Project Log: Saturday,
November 14, 2009
Home Page >
The Project >
Project Logs > 11/14/09 |
A disgusting day.
Even
though last weekend I was not too disappointed not to have
the materials on hand that I needed to grind beneath the
cockpit, the reality was that I really wanted to get it
done, and I'd no intention of putting it off any longer.
So, armed with a new supply of 4-1/2" flap discs and an
improved--if interim--supplied air mask (more on that
later), I attacked the areas beneath the cockpit and in the
cockpit lockers. I began with a cutoff wheel and
removed several tabbed-in wooden blocks that were placed
hither and thither on the hull, probably once acting as
supports for the now-defunct gasoline tank that had been
mounted there. I also cut off a few remaining hardware
fasteners that I'd not done during my earlier hardware
removal efforts.
The goal for today: remove
paint, remove black smoke/fire residue, and remove clearly
bad fire-or heat-damaged laminate. The previous owner
had done some grinding on the port side years ago, so I
decided to begin on the untouched starboard side. Over
a couple hours, I cleaned up the area and was pleased to
discover that most of the laminate here was sound--as I'd
suspected from the relatively unscathed paint in the locker,
but one never knows. Towards the aft end, I discovered
some air-ridden laminate where the resin had been overheated
during the fire, but generally this side was in better shape
than the port side--at least on the inside.
|
 |
I ground the overhead (aka the underside of the
quarterdeck) and the inside faces of the cockpit well, all
of which were badly charred and contained some woven roving
and mat that was completely unbound by resin. I
removed what I could by hand, and with the grinder,
eventually revealing relatively sound laminate
beneath--though not entirely so. Still, I thought I'd
gotten to a point where the work was salvageable.
The
damage in the starboard locker was far worse towards the aft
end, where clearly there had been flames and heat from the
inside, as well as the obvious flames that had ruined the
outside of the hull here after the flames came out the fuel
tank vent and wrapped around the counter. |
 |
The underside of the cockpit sole was totally
ruined, completely unsurprisingly as I'd noted long ago how
weak the cockpit sole was when trod upon, not to mention the
charred appearance of the underside. I ripped off some
large, dried/burned-out sections of the bottom skin,
revealing charred balsa core. At this time, I made the
decision that I'd have to cut out the cockpit sole and
replace it rather than try to effect repairs in situ. |
 |
With the starboard locker fully sanded and looking
better, I began work on the port side. Since most of
the hull had been previously ground already (under previous
ownership), and because the sides of the cockpit and the
overhead (underside of the cockpit seats and quarterdeck)
were the most badly burned areas on the boat, I decided to
start with that.
Almost immediately, I realized that
it was going to be difficult at best and fruitless at worst
to hope to save the port side of the cockpit: the fire
damage was significant, the overall structure was badly
weakened, and it was next to impossible to even clean up the
burned, charred, dried-out mess. Grinding the soft
material had some effect on removing the worst, but in many
areas the entire bottom skin had been ruined, exposing
charred core on the cockpit seat and quarterdeck, just like
that on the cockpit sole.
I started to
consider simply cutting out much or all of the cockpit area
and quarterdecks and starting fresh, rather than attempting
to live with/repair what existed. I put the grinder
aside for a while and contemplated the idea. Earlier,
during the years when I'd thought on and off about the
project, I'd come up with the idea of possibly removing the
cockpit anyway, not only for ease of repair to the damage
but to also improve access to the areas beneath, where I
knew I'd be spending a lot of time working on the major
structural repairs required. But I'd more or less
rejected the idea, at least for the access consideration
alone. There was certainly enough work to do without
making more without good reason.
This changed things,
though. I'd already determined that the cockpit sole
had to go, and I'd similarly known that the port quarterdeck
was in tough shape and would require recoring and new work,
possibly from beneath. Now, it was clear that the port
cockpit seat, and particularly the gutters and flanges
around the locker opening, was quite possibly unsalvageable.
I spent quite a few minutes just sort of standing there,
looking over the situation and thinking of the ramifications
of the decision one way or the other. Sawing out the
entire cockpit was not a decision I took lightly, though I
was tempted to grab the saw and go for it. Instead,
though, I decided it was lunchtime, and took a break.
After the break, I made the decision to wait till
tomorrow before making the final decision on the cockpit,
though I was leaning strongly towards cutting it out and
starting fresh, both because I didn't think I'd get a
satisfactory repair otherwise, and also to improve access
for the new fiberglass work I'd be doing on the hull
beneath. Meantime, I sanded the other areas of the
locker. The laminate on this side was badly
resin-starved as a result of the heat and flames, with
significant air pockets throughout most of the locker.
In some places, the previous owner had already removed large
areas of delaminated fiberglass, leaving only the skin coat
of mat on the outside of the hull. The general state
of the laminate on this side was a real mess. |
 |
After wrapping up the grinding on the port side, I
cleaned up the horrific mess. There was gross rat
hair-colored and -textured shards of fiberglass all over the
place, plus some large burned sheets of fiberglass roving,
bits of wood, and of course large quantities of grinding
dust. The interior of the boat was covered; the deck
was covered; the shop was covered. Using a large box
fan to pull the dust out of the boat while working certainly
make a difference inside the boat, but really makes a mess
elsewhere.
Perhaps I wasted some of my time grinding
and cleaning up portions of the cockpit well and underside
of the deck, given my likely decision to trash the entire
cockpit, but I'd not have been able to make the decision
intelligently without the day's efforts, so I didn't
consider it a waste.
No final decisions on the
cockpit's fate...I thought I'd sleep on it and revisit in
the morning. If I decided to remove it, I'd be
sentencing myself to a fairly significant re-construction
project, so I wanted to be sure it was the right decision. |
 |
Total Time Today: 5.25 hours |
Previous |
Next |
|
|
