Still A lot of work to do - but she is in the water at last!Light Air Performance

I am done fiberglassing!!!!

Conquered major delays:
- I messed up my knee fooling with a tarp tore my PCL (sort of the opposite of a ACL)
- Working in 90 to 100 degree weather with rain almost every day

I have learned that:
- Working with fiberglass cloth is why cuss words were invented. Fiberglass cloth will NEVER lay down the same way twice.
- CSM is a breeze if you dont mess with it too much once down. Rolling heavy CSM too much at the wrong time causes it to break up on your roller and make an awful mess.
- And today I discovered that Love Bugs are attracted to the smell of Polyester resin. Arrggg!!!

I would do it again- but never ever ever ever ever again in the summer time!!!!

P.S. (I did not reuse the old skin - it just didn't look like it would fit right. I laid all new material)

Short post and I am still picture deficient...  But all the balsa work is done (yay).  The old deck skins are all stripped of old core.   Now to decide if I am going to use the old skins or replace it all with new layup.  The angle grinder with a wire wheel made cleaning the skins super easy.  Nothing can resist this tool.  It is also good for surface prep when you want to rough things up a bit.

I did a lot of work on the windows with the rest of my time yesterday - I think they are turning out pretty good too.

Engine is still in the shop - parts are very slow in getting here, but hopefully engine ready in time too.

I have fully recovered from the water damage from the tarp failure.   I only have about 1 more hour of work to complete the laying in of the new balsa.  Wow what a hot and messy job, but I am getting pretty good with the resin now.   No more chemical burns after making sure I work form the farthest point in to the closest point making sure I don't reach over the wet resin.   Common sense right?  When you are hot and sweaty and things aren't going right while the resin clock is running you forget these things :)    Preparation before mixing the resin is very important.   I now only use a pint at a time.   It slows the pace down to where there is less panic factor and I do a much better job.

No pictures - I didn't want to ruin my phone with resin.  I will try to get a shot before next session while my hands are clean.

Tarp failure/ Disaster:  I see I neglected to post here about that.   A few weeks ago a storm damaged my tarp and it rained on the exposed wood!  I was cutting all of the wood first with plans to do all the glassing in a single step.  Totally destroyed all that work and I was almost done too.  Had to buy new wood and do it all over again.  I  now complete a section before moving to the next.  I also triple-tarped the thing now.  Nothing short of a tornado is going to get in there and I will be waterproof in a few days - finally!

Got my outboard - a little Suzuki 5hp.  So I can cross auxiliary propulsion off the list (still need a gas tank and fuel line though).  It is a 1979 that was built in Japan - so it will match my 1975 boat.

Update: I ran the motor in a water barrel a few weeks ago and saw no water coming out :(   Miller Boating Center has it now - I have ordered parts for them twice, but hopefully it will done this week.  The water pump was destroyed from running dry.  I might be getting wet this weekend, but I am  not telling anyone this time until I am actually in the water.   Too much that can still go wrong and probably will!

Poured first resin today. It went really well.  My measuring method using a syringe to precisely measure the milliliters of catalyst has really worked wonderfully.  (A pharmacist at Target gave me syringes for free (sans needles)  That and Big Lots had a wonderful assortment of pyrex measuring cups, stainless steel mixing whisks and stainless steel mixing bowls.  Perfect stuff for this work and dirt cheap too.

Discovered that the resin I am using isn't air inhibited, but it is extremely tenacious and strong.  I had a few things weighing down spots while I was called away by work.  A can of Acetone and a Pyrex measuring cup were stuck to the surface.  The Pyrex (glass) measuring cup had to be cut out with the multi-tool, I think the entire assembly would have held my body weight (I was concerned about breaking the cup).

Needless to say I am not concerned about the "secondary bonding characteristics" of polyester resin at all anymore.  That worry was completely unfounded!  (Internet wisdom of some was that "only" epoxy resin would bond new to old material strongly, that the only resin you can use is West System epoxy.  I have proven to my own complete and total satisfaction that this is totally false and I would not hesitate to recommend that you use the material too!)  Tomorrow I could complete the deck with the exception of the skin joints, a step which my take a weekend by itself maybe.  We will see.

 This mist cooling "snake" I got from Lowe's and a way better fan made my work site quite a bit more comfortable.

Sunday progress - was not what I had hoped.   Time and weather are enemies.  I did make great progress this weekend, and I completely overcame my fear of working with the resin, so it was a very productive weekend all in all.  I have about 1/3 more of the deck to cut wood for.  The wood is by far the most time consuming part of this so far - though I imagine the "scarf joints" will well eclipse that in the end.   We will see!

