Fixing a hole in a boat

This summer I met Bernie Evan Wong when racing RS Elite sloops at the Nonsuch Bay Resort.

I was bow crew sailing for a local English expat named Tony Sayer.

During the luch break I met Bernie and his daughter Sarah. We talked fishing and cooking fish. It got around to boats and stuff. Someone said I built boats and did repairs. 

Bernies question was what I thought it would take to fix a hole in his Mumm 37 sloop.

So far the locals had been very diverse in quotes and advice in repairing this hole that had been caused when the crane that was lifting it had its wire break and thus dropped it onto a concrete dock piling.

The quotes ran from many thousands up to $10,000.00 US to fix with no real time frames.

Would I mine looking at it and giving some advice.

Sure

The boat was built by Carroll Marine in America to high standards. It is cored with balsa below the waterline and Kledgecell above. It was built in epoxy with varying unidirectionals. 

I looked it over for a few minutes and then explained how I would do it and how long it should take.

My estimate was for less than 40 hours labour up to the finish paint coat. 

Bernie asked if I would do it. Sure... Why not. But after I was done with the Wild Bird project. And only that as I wanted to be off sailing and Bernie had a waterfront lot full of boats needing work. I had not crewed for him at this time.

Rachels hand sticking in from outside. Lots of cracks in the interior hull parts.

The floor has this aluminum grid to support the keel. The balsa core in the bottom is there because of its compression strength. I hate Balsa core as its always wet and rotting. This was the case here along the edges that were exposed by the new hole. It was wrecked like this right after hurricane Gonzalo so was almost a year old.

I cut out the dead core first. I ground the outside skin off to the second layer. This would enable me to be able to add back a new skin that would be flush with the old hull skin.

Now I screwed on strips of 1/4" plywood that is cut across the grain so as to be very bendy. This I screwed on with self tapping screws into the hull core and skin. The two outer strips are screwed from the inside out and help Fair the skin strips. The vee shape aluminum tape is my rain gutter drain to keep the water off my new hole. It rains here on some days for about 3 minutes on off all day long at intervals. Its a pain in the butt. But it worked.

First I taped over the plywood skin with aluminum tape. The epoxy resin would not stick to this. I then glassed in on top of the taped outer skin the first inner layer of glass cloth. When wet I could fit it to the inside of the old cores edges to get a good seal.

I then let it cure. After wiping off the blush and then grinding I could then appy the new core.

Now I could lay in the new core both Balsa and Kledgecell on top of the outside skin.

This I glued down in epoxy glue.

I then let cure.

After the core had cured to the new outter skin I then ground off the scrim and faired in the core to the existing hull. From there I glassed in the inside new skin that has huge overlaps on the old hull.

The interior bunk pieces that were there before were reglassed back in. I cut them loose to get at the hull where they had their cracks. They now just fit back in like a puzzle.

On the outside of the hull I then stripped off the plywood form strips and filled and faired the inner skin where it was touching the old hull skin. This was easy as everything is very clear to see through the resin. After this was done I then glassed a final layer of cloth over the whole ground area and over the inner skin. Before this epoxy cured I spread a fairing putty over this skin so as to have a perfect bond.

When this cured I faired the hull with a 7" foam pad using a Mikita variable speed grinder.

After this I sanded with a random orbital sander and then rolled on 3 coats of Awlgrip 545 primer.

Done, 32 hours labor total. Bernie was very happy.

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Fire in the hole

The minute I opened the door leading from the  back deck in to the salon, the faint smell of oil got my attention. After having spent the last 30 years earning my living owning and operating heavy equipment, one has to put trusts in what our various senses are telling us. Odors such as the faint smell of coolant as its vaporized while running down a hot engine block, the smell fuel makes as it comes in to contact with hot exhaust, the smell of brakes getting hot and making its way into a cab after motoring down a long grade. Most times, the odors of  machinery tells the story long before the gauge registers a problem...stop and investigate. On this particular day, I was coming in to the boat after topping of the power steering reservoir the  previous night.  Not having tightend one of the lines that passed through a bulkhead fitting allowed 3.5 gallons of oil to drain in to the bilge over night, and the odor I noticed as I entered the boat alerted me to a problem. 

