The hot sunny weather we are having in Scotland at the moment is ideal for wood repairs as the exposed laminates are nice and dry before being sealed in with epoxy.
Water collecting behind the rubbing strake where it was not well glued to the hull had got into the hull and deck laminates and caused some rot. The port side had been repaired previously and the rubbing strake epoxied to the hull, keeping much of the water out, so not too many repairs were required. This side is now finished.
The starboard side was in a worse condition as the rubbing strake had been bedded against the hull with mastic, and there was rot under it for most of its length. However, a start has been made on it and I am working forward. It is a slow business because often all three (deck) / four (hull) layers have to be repaired, but the finished repairs look and sound very solid.
The next section of repair will include a worrying gap where the aft deck shell was jointed to the cockpit side deck shell. This had come apart, probably because of some rot in the laminates and because the brass screws holding them together had failed. The aft section of the boat is not supported by her trailer. In the photograph the joint is closed up because the aft section has been jacked up under the deadwood, but before this was done the gap was several mm wide. To stop this happening again I intend to laminate right over the joint with all three laminate layers. This should give it more strength.
Starboard Side Repairs
Repairs to the hull and deck around the rubbing strake on the starboard quarter.
Deck Laminates Joint on Starboard Quarter
Where the aft deck shell meets the cockpit deck shell the joint had come apart.
Nick,
Thanks for the tip on replacing the rubbing strake in two parts. Someone had mentioned this previously and it seems a good idea, which I will adopt.
Regards,
Jonathan
Jonathan
Great to see the progress on Bluster continuing. I don’t envy you the repairs on the starboard side – doing all three layers at the same time always feels a lot more work. The challenge with a rubbing strake can be between covering up ‘the join’ whilst also keeping it easy to replace the rubbing strake in the event of …. er …. rubbing. A trick adopted by a lot of plywood decked dinghy builders was to strongly glue a thin strip onto the hull/deck join and then fasten the actual rubbing strip onto that with mastic. A1’s rubbing strips are in two halves – the first glued to the hull.
The situation with the aft-deck to ‘cockpit’ deck I find very interesting. It was a ‘distressed’ area on Helene and I wonder how other boats may have suffered from this. I have actually started a separate Forum topic on this and hope that others will contribute their own experiences.
Thanks as ever for the update and please do keep them coming.
Cheers
Nick