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...