Having the exhaust finally fitted and landed took a few days as I sourced parts. The biggest slow down on the exhaust was deciding on what material to use as a liner within the exhaust stack, then getting that material to the boat. Self adhesive, high performance heat shield was what I chose to use, and for the most part Im happy with the product. I can for sure say that it sticks like crazy and theres no second  chance regarding alignment.  Besides deflecting radiant heat, this product will help with harmonic noise bouncing around the exhaust stack. I only lined the exhaust side of the stack, but I have plans to also line the intake side of the stack.

On my last post I had mentioned making some righteous exhaust hanger brackets. I dont think well be calling theses righteous, but they do the job of securing the horizontal exhaust pipe simply and robustly. I didnt know if the hanger would transfer dangerous heat to the ceiling, so I bored a couple of one inch holes in the hangers to  help cool them. Little things sometimes make a big difference. 

With the exhaust hung and secure, the next item was to commission the steering system, and give myself something to write about for my first paragraph regarding the oil leak. The steering system is powered by a gear that runs off the engine cam shaft, and is identical to what one would find on a heavy duty truck or road tractor. Since all the steering plumbing had been installed two years ago, getting it ready to go only involved installing the rudder, filling the reservoir with oil, and installing the steering wheel. The rudder bolts are going to get another look from me as the nuts are not the correct type. I had planned on using nylock nuts, but my bolts are too short for that, and if I go the nylock route, Ill have to order new bolts. Gregg, at Washington Marine suggested keeping the same bolts but tack welding the nuts and bolts to the flange. Tack welding might be the way to go as I dont think over kill is a bad thing when making sure ones rudder is secure.  

With the steering system full, crank case oil full, coolant full, and gear box oil full, it was time to fire the engine.  Moving two valves on the fuel delivery lines, and throwing a toggle switch, placed my back yard boat builder designed fuel lift pump system in service, and fuel was soon flowing in to the filters. With fuel flowing out the primary and secondary filter bleed valve, I quickly cracked the fuel line at the injector pump and fuel was soon flowing out that fitting. After closing the line at the injection pump, the little lift pump started to load up as it was beginning to dead head from hitting the injection pump. The sound of the lift pump dead heading told me the fuel system was full, as the little lift pump did not have enough ass to push fuel through the injection pump. Past experience has taught me to go ahead and crack the six injectors on the head and begin cranking the engine. With the engine cranking, I closed two injectors, and she began to fire. Closing the next injector caused the engine to run without the starter, and with the closing of the last three, she was sounding sweet. Having the external lift pump to help bleed the system turned bleeding the fuel system job into a quick, and easy, two minute job. 

After watching the engine run for a few minutes, and checking for leaks, I moved up to the helm to see if the steering system was operating. Engine powered steering is awesome. As soon as I began to move the wheel, I could instantly tell it was  working. I cranked the wheel over three and a half times, and I felt the rudder slam in to the external rudder stops. Another three and a half turns the other way, and  the rudder slam into the other stop. Now I have to find some rubber  or a pad of sorts for the corner of the rudder, as the force of the rudder hitting the stop is taking off paint.  Ill go ahead and say this again for all that did not hear... 3.5 turns of the wheel hard over to hard over.... awesome.

All the insulating and sound abatement Ive been doing during the build seems to have paid off. With the engine running at a healthy 1700 rpm, one can easily carry on and hear a soft conversation in the wheel house. Id like to get a decibel meter to see just how loud the engine is. With the engine at a  high idle, the loudest part about the engine is the rattle of the exhaust rain cap flapping.

The punch out list is growing by the day, and a lot of the list can be done when I start doing sea trial. I ordered bottom paint from the boat yard today, and if the weather cuts us some slack, I should have the bottom painted by this time next week. I also ordered control cables from the boat yard, so if push came to shove, I could drop her in the water within the next two weeks.

Cheers

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