Wommasehn Posted March 10, 2019 Report Share Posted March 10, 2019 Muckla is ill. Its fore-deck-rot. First thing I noticed was a crack in the paint. Strangely straigtht and strangely perpendicular to the center line. I removed the paint and found a glue-line where the front-piece had been joined to the main part of the fore deck - with no scarph, no butt-block and no glass cloth - but now rotten plywood around. Obviously this joint had losened and moisture got in. After some initial swearing, I thought of Chick's nice essay on "How good is good enough" and thought well - this is defenitely not good enough - what a sloppy workmanship! Then I remembered, that the boat including this joint is 25 years old and you might expect some age-related issues. Is 25 yrs good enough? - how bad do you have to make it that it might be called really bad? Meanwhile I raked, chiseled and sanded away the softish wood and 2 gaps opened, to port I found more rot and cleaned it out too. I considered a new piece of fore deck but then it seemed that a local repair would be easier. First I applied some wood preservative. As the underside of this part is not accessible I wondered how to make a stronger joint. I cut 2 plywood patches to fit under the gaps, drilled a hole in each one, fastened a string and inserted them under the deck. By pulling on the string, I turned them right side up and I could apply the pressure to glue them under the deck (Photo 2: dry-fit on port, inserting on starboard). The remaining cavity I closed by glass + epoxy. A missing small piece in the middle-carling (or is it deck-stringer?), I have filled with a dowel, wrapped in glass + epoxy. As I have a shortage of fillers, I used partly sanding-dust and partly wheat-flour (high- density-filler on the lower and more important parts). Seemes to work ok. There's something more: the forestay-fitting is reliably bolted to the carlings, just where the center- and the intermediate carlings meet (the light wood in the photo). But how is the center-carling attached to the stem ?? - I can't see it, I can't feel (or hear or smell) it - it's just not clear. So I decided to make some aditional fastening by drilling an oversized hole through the base-plate of the pullpit, through the deck, through the carling and into the stem. Then I cut a 8 mm threaded rod, filed some notches into it's lower part and epoxied it in. This will be very strong, I think. Having had a week off, I could work on the boat a few days in a row. Tomorrow I'm back to "real work" and the next boat-job will be sanding. What a great fun....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wommasehn Posted May 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 Done! Done is better than perfect as someone said on this forum. Muckla & I agree. The paint- and bedding-jobs may not be exeptionally pretty but its strong, its watertight and looks ok from a distance. 20 ft should be ok for a 20-footer, right? Unfortunately there is more to do than this repair - but we are getting closer to finally starting the sailing season. And that is good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Ludwig Posted May 29, 2019 Report Share Posted May 29, 2019 GOOD ENOUGH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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