Repairs

I’ve not been able to carry out any work on either of the boats, or anything else for that matter, in the last 11 days. Primarily due to having sprained my right wrist which has prevented me from carrying out anything that requires rotating the wrist unless I wear a rigid support. Wearing the support then prevents me from holding tools properly and that prevents work!

The sprain was caused by using a cordless driver on low-speed, high torque setting and having the bit jam in the wood. That wrenched my hand around and sprained my wrist. I should have been holding the driver with both hands with the workpiece clamped in a vice. But I took a shortcut and held the wood with one hand and used the driver with the other. I did know better, but was rushing. Stupid me!

Still, the sprain is nearly at the stage of being healed, but not quite. It is at the stage of being unnoticeable enough that you forget that you still need to be carefull until you over use it and ouch !!!

There has also been a change in the direction that the work on Shoal Waters has taken in that she will not be put into the water this season. Instead, Naiad will be launched and moored at the sailing club. Shoal Waters will have the work that was scheduled to be carried out next year, done this instead.

The reason for the change is that having found the crack in the glue line between the hull and the keel at the stern (highlighted above), I am no longer confident about the tightness and strength of the hull. Although I can see the crack here, I do not know its extent. Does it continue forward and this is the only bit that is open to the outside? It is deeper than it appears here?

That and the fact that I cannot locate the leak in the hull on the port side that I know is there, just not where it starts.

So, during this season, Shoal Waters will be inverted, the paint and antifouling scrapped off the hull and sanded back to the wood, any dings and scratches filled, the right angle edges smoothed off and then sheathed in epoxy and glass fibre. This will certainly fix the leaks in the bottom and also provide a great deal of additional strength to the hull. Then she will be repainted ready to be launched next season whilst Naiad is brought ashore to have her maintenance done.

After that, we shall see what happens.

So, for now the plan is to get Naiad ready to launch and then invert Shoal Waters and make a start on her sheathing. As a side note, Naiad’s hull was sheathed more than thirty years ago by her previous owner and has not suffered leaks of loss of strength as a result, so this is not an unusual thing to be doing.

The launch of Naiad and the inversion of Shoal Waters will require the use of the gantry cranes and these need to be coated in preservative before that hapens.

Recently the legs and gantries were taken apart and stowed in the hay barn out of the weather. The legs are sufficiently tight in the feet as to require two people and a crowbar to remove, so that had to be fixed before the coating.

All the bolt holes also needed to be opened out to 13mm as the wood had expanded due to the moisture in the air and the bolts, although a loose(ish) fit originally, had become a tight fit requiring the use of a hammer and drift to get them out. The feet and legs were separated…

… a thin layer of wood sanded off the lower part of the legs to make them less of a tight fit in the feet and then coated with a replacement for the creosote that we used to use but is now banned. Shame, since the alternatives are not as good.

The cross beams have yet to be taken apart as space is limited. They will be treated once the legs and feet are done.

Once the cranes have been coated and reassembled, Naiad will lifted up off the blocks so that I can scrape the hull.

This is what she looks like right now with a fair number of dead barnacles as well as the dried mud I was not able to get off when she was on the travelling trailer.

This is after a couple of minutes work with a scraper. The dried mud and dead barnacles come off very easily.

Then Naiad will be put onto the travelling trailer and Shoal Waters moved to the hard standing and inverted. I can’t put her into the har barn inverted as the cranes are too high for that and the working trailer is not set up for an inverted boat.

Instead, I’ll use the cranes to support a plastic tarpaulin as a temporary working space whilst the hull work is done.

Unless I can figure out a way to get Shoal Waters onto the working trailer inverted.

Time for a cup of tea.

Since the source of the leak is not obvious, the next step was to remove the outer backing pad to see what was under it.

Firstly, I used a sanding disk to remove the antifouling paint from the pad. This revealed four fixings and the two old, plugged fixings.

The screws, stainless ones, were removed and the pad removed in pieces using a chisel, followed by the sanding pad. Here it can be seen that the pintle has been positioned five separate times, there are 16 plugged holes and the four current ones . The old holes have been plugged and there is no obvious leak.

The leak on the inside is shown by the cyan circle on the image, and although there is a fixing hole within this area, it does not appear as though there is a leak here.

I took a scraper to the antifouling paint on the join between the hull planking and the keel and found that there is a definite gap that you can see highlighted in the image above. It does not appear to be on the other side of the keel and I will have to remove more of the antifouling along this seam to find the extent of the crack. However, there is a very good chance that this is the source of the leak.