Finally got started on cutting the core material.  It is a bit slower going than I thought it would be - but I am learning as I go and getting faster. Things I have learned:

1. The multitool is about the only tool you need
2. It is a lot better to cut and fit smaller peices (1 x 1 foot sections or so) of the balsa or so when you have irregular shapes and such to deal with.   My deck is pretty butchered up this was the way I was getting a good fit.  I cut small cardboard templates as I go then I cut the balsa from that.
3.  The pro-balsa core material has rectangles instead of squares - so for a good fit you have to have the blocks running the right direction.  I had intended to work from stern to bow - i cant really do that - i have to go from port to starboard.   I would have cut out the original deck differently if I had known that ahead of time...

I have told everyone we are going sailing July 4th weekend no matter what - so weather permitting I am picking the pace up from here on!

Figuring this weird arrangement took a while - but saved me from the sun of a 90+ degree day!

As far as I got with the pre-fitting.

Done for the day - thunderstorms came in a few minutes after this.

Day of Destruction

Pretty tired but here are a couple of pictures.  Assuming Jamestown Distributors gets their act together, I will be laying glass next weekend.  Jamestown Distributors messed up my order and did NOT ship the balsa core material.  It is on the invoice but all I got was one box from UPS labeled 1 of 1 boxes  and no freaking balsa wood that I paid for (this stuff should be in at least two additional boxes).

 A section of top skin with core remnants attached.

Some balsa core remnants - this was very slow hot work.  A respirator was a must with so much fibergalss fiber blowing around everywhere.   A good respirator has already been MONEY WELL SPENT!!!

Ordered some of the expensive stuff, they said on the phone it "should ship today".  I ordered a surplus of material.  I didn't want to run out and I have some ideas for the left-overs.

4 sheets of  PROBALSA PLUS 3/8", 2' X 4' SHEET
1 gallon of KIWIGRIP NON-SKID GEL WHITE GALLON

I ordered from Jamestown Distributors jamestowndistributors.com

Fabric and resin are on the schedule for tomorrow late afternoon.   This evening I should finish a couple of the windows...

I was not able to find the locking window trim  (or glazing I find it is called).  Some things from 1975 just aren't made anymore.  So plan "B" went into effect and I had to figure out a way with 2013 materials. Relying on Home Depot, as is so common in our time,  I was able to find:

1. 1/2" Clear Acrylic
2. High Density Foam Weather Stripping
3. Silicone II

Next I had to figure out how best to cut this stuff.    I first tried the multitool but that wasnt working very well.   I found a great you tube of a guy that sounded like he was from Australia doing it very easily with a skill saw and a jig saw.  So, after another pilgrimage to Harbor Freight to pick up those tools, I was able to crank out this test window:

I didn't use the final layer of black silicone because this was a test window - the acrylic in this one was tortured quite a bit in my tool experimentation.

What took the longest was cleaning up the original aluminum frame.  I spent over an hour on just that.  For this the multitool was very useful with a scraper attachment to get rid of 40 years of various glues and sealants.  I then followed up with 120 grit sandpaper by hand and painting.

One problem remains - the black silicone I dont think will adequately obscure the white weather stripping.  So a trip to Lowe's is on deck for this AM to find black weather stripping - or white Rustoleum paint to do the frames in white instead.  (The frames were originally were not painted any color and that just didn't look good).

Later the next day:

Well I found some other trim and I tried to use it, but it was too thick and there wasnt enough room for the silicone to hold.   SO stripping it all down and back to the drawing board.  Last nights idea was the best probably.  Going to repaint all white and try it with the original white foam (or no foam at all).  I have to wait for the silicone to dry fully before I can remove it though.

Stripped down the Port window as well and I have glass ready for it too.

I might have a source for epoxy resin that is reasonable.  This is a big ticket item and I want to make a decent deal on it so I am being patient. (plus I had to get my taxes out of the way - have to keep the IRS happy!- and I needed to renew my real estate brokers license.)

In the meantime I have been working on the windows and I think I have that figured out pretty well - the only question mark there is finding the right rubber parts to seal them up again.  The old stuff had dried out and become hard and crumbly.

Hopefully my major distractions and delays are at an end and this project will pick up steam again.  I want to go sailing very very badly!

March 31, 2013

Did my first cuts and made my first mistake.  I now know how the boat is put together though.  I decided to cut a section in front of the forward hatch, as I knew the boundary between the good and the bad was there somewhere  and a loose stanchion base was near there too.  (Forgot to take picture I will have to add later).

The boat deck is like this (from top to bottom)

1. Gelcoat
2. 1/8" Fiberglass
3. 3/8" balsa wood in individal squares
4. ANOTHER 1/8"? layer of fiberglass cloth 
5. Cabin roof liner (assuming this is next layer - I didn't cut this far)

My mistake was I cut too deep.   I was going slow with the multitool with the half circle blade, but the section wasn't coming loose.  So I slowly cut deeper and kept ducking my head in to make sure I wasn't coming through the cabin roof.   I had already gone below the 1/4" which I suspected was the maximum depth of the top skin, so I finally resorted to a wrecking bar to pry up the top layer -pretty much destroing that in the process   I then could see what was going on, and that I had cut through the second layer of fiberglass that I didn't know was there.   

