It has been some considerable time since I last carried out any sustained work on Shoal Waters, primarily due to getting my own boat Naiad ready, then launching her then doing some sailing whilst the weather allowed. I will be unable to sail for the next few weekends, so the time has come to continue with the Shoal Waters’ refurbishment.
The first task of the day is to invert the boat since it is the hull upon which I need to work next and that is not possible when she is the correct way up. So, the gantry cranes were rigged and put into position, Shoal Waters on the working trailer positioned and strops attached to the hoists and then the tedious process started.
Down on one side and up on the other.
I dislike this part of boat maintenance intensely.
I know it is necessary but that still doesn’t mean I like it much.
More and more she tipped over.
And despite looking like she would tip right over about here, she did not.
It was only at this point that she finally tipped over the center of gravity and came to rest on the strops and chains on the other side.
This shows just how much the topsides have to cant over before the tipping point is reached.
Then it is lowering down instead of lifting up, again little by little. No need to rush, we were not in a hurry.
Until she was finally down and resting on blocks.
This is as low as she can be, the main hatch frame is a centimetre or so above the concrete. Time to get to work.
The first task is to remove the paint and antifouling from the keel. Parts of it, as you can see here, are already bare, the accumulation of paint having chipped off sometime since she was last in the water.
I set to with a sharp paint scraper and it didn’t take long to remove the majority of the paint from one side of the keel. This is the after photo…
…and this is the before picture. Quite a difference.
It is quite evident that these pieces of wood are the pieces that were first put onto the hull after she was delivered to Charles Stock way back in 1963. In his book “Sailing Just for Fun” Charles says this:
Fitting a shallow keel below the moulded hull to protect it when grounding or hauled ashore, for the winter, was the first problem. Shaping a solid piece of wood was beyond my skill so I used two pieces of wood three inches by a half inch, laid each side of the keel ridge and glued and fixed into the hull laminates and hog with alternate gripfast nails and brass screws every three inches (p25)
And surprisingly the nails and screws are in better condition than I expected.
There is a lot of evidence of repaired dings and scrapes along these two pieces of timber, but that was the reason for them being there in the first place.
The keel looks to be in poor condition when first viewed but this was not the case.
Here is the keel with most of the paint removed and having been given a fairly aggressive sanding using an angle grinder and a sanding disk.
Finally, the exposed wood was liberally coated with the penetrating epoxy I have. This was an important step in the cleaning up of the keel. We have just had several week of hot weather and although is wasn’t hot today, the forecast indicates that the temperature will rise again over the next few days and the last thing I want to happen is for the exposed timber to dry out and split.
Hence the epoxy coating. I’ll probably put another coat on tomorrow, just to ensure good penetration.
This will not be a problem for the hull itself as this is made of four 2.5mm layers of Agba that have been glued together in a process known as hot moulding. This heats up the wood and glue and the glue then seeps into the wood. It is unlikely that the hull will dry out and split even in the hot weather.
The next task on the list is to measure the distance from the underside of the gunwale to the lower edge of the boot top so that when I get to the point of repainting I know where to put the different layers of paint.
I noticed that the bilge runners were not in good shape as I worked on the keel.
This is an example. Both runners have cracks and crushed sections and will need some serious remedial work. The damage to the keel, skeg, forefoot and bilge runners is not at all surprising when you consider that Shoal Waters spent most of her life to date on drying moorings where the ground consisted of shingle and mud.
Every time the tide went out, she would be deposited on the shingle and every time the tide rose, she would be lifted off the shingle. Now, in calm weather that would not be a problem, but even in a moderate slop, the waves would bounce the boat on the ground for a few minutes until she was firmly aground, or floating.
And that is when the majority of the damage occured.
Nothing major, it just looks bad,
Time for a cup of tea.