If the crack does not extend any further, then the fix will be to open the crack slightly by cutting a chamfer on the keel and then paying this with SikaFlex. If the crack is longer, then it might require a glass fibre tape to be epoxied over the crack.

Whatever the method of the fix, the outer pad needs to be replaced and the pintle refitted. Given the various constraints it may not be possible to move the fitting up such that bolts can be used. If screws are used then they will need to be longer than the previous ones and well sealed.

Time for a cup of tea.

The next leak to investigate is the one at the bottom of the transom.

To remind you , this is where the water is seeping onto the hull.

And the cause is probably something to do with this, the lower pintle. The first thing to do is to get the fixing removed so that the pintle itself can be removed from the transom. You’ll note that two lower fixings are below the water line.

On the inside, you can see that the two upper fixings are bolts, stainless steel by the looks of them and the lower two are probably screws as they cannot be seen.

Removing the layers of antifouling paint revealed the screw heads and these were easily unscrewed. Too easily if the truth be told, they were almost loose in the holes. Definitely not a good sign, although I expect that the holes would close up a little after immersion.

The screws were in good condition but to my eye quite a lot shorter that I would have used. Well, if I had used screws that is. Generally speaking it is a bad idea to use screws below the waterline. You rarely get a lasting good seal.

The upper two fixings came out easily and are also in good condition.

The multi-tool was then used to cut away the block on top of the keel. You’ll notice that I cut upwards at a slight angle so as not to cut into the keel itself.

Once the cut section had been removed, I carefully cut away the remaining portion and then used a chisel to clean up the top of the keel.

In the process of cutting away the block I noticed the remains of a brass screw coming through the transom. I presume that this was an old fixing for the pintle. I suspect that this is the main contributor to the the leak.

There was the remains of a second brass screw on the other side of the transom. This one seems to be in better condition that the first one to be found.

And this does not help. There is a channel in the wood starting by the old screw and going out to the side of the keel. Any water that made its way through the screw hole would then find its way along the channel and out from under the paint. This is exactly what I saw during the leak test.

So, how to fix this? The First thing to do is to locate the old fixings, remove them and plug the holes to make them watertight. After that I would say that the best thing would be to raise the pintle such that the lower fixings are not underwater and to use bolts here as well.

The problem with this solution is that the gudgeon on the rudder stock can only be raised by 20mm before it fouls the pivot bolt.

Now, the holes in the pintle are 38mm apart meaning that if the pintle is raised 20mm, the lower holes will be 18mm below the existing upper holes.

This may not be above the waterline, but it will be above the keel and that allows the use of bolts for the lower fixings. Bolts can be made watertight easily.

So the plan is to locate and remove the old fixings from the outside and plug those holes. You can see two old fixings above the current holes under the white paint. These probably need to be checked.

The existing upper bolt holes will also be plugged.

The gudgeon on the rudder stock needs to be raised as far as it will go and then the rudder stock can be hung on the upper fitting allowing the correct new position of the lower pintle to be marked.

The lower holes will be drilled through the transom and if necessary, a backing pad will be fitted on the inside. This will be sealed against the transom and keel to ensure a watertight joint. If necessary it will be made in the shape of an upside down ‘U’ such that it fits over the keel. Sealant will be used liberally to ensure a watertight joint between the transom, keel, hull and backing pad.

Finally, the pintle will be fitted in the new position making sure that all the bolts are watertight.

Time for a cup of tea.

I have to confess that it was very difficult to get started on anything Shoal Waters related today. In fact, I did not start anything until after lunch. But eventually I made the effort and continued the task of the leaks in the cockpit.

Again I chose small tasks to begin with and that meant hot air gun and scraper to remove some of the paint on the starboard side of the aft block. Not a complete scrape, just enough to locate the screws.

Then it was a case of using the multi-tool, hammer and chisel to remove the runners.

Once most of the thickness of the runners was taken away, the rest broke off the keel, splitting along the glue line. These are some of the pieces that just came off, indicating that the bond was not longer good.

This screw was interesting. The left image is what remained on the port side and the right image shows the large screw that it was originally.

I suppose it was the work of about an hour to clear the runners away and then sweep up the mess. The wood of the aft block is quite wet but it does not seem to have any rot. The plan for this part of the leak repairs is to cut new runners to replace the old ones and then leave the repair so that the wood has a chance to dry out.