From my probing through that screw hole earlier in another section that second layer wasn't supposed to be there, so now I have to proceed more cautiously.  I destroyed a foot or so of top skin, but it was pretty ratty anyway.  I think now I may just trash all of the old top skin now as it is full of screw holes and doesn't come up very well.  I am going to apply a Kiwi Grip coating anyway so structure is my primary concern.   Some of the core I removed was like little rotten sponges, but a lot more of it was still very good too - so I at least did define that one boundary...

I still have some leads to run down on local fiberglass suppliers.  This stage will hold me up for a while.  It is going to take some time to assemble all of the needed materials (and knowledge).  So the deck is taking a back seat to other things for a few weeks.  

I did fire up my shop vac to pump out a bunch of rain water which had accumulated below decks and I now have the boat under tarps to keep out the weather.   I should have done this earlier, but the open deck skin makes it mandatory. 

While I am getting materials I have interior painting and electrical rewiring to keep me busy.   I really need to get the bilge pumps online again.  These might be things I can do after work this week...

3-27-13 An Hour With The Sander

Decided to try out the palm sander against the witches - the witches lost:

 This is the area that I am going to do my cutting in.  This outer skin must come up so I can fiberglass in a new core structure. Then the skin gets replaced.  I think I can keep my cutting all to anti-skid area so I will be able to hide the cuts completely (in theory).

All the little holes are where the silly wood lattice/walkway was mounted (the holes had been calked at least)

 Sanding is oddly a very therapeutic thing to do.  Of course I say that now.  Let's see what I think after several hours of it!

The bow is solid as a rock.  It would appear to be topped with 1/4" solid glass like the edges.  Happily nothing structural needs to be done here.

Maybe I get sit in here in a month or two?

March 26, 2013 Still Figuring Out A Plan

March 26, 2013 Still Figuring Out A Plan

Took some small parts off and did some banging on the out side of the hull.  Was able to discover more about the construction of the boat.

• The sides of the upper deck where the windows are is made of two 1/8" thick layers of solid fiberglass - the cabin roof inner and the hull/deck exterior skin.
• The perimeter of the top core/deck is 1/4" thick - I think the central area is thinner because it feels too easy to deflect to be 1/4" thick.  There are no fittings to pull to see.
• The central "spine" of the deck is much harder (maybe this is 1/4"?)
• The mast step is solid fiberglass.
• The hardware is all thru-bolted with stainless steel fasteners. No screws at all (except of course for the crappy work someone else did later)
• The upper and lower halves of the hull are fiber glassed together to be one piece.  No screws at all. 

I pulled one of the windows from the side - these will be easy to fix.  The windows are acrylic tinted in 1970's purple.  Good for patterns so I can make new ones.  They are built very simply with an extruded aluminum frame formed to shape with silicone holding the plastic in place and some rubber gasket material tucked between there and the aluminum frame to weatherstrip the unit.   Then the whole thing just screws in.  Which is good, because these windows are not a standard shape and cannot be easily replaced.

I think I have identified the areas where I am going to cut.  Going to put some more thought into that, and what tools I should use, but I think I will start cutting this weekend - unless I get crazy one afternoon after work.  I have to know what the space is between the hull layers before I can order anything.  I have resigned myself to the fact that the only way to know this is to look after I have cut off the top.

The thru bolted hardware is also a problem -  I cant get to the nuts without cutting something...

Some "Before" Pictures - From My 1st Visit Before Purchase

Cockpit - not seen much action in a while

near the swing joint the encapsulated keel shell has been breached.  The boat has not seen water in several years so this is nice and dry now so I can reseal it.

Trailer has had a hard life

View from stern looking forward note protected Keel - No dingy needed, this boat can go up on the beach.

Some of the poor deck.  The holes are from where the previous owner had screwed wood lattice boards on deck for a walkway!  I am cutting all of this off to replace the core properly - then lots of refinishing work.

Port side cockpit well - nothing wrong here.  Normally a fiberglass liner is here but I removed it to show the hand laid fiberglass work. 

1975 Anacapri Erika 24 Restoration

03/24/13 - At the power tool lot ready for cabin deck re-core.

I have never attempted anything like this before, but I like projects and I found this one of a kind unique boat.  It may be the last one still around.  It has some problems, but it is very solidly built and of a design that appeals to me so I decided to go for it!

Here is the short list:

1. The cabin roof core is shot - rotted away due to water intrusion from screws by previous owner(s) that were not bedded in several locations.
2. Encapsulated swing keel has split in one area at leading edge
3. Window gaskets have failed
4. Home-built forward hatch that just sits there with no operating hardware or means to secure.
5. Trailer general wear (already replaced tires) and welding attention needed.  It is however serviceable for the present.
6. Paint - lots and lots of paint