FreedomYachts.org

Monty,

In regards to pulling. Well I have to be honest I was a bull in a china shop. Goggles, Respirator, Screw gun and went to it. Shop vac afterwards. Before all of that I basically had the boat empty of everything.

Post cleanup, following the visit with a shop vac was to wipe it all down.

Your explanations are very helpful, but I do have a few questions:
1. What do you mean by the insulation is held in place by tension?
2. What are the 'tabs' that you describe as 2 x 2? Having a hard time visualizing these.
Thanks and thanks for documenting this work.

Bob
S/V Windwalker, F44

Hi Bob,

By tension I mean a tight fit initially. The headliner will cover it up.

I will most likely epoxy 2x2 to the underside of the cabin top along with tabs. Kerf cuts to allow it to bend. The "tabbing" is basically the same you would do for a bulkhead or stringer. I will play with this as I get to that - will be down the road. The worse part of this is the prep work - I just love grinding fiberglass..... May be an overkill but we shall see.

Yesterday I pulled the port cabintop winch, disassembled it and soaked it in mineral spirits overnight. (The photo is right before tear-down) This morning before work I I scrapped it down and have it drying. I also drilled out the existing holes with a 1/2 bit and filled the spaces with thicken epoxy.

Pulled winches, soaked-clean and new grease. Drilled out oversized holes, filled with thicken epoxy and redrilled. Removed aluminum thin backer-bolts and replaced with new bolts plus thicker backer.

New backer

It started as a 8-in x 8-in square. It has now grown to a 2ft x 3ft area. Mush directly in the region of the winch and jammer. Not suprising given age of boat and the fact I live in a coastal rain forest.

Interesting note - directly above the trim location I have found a 3-inch section of thicken epoxy running midline to the cabin trunk. Must have leaked.

Next section for removal.

Oh the joys of living in Alaska. $53 for a 2x4 roll of Balsa Core. $73 for Shipping.... Argggggggggg. I may just laminate plywood to get this done.

Don't do it! Plywood sucks up just as much moisture, expands and rots just the same, albeit a little more slowly. I had the plywood in my old trimaran get totally wet and delaminate. Terrible. If you are going to avoid balsa and you might do so for good reason, order up some CoreCell or Klegecell. Coosa might do the trick really nicely. Make yourself a big list, order it all at once and have it shipped to a depot. Then, with a boat or a truck or whatever will do the trick, get it all back to your yard all at once!

All this work and you don't want to be remembering the compromises you made!

Yea I know. (Plywood)... I will order it from West Marine and wait At least they have free shipping to Anchorage. If not then I will bite the bullet and have it shipped - it would eat me alive if I went with plywood.

I am fortunate enough that I know quite a few people that make the trip from Anchorage - just have to be patient. Its only a 12 hour drive to-fro.

Guess I will work on rewiring the boat while waiting - that's if I get a day off.