Over the past few days I’ve had some opportunity to do a bit of thinking. What percentage of my life has been spent sanding something? I bet that it is a pretty big number. I sand everything. Every single thing I have ever created has been sanded. You’d think I enjoy sanding. I don’t. Over the winter I started brewing beer as a hobby. Beer doesn’t get sanded and it helps relieve some of the pain created by sanding all day.

The deck work is progressing. I’ve patched the large areas with new balsa and three layers of fiberglass. All of the various drying holes have been plugged too. The deck has a lot of uneven areas due to repair work and grinding the original non-skid gelcoat off.

In the first couple of pictures you can see the most recent application of epoxy based fairing compound.

This stuff goes on the deck and then you basically sand most of it off so it fills in the low spots. I use a big 6″ random orbit sander and a long-board. I made the long-board by gluing a  40grit belt (belt sander) to a piece of plywood. It works well and also promotes a good upper body workout.

The last 2 photos are post-sanding. I still have one or two more coats of fairing and then the first coat of epoxy primer.

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.

I closed in the shed last week. After much debate, I decided to use regular 6mil construction plastic to cover it. My other option was greenhouse plastic. Construction plastic has no UV resistance, greenhouse plastic does and lasts 4 years or more. I intend to have Catalpa back in the water next summer so I think the construction plastic will hold up for that long. It was half the price.

Hanging the plastic on the frames was a frustrating and difficult job. The pieces for the sides were 32 x 20. I should have enlisted help but I needed to get it done. I had about a two day window where there was no wind. This time of year we seem to have ‘small craft advisories’ every day. Putting up the plastic in 30+ knots of wind would have been impossible. The day after I finished it the wind went up to 40 and it held together. We have some kind of winter storm advisory for this weekend so the shed is going to get tested again.

I still have a few things to do on it. I’m having condensation issues on the inside so I’m going to hang some more plastic to keep the moisture away from the deck.

I was able to winterize the motor and get a few small projects done so some of my boat work has started. It feels good to actually start working on the boat and not the shed. Naturally the shed took up twice the amount of time and probably cost more than I anticipated. As a rule any boat related project seems to go that way so I’m not surprised.

Bow production went well this time with the stock that I milled. It took around two days to make up everything. I broke a couple pieces but they mostly went together with no problems. The leaves are coming off the trees so I’d like to get the shed closed in before fall is in full swing. It has a nice looking shape to it. Boat Cathedral? Next I have to frame the end walls.

After looking at the amount of room I have in the shed I’ve decided to build staging all the way around the boat so I can work on the deck from chest height instead of kneeling on it as I work.

A side note- A few weeks ago Lynne and I went over to the Newport Boat Show. While there I was checking out some of the hardware in the Suncor Stainless booth. They asked me to take a nautical trivia quiz. I’m not big on trivia but I do read alot of nautical books. They called to inform me that I answered the most questions and won $500 worth of gear!!! Thankyou Suncor!

Not being one to just give up I broke about 20 more straps. Plan B- was to steam bend these straps. Sounds crazy but I have done a bunch of steam bending in the past and have the gear. Steam bending is used to make boat ribs, chair arms, and other various curved pieces. Didn’t work. I’m not really sure why but these furring strips just refuse to bend.

On to the next plan. I headed over to Fairhaven lumber for some quality wood. They allowed me to pick out a bunch of 14′ 2 x 6s. It’s great going to a real lumber yard. I wish more existed. Sadly the big box stores are putting them out of business. Anyway, I ripped all of these pieces down to strapping size.

I rip cut the 2 x6 down the middle and then took these pieces and ripped them on edge to get strapping that measures 3/4 thick by 2 3/4″.

 

Once I got the saw all set up it went pretty quickly. Maybe now I’ll have some decent bows

A bow shed needs bows. I thought this part was going to be an easy 2 day job but it didn’t quite work out that way. I built the bending jig and bought a bunch of wood from Lowes. As usual the quality of wood from big box (HDepot included) leaves a lot to be desired. After breaking a bunch of furring strips I decided to soak them down with a hose and let them warm up in the driveway. Results were better.

I managed to get a couple bows done. Even the best pieces of wood out of the bunch are questionable. I am convinced that they are overly dry. During the construction of the second bow I ran into a bit of a snag. I managed to drill a hole through my thumb while attaching some extra support blocks to the floor. The rest of my day included a trip to the doctor, tetanus shot, antibiotics, xrays, and a bunch of gauze. I guess I’ll take a few days off while things heal up.

 

 

Skipper was somewhat traumatized by the yelling and blood but has since recovered.

Catalpa is out of the water for the season. Normally we sail well into the fall but this year we decided to have the boat hauled early so I can get a bunch of work done on her. So here is Catalpa’s winter berth along side the vegetable garden and my shop. This is the first time we’ve stored the boat at the house. A little chainsaw work by me, some skillful truck driving by Davis and Tripp and she fits. Have plans to build a shed over the whole boat.