Then the wood will be soaked in penetrating epoxy, allowing that to cure before fitting the new runners.

The two outer runners will start at the forward end of the centerplate case and run all the way back to the aft, seen here. This means that it will not be fitted until all the other centerline leaks have been dealt with. This runner will be glued in place and screwed with just enough screws to hold it in place as it will be curved to fit the keel.

The upper runner, originally the same width as the runner that came with the hull, will be cut wider than before such that the wood overlaps the join between the two lower runners, thus providing more “leak proofing”.

None of the keel leaks around the case are a problem. The two that will probably be a little more taxing are the transom leak and the leak under the port bulkhead that forms the front of the footwell.

Time for a cup of tea.

Something that is easy to do and requires little thought is scraping off paint. Armed with hot air gun and scrapers I set to in the cockpit well on the port side where the leaks appeared.

Some of the paint came off really easily and in this photo you can see the gap between the aft end of the aft centerplate block and one of the extra pieces put in by the original owner. This is the source of one of the leaks and fairly obvious.

I poked at the extra batten with the sharp point of the paint scraper and it came away easily and the wood underneath is wet. The conclusion is that the leak starts further forward where the slot in the hull begins and the crack allow water to seep along until it find a point where it can get through the point.

I’ve put two images together to show the next leak, the one highlighted by the cyan circle. This is just aft of a brass screw put in through the 45º angles face. You can see the screw in the left image and just see the indentation in the paint on the right image at about 11 o’clock on the circle. I would suspect that this is the source of the leak. I would suppose that over time the brass screw has degraded until it is no longer watertight and so the water gets it. It might be the case that after a few days in the water, the wood around the screw expands and makes it watertight again. That screw may even be at such an angle that it penetrates through the hull.

That has to come out and since this is suspect, I’ll take the entire batten out on both sides, carefully removing the brass screws in the process. The screw holes will be filled with a flexible sealant and a new batten put in place, held by SikaFlex as this remains flexible when cured.

The next area is a little more difficult since it appears to be under the battens. The whole shebang was covered in a thick layer of what looks like SikaFlex, indicating that the leak has been there for some time and attempts have been made to fix it. These battens and the bulkhead will need to be removed to investigate and I would not be surprised if there is another degraded brass screw or two through the battens, and possibly through the hull, that are no longer watertight.

So, more deconstruction required and some careful investigation of the hull that appears to be leaking.

That’s all for today, I burnt my hand on the hot air gun and need to go and attend to it.

Time for a cup of tea.

I don’t know about you but I know myself very well and after such a day as yesterday the last thing I need is more failure. The boat was just one part of a bad day, we had to scrap the car and that’s a story all by itself.

Suffice it to say that for the next few days I shall be working on small, easy tasks that have practically no realistic possibility of failure.

The first task after propping up the boat, was to bail out the water in the bilge. In doing so I found another leak forward of the mast, shown above.

And another one on the opposite side of the keel. Both of these are easy to deal with, but without having to bail out the boat after the leak test I would not have seen these ones.

One good thing about bailing out the boat is that it has removed a lot of the dust and grime that had accumulated during the works.

The same in the cockpit foot well…

Except here where it all ended up. I’ll deal with that once it has dried.

The next small task was to open out the holes in the chain hoist mounts to accept the black iron pipe that are the pins.

This was fairly easy to achieve although the wood splintered a bit as it was a bit damp from having been outside. I also cut section from the old anchor chain and used that to hang the hoists upon. These were made over long and shackled together to get the correct length for the job.

The next task was to put Shoal Waters back on the working trailer since the travelling trailer is too short to be good for working and then to level up the trailer.

I used a spirit level to get the trailer level, but I think that the boat is still slightly down on the port side. The next task, therefore, will be to adjust the side supports such that the boat is also level.

Time for a cup of tea.

I had prepared the boat for the trip to Ely last night and this morning we drove over to the boatyard.

Ready for the trip.

The leak test failed. Several of the screws leaked…

…but only on the starboard side.

This is not a difficult fix.

And I noticed that one of the screws I have not touched is also leaking.

As I said, these are not difficult to fix.

However, there were several other leaks that are in area that I have not touched. This one, for example, is at the aft end of the centerplate case aft block, specifically long the glue line.

This one, however, is in the hull beside the keel and I will need to explore where the water is getting in. Egress does not mean ingress.

Likewise, this one is also in the hull planking right next to the keel.

This one is right at the bottom of the transom on the starboard side and I have a pretty good idea what is causing this since Naiad had a leak in the same place but on the port side.

