Companionway Sole

More progress on bonding the panels damaged at the companionway.

 The picture below shows the completed repair on the starboard side.  It needs perhaps minor touchup on the edge but is basically done.

Over on the port side I exposed a bit more damaged flooring and glued in some foam core.  I made a dam out of thickened epoxy and let it set up.  The idea being to poor more epoxy, with less thickener and some flow characteristics in the gap.I wanted to focus on the edges to fill any area under the existing top layer of fiberglass.

Here is the result the following day (yesterday).  A bit messy, and in need of filling in the middle with un-thickened epoxy for maximum penetration.  You can see how doing the edges would contain the thin epoxy in the middle.

Here is that same area after grinding. There is a low spot on the bottom side (near my shoe).  I ground that area back so that I could build it up some with fiberglass.

Fiberglass matt, cut and ready to place.  I plan to start with a fe

w small pieces to build up a low spot followed by two layers in single pieces on top.  

Here you can see through the layers of fiberglass.  I wanted to put a top layer of fiberglass cloth, but decided to wait on that.  I will grind this down today and smooth it out before deciding what to do next.  It is just about done.  One more session with the grinder and 24 grit sandpaper should do it.

I will still need o scoop out some core on the edges of these panels around the engine bay.  I do not want water getting in there.  I may scoop them out and let them dry out some before filling.  I may also go around with a moisture meter and find other problem areas, and fill these by drilling holes in the top and injecting epoxy.  The floors are pretty solid now, so that would be overkill.

The good thing is I'll be able to use the companionway ladder again. 

Prepping the Bulkhead for Skinning

Somehow this posting was deleted.

I spend a few hours cutting exposed screws on these bulkhead with a Dremel tool.  Following that I tried sanding the bulkhead wall.  That did not take off the old glue.  I took another pass with a grinder and 36 grit paper and that fouled the sandpaper but took it all off.

I started removing the trim and paneling on the other wall. 

The forward side paneling is primed and needs to be sanded and painted.

More cabin sole repairs

Water coming in through the companionway hatch made it's way into the core material where two pieces butt up against each other.  I decided to fix this and make the floor rot proof.

Since the motor is located in this area, the damaged area is located on either side.  I started with the port side and cut the top layer of fiberglass off and scooped out a bunch of wet and rotten core, along with some god core to make a nice rectangular area.   Last week I bonded the bottom layer of fiberglass together and was interrupted by a week of sailing. 

Yesterday, I added more fiberglass material, bonded some 1/2" core material, and filled in all the gaps with thickened epoxy.  Today, I added five layers of fiberglass, and some of these were double layered stitched mat.  I'll need to fill in some more as the original core material was 1".  I thought 1" would be too thick.  Perhaps I should have used it anyway and ground it down a bit.  It will be fine as is and I'll add a few more layers tomorrow and then fill any gaps to make it level there.  It is coming along nicely.

On the other side I ran into a problem.  Under the two panels was a piece of steel that had rusted, expanded and was making the joint uneven.  I tried breaking out pieces, and ultimately decided to cut it out completely.  Once I removed that piece I still had a misaligned cabin sole.

Yesterday, I tried to mate up the two sides with several layers of fiberglass mat.  I was only partially successful.  Today I ground out half of yesterdays work.  I used a piece of wood to push the low side up, and later used weight to push the high side down.  I used three layers of stitched mat--so it is really six layers of material, and after pushing out the excess resin, laid a piece of plastic down, put a board on top and weighted it down with everything in sight.  I think it will look great when I pull it apart tomorrow.  Which reminds me, I need more wax paper.

I parallel with this effort, I had cut out the three water tank access ports into one large rectangular access, and scooped out the core on the edges and filled (sealed) those edges with thickened epoxy.  I found a few area with lots of rotten core, scooped out one section and cut away a section leading towards the starboard side panel repair.  I plan to core that section tomorrow when I recore that part of the floor.  I may try and use some 1" foam core I have.  I will have to see how it looks tomorrow.

I'm eager to wrap up this work, as I don't have use of the companionway ladder until it is done.

The plywood that will cover the forward salon bulkhead is cut, and primed.  I will need to sand it lightly, and paint it with flattened two part Perfection paint.  Overkill?  Perhaps, but then it will hold up better with a hard paint and be easy to touch up.

Fiberglass work has been rushed.  The hot spell has means the resin and hardener are already hot.  I found they were cooking off in the pot as I mixed them--even with slow cure.    Fortunately, these were relatively small jobs and I could work fast.

I will be very pleased to see this floor work done on the cabin sole.  I'll have one more job, scooping out the edges around the engine bay, and filling those with thickened epoxy to totally seal the core on these panels.  If I have any other area with damaged core, it will not really matter as the floors are solid and water won't be able to get in or out.

On the plus side, I now am 100% certain that I can smell rotten core.  I've smelled that smell many times--now I know exactly what it is.  Opening up these panels inside the boat make it very clear what wet and rotten core smells like.

I'm guessing three more days to finish off the floors.

A few pictures:

ECHO taken today.

Yesterdays work removing this steel plate.  

Here is the floor before I bonded the two sides together.  You can see the cut out leading towards the water tank opening.  All that area on the right side also needs to be re-cored.