to fixing things. My goal is to launch by mid July.