To be honest whilst most of the leaks will be easily solved, the ones in the hull and transom may require a little more effort, but the whole thing is a little demoralising.

Still we brought the boat nae home and I will begin the investigations and repairs another day.

Time for a cup of tea.

The day started overcast with little wind but chilly, so I decided to do a small task, just to get things moving, so to speak.

A nice, simple job, installing the aft navigation light. The various bolts and screws had butyl tape wrapped around the shank as was the underside of the deck gland. The fixings were all tightened up, but not overly tight, to allow the tape to spread into the gaps.

During the next break I took, I lightly sanded the transom and applied a third coat of varnish.

The next part of the necessary preparations for the leak test was to put the half-bulkhead back on the port side of the case.

Putting it back in place is easy, just apply some epoxy and stick it in. The problem is that if there are leaks, then I may need to take it out, so for now, it needs to be temporarily fixed in place.

I also need to put in the second and third bottom runners on each side of the case, you can see the gap in the bulkhead where one of those is meant to go.

The top need to be adjusted slightly as the case side reinforcement is slightly wider than the original. The bulkhead also need to be well cleaned as it is covered in sawdust.

I stepped back and restated the problem. It is not how to fix the bulkhead in temporarily, it is instead how to brace the centerplate case for the journey on the trailer to Ely and back again and for the launch and recovery.

Stating it this way made the solution very simple. All that is required is a stout piece of timber the width of the cabin at the pivot bolt position, some scraps of wood and some cramps.

Sort of.

Like this. The starboard side is braced against the woodwork on the starboard side of the cabin and the port side is clamped to the remaining section of the half bulkhead. That should be enough bracing for the leak testing procedure.

I took the cut out section of the half bulkhead into the workshop to give it a clean and a sand and it looks as though the last coat of varnish was applied without cleaning or sanding the workpiece first. The top layer of varnish just flaked off. I’ll have to go over it properly and make sure that all that top layer is removed. The forward part of the bulkhead is half painted and half varnished. Since this part is rarely if ever seen, I’ll paint it and just varnish the top part. The aft side of the wood is painted.

I took the time to sand the cut section of the half bulkhead during a tea break. This is the aft side.

And this is the forward side, the side which was varnished and I have scraped off. This entire piece was not sanded before the last coat of paint and varnish was applied, it was all flaky. I expect that piece of the bulkhead remaining in the boat is the same. I probably will leave the rest of the interior “redecoration” for another season.

The next task lined up for the day was to restrict the lateral movement of the bridge deck supports such that they are effective.

Like this. These three blocks are screwed into the underside of the bridge deck with butyl tape in the joint and they are tight up against the two supports. They will be sanded and varnished when the supports are varnished. However, the port side block now prevents the door to the battery compartment from closing, so the next task is to deal with that.

The first attempt was close but not quite good enough so I took little pieces of the door away until it fit.

This is the adjusted door with the catch fitted. The plywood at the top of the door and where the cut out has been made needs to be varnished, so it was taken off and returned to the workshop to do that very thing. It will only need a couple of coats and will be finished tomorrow.

For now…

Time for a cup of tea.

The first task tomorrow will be marking out and cutting the scaffold planks to length and then to width. To make the cutting to length easier I make a circular saw jig.

It is simply two piece of wood hinged together with the narrower piece being exactly the distance from the edge of the case to the cut made by the blade.

You open the jig out, put the right hand edge on the line you want to cut, clamp the jig in place…

…fold back the narrow piece and then use the edge of the wider piece to guide the saw. Simple and easy. Since I have twenty-four cuts to make, this is going to make it a lot easier to carry out.

That’s it for today.

Time for a cup of tea.

With only a week to go before the leak test, the tasks over the next week will be concentrated on getting the boat ready. The day started out fine and sunny with little wind but with condensation everywhere. The forecast was for around 16º C so as soon as the sun had driven off the dew, I took the varnish down to the workshop to make a start.

After cutting off the protruding ends of the plugs I glued into the redundant holes in the transom yesterday, the next task was to remove the skin that had formed on the surface of the varnish. Over the past few weeks I have just poked a hole in it each day and dipped a small brush in the hole. However, today I needed to use a large brush and that method would work no longer. I used a large screwdriver to detach the skin from the sides of the tin and lifted the whole skin out. I was wearing nitrile gloves, so it wasn’t that messy.

