Now that we assessed the damage and decided it is worth a shot, we started on the repairs. I took on the inside while Al worked on the outside of the crack. He was able to use the grinder to get down to the fiberglass and find where the cracks end. On the inside I was able to pull away the carpet type of wall covering to expose the hole. I also had to cut a hole in the back of the bench seat in order to be able to get to the bottom part of the crack. This took a while since I had to remove a bunch of shelving and whatnot in order to get to the wall.
Because one bigger plywood board would not flex very well, we cut some strips and screwed them to the hull from the inside making a sort of stitches. This is just to hold the structure while we fill the gaps of the crack. The screws will need to be cut off before we can continue the sanding. Once the outside is stable we will remove the stitches by unscrewing them and do the same filler on the inside.
In the meantime we pulled the mast down from on top of the boat, removed the broken solar panel, and collected all of the various ropes and cables that used to be the rigging and were cut in random places. We also did a lot more inspecting the boat and looking around to see what needed to be fixed before she can go into the water.
I have to admit, this boat has really grown on me. The more time I spend working on it the more potential I see. Even if we don’t do anything to replace the sails and just use the small outboard engine to move it around, it will still be an awesome weekend getaway. If this works out, I see myself spending a lot of time hiding and fishing on this thing.
Adam's Projects 