Boat Improvements

August 23, 2009

Left - the white ash stock I made the reinforcement strips out of
Center - the two extras I cut for Ed if he wants them
Right - the finished strips, ready to go under the seat.

I've been working on the motor and trailer until this weekend. I finally started working in the boat itself. The first thing I wanted to do is replace the seat reinforcement strips under the seats in the cockpit. They're not a big problem, they aren't even visible most of the time, but the existing plywood is rotten and falling all over the cockpit.

I've made new seat reinforcement wood strips along with a couple of extras for Ed Ramsey's boat if he wants them. I used white ash wood that I got off my property. Its the first use of the wood.

August 26, 2009

I was working on the wood rail that goes acroos the fuel tank bay under the port cockpit seat. I had to remove the screws and then clean it up to varnish or paint.

I didn't get a decent photo of this wood rail, but this shot shows the screw that I had to remove. The screws were countersunk and concealed by a wooden cap.

This is the underside of the starboard seat. You can see the plywood along the top is pretty rotten.

August 27, 2009

I was working on the seat reinforcements today. I put the finish coat of varnish on them and was ready to put the first one in when I read the instructions on the 3M 4200 adhesive/sealant. It says that you have to use it all within 48 hours because once its opened, it will all cure. So I decided I needed to clean up the starboard side seat and do them boat at the same time. That gave me a chance to take a photo too.

August 28, 2009

This morning, I put another coat of polyurethane varnish on the seat reinforcment strips & I got the hardware to remount the fuel compartment floor rail. I also filled the countersink holes in the fuel rail with wooden dowl and drilled hole and countersinks for the new screws.

This evening, I cleaned the starboard side seat and glued the reinforcement strips in. I think they came out pretty nice.

Here's the starboard side seat with old reinforcement stip removed and the area sanded.

Now I've cleaned the seat underside with Clorox water and glued the new stip in place. 24 hours and the clamps come off.

This is a larger view of the area. You can see I used a piece of plastic (an old "Slip and Slide") to keep the dirt from going down in the hull. The shop vac was just outside the boat and used to clean up all the crap after scraping it loose.

Here's another concern. There's a spot in sole of the cockpit where the gelcoat is cracked.

Its not that hard to repair the gelcoat, but I don't know how to preserve the stippling when I do it. More research is needed!

September 8, 2009

Last Friday evening, I installed the fuel tank retainer rail. I sure wish I had taken a before photo. The wood was in such bad shape I decided to just paint it white rather than using a bright finish on it. I used Porter latex house paint. This is some really good house paint that I used last year at the recommendation of a professional painter friend. We'll see how it hold up. Long term I'd rather have a strip of StaBoard here anyway so if the paint doesn't hold up, that's what I'll replace it with.

January 18, 2010

Below is a photo of the knot meter and the slug of StarBoard I've cut to turn down a nice cap for the hole in the cabin wall where the meter had been. I'm going to just cap the hole for the time being until I figure out what I'm going to do for a depth meter and GPS.