A few minutes later and Shoal Waters had a varnished transom. Well, one coat at least. The overcoat time for this varnish is 6 hours meaning that I should be able to get another coat on later this afternoon. It looks pretty good although I do seem to have made one mistake and that is to use a silicone based sealant. I read the small print on the cartridge after using it yesterday and it clearly states that this product cannot be over painted. I say clearly, the language is clear but the lettering is very small. So, I’ll put that aside and use it for something else and get a non-silicone based sealant for the rest of the job.

Still, the transom does look nice with the varnish. It will never cover over the dings, scratches, repairs and so on. The only way to do that would be to paint it. You have to remember that at this time, Shoal Waters is sixty-three years old and is not in pristine condition any more. The scars she carries eloquently show that she has not been sitting idle for those years but was a well-used and cared for boat and not a museum piece.

The next major task in the next week is to build the gantry crane. That stack of scaffold planks you can see next to the boat are for that purpose and the task at the weekend, come hell or high water, is to convert those planks into two gantry cranes. Which reminded me that I need to find the heavy duty wheels I bought for this purpose sometime last year !

Oh, and service the chain hoists.

And inspect the lifting strops.

Yet more tasks for the to-do list.

Of course, having thought that I needed to find the wheels and strops, I couldn’t concentrate on my work and had to take a break to find them !

Fortunately, neither were hard to find. Eight heavy duty lockable wheels, each rated at 200 kg.

And the strops. Now that I’ve found them I shall inspect them later.

Oh, and another thing for the to-do list, buy new waders. I threw out my old ones after they developed a leak.

Since the weather is so good right now, there are a few painting tasks that need to get done and since they don’t take long, I decided to get on with it.

The patch on the aft deck so that I can finish the aft navigation light.

Time for a cup of tea.

I looked back at the photos and realised that I should have painted the new aft deck piece, so I went back to the boat.

That took very little time, but since I was out here and the weather is really nice…

…I also painted the section on the port bow that was treated with epoxy.

You can see that the new paint is much darker than what she is currently wearing. The current colour is ‘Norfolk Green’ according to the old tin of paint that came with the boat and that colour is no longer available. The nearest colour and one that is likely to remain available for a long time to come is ‘British Racing Green’, affectionately known as BRG. So, Shoal Waters will be BRG and from what I can tell from older photos of the boat, she has been that colour before.

After work I continued the under bridge deck case supports. BUt not before putting another coat of varnish on the transom and a second coat of deck paint on the deck as previously.

After some measuring and cutting this is the starboard side support, screwed into place but not permanently fixed.

The is the port side support also screwed into place.

The gap above the case top allows it to be unscrewed and removed without first having to take off the supports. Hopefully it will never be needed.

After this I completely ran out of energy, so called it a day.

Time for a cup of tea.

No varnishing today so the first task was to finish the support extension started yesterday.

The new extension piece was firmly attached after sixteen hours or so of clamping and drying.

A few minutes work with the belt sander shaped the workpiece to match the original, more or less.

The extension piece was made a little too long and it does not fit as expected.

The excess was cut off using the table saw and now it is a good fit. I will need to adjust the fit widthways a little more as this originally rested against the original case side and now the case side is 6mm thicker.

During my next break I assembled the aft navigation light and mount. It is still not fitted finally, as I need to sand the deck and put on some new paint under the mount before it can be fitted properly.

Likewise with the deck gland. Still a good start to the day.

The next break I had allowed me to cut a thin strip of wood off the support.

The result is a much closer fit an about as good as I can get. Sealant will fill the gaps when it is fitted.

Now I need to make another one for the other side to replace the one that had to be destroyed to remove it. It looks to be shorter that the port side support and it is since it does not need the half-lap on the top to help resist the pull of the pate uphaul. It is, in fact, about 3mm longer than it needs to be (I checked, twice) so that I can sneak up on the correct size.

After work I spent some time under the boat, on my back, checking the bottom of the keel slot. It was difficult to see much but I could see that the SikaFlex had squeezed out all along both sides of the keel slot under the new sides. Hopefully this will mean that it has made a good seal.

I cut a few of the larger lumps off, but left the rest. The will be covered with antifoul paint before launching and the action of lowering and raising the plate will wear away most of the squeezed out sealant over time.

I raised the gudgeon fitting up a little and then needed to plug the old holes. Which is what you can see here.

The transom eyes and the rubbing strake were also fitted. The excess sealant you can see will be cleaned off with a chisel once it has dried.

A good day.

Time for a cup of tea.