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the 2004 update on the tales of 5821

Unfortunately nothing happened over the winter due to lack of employment and money but this changed in April of this year so once the bills we paid off the restoration was back on track with yet another deadline of the end of June again.

The problem was the deck needed replacing it fact it was so rotten most of it came of just by pulling it
leaving thankfully the timber edge of the hull which was 90% sound. Which I'm very glad about as it's pine in knot free length's. i.e. therefor impossible to source in the UK.

the other main problem was the front tank leaked and wouldn't hold and pressure when tested and the hull flexed lots under rig tension what follows is major surgery to any boat don't try this unless you happy. remember this boat only cost £100

So off comes the deck carefully (4 weeks to go)

until it's all gone.the supports you can see were made out of the heaviest 10mm ply I've seen

Next after many moments consideration and armed with a jigsaw I cut the top of the tank out and started to measure up for the new bulkheads

2 weeks to go

and I've got a new full time job now.

As you can see I've gone a bit over the top with the strengthening but this is never going to be a championship winning boat I just want it to be safe not flex under rig tension and have buoyancy I can trust. Against the conventions I've seen on other boats I've cut a lot of the bulkheads away to save a little weight and I wanted to have access to store stuff under the foredeck when cruising with the family and to let air in to keep the mould away.

At this stage everything is epoxied in and taped I'm just fitting the tank top I've taken a gamble and fitted an access hatch in one side (only about 3 days to go)

another gamble was to go for the curved foredeck to side deck join. Which meant making up the laminated curved pieces you can see then fitting the side deck frames (2days to go)

the method I used to cut the deck was to use a router with an edge trimmer. Cut the panels over size using the hull edge as a guide so it's important to repair and sand this very well so it is smooth and fair. I made sure the king plank on the foredeck was correct and worked from there . then I fitted the outer wood slightly higher than the thickness of the deck. Then you can drop the cut deck into this just sanding the edge lightly to get it to fit. If you make to tight you won't get enough epoxy in the joints to seal them. Then plane and sand the edges to the correct profiles trying not to mark the deck

this will take lots of hours and sand paper

finished ! no nails or screws at all

well it's about 3 hours before we are leaving for the lakedistrict the last coat of epoxy went on about 2 am the same morning and I'm just washing of the dust and it will need rubbed down for varnishing when we get back and the inside look terrible with epoxy runs everywhere

a word of warning

because I did the last layer when I was tired and during a heavy rain shower outside the shed I was in. I couldn't keep the temperature up and the humidity down so as I put the last layer on I got a white haze between the layers (i.e. the amine blush ) so I'm going to have to sand until it's away before reapplying the epoxy and then varnishing " ho hum " most people don't notice it however but it kills the real colour of the deck and I might as well get it right.

I don't think I've added to much weight to the boat but until she's weighed

considering this is a 30 year old hull it's going to be interesting to see

Update

impressions of her sailing

definitely much stiffer she can now take loads of rig and jib tension ( I've put in one of the recommended cascade tackles in V12) and was great fun to be out in. we got caught in a 20 knot plus squall and took off like a scalded cat. I was able to flatten and depower the main sail no problem. Pictures soon I hope. I left the boat tensioned up overnight and there was very little change in the tension in the morning.

Materials

local Ash wood for the edges of the deck (supplied by my local saw mill cut and planed to size)

2 sheets of robbins ply 4mm (watch out I had a real problem with delivery damage to 2 of the deliveries mainly around the edges so if your going to use robbins be sure to inspect the panels when they arrive and reject any that a damaged. And also watch out when sanding it as the nice face is only 1 ply thick and the underlying layers are greyer colour I did it in 1 place and it's going to remind me for ever.

1 sheet of ply 6mm for the bulkheads(may be a bit thin to work with but solid now it's epoxied in

1 6kg b pack of west epoxy( it's amazing how much you waste even when working in small batches. I've not used it all but nearly. I've estimated that probable 2kg have been sanded away once set or gone off and set in the pot (I think I'm not bad at guessing the right amount needed)

west microfibres and filleting blend

lots of mixing pots(for a whole day I could use about 12 - 15 small batches for bonding and filleting)
Cfs's mixing pots are much better then wests own ones for cracking out set epoxy

lots of the mixing sticks
lots of cheap epoxying brush's (I bought 24 and had to get more)

lots of clamps (screwfix do 10 for £11 pounds i should have bought twice as many

again screwfix for sandpaper

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last but never least is the team at Ocean Youth Trust Scotland who first go me wet and cold along time ago.