[christian.hess]

Thought some of you might enjoy hellish projects in beautiful scenery and weather

since up north it seems the next ice age is coming! jajaja

some of the stuff we have been doing over the last few months including ditching an engine, bulkheads, chainplates, rigging...blah blah blah

in pics:








more to come!

christian

 

[christian.hess]

new forward stbd bulkhead and first layer of tabbing...

 

[christian.hess]

bare cabintop ready for some new vynil



yes I torqued all the backing plates, checked for leaks and tightened up some nuts and bolts...Ill be using white fake leather vyinil with 178th inch closed cell upholestery foam

Ill be using ash battens to tap into exisiting plywood crossbeams...

 

[christian.hess]

this is what 5 years so so of neglect does to wood in humid tropics...that anddeck leaks during rainy season:



thats whats left of my head closet and cabinet and main port bulkhead...

all is being replaced with soaked plywood and major tabbing....notice stainless arm for forward lower stay

after this bulkhead is installed its installing beefed up chainplates and new rigging only.com stays with norsemans

then aft lower backing plates with new jumper stays to the hull!

 

[christian.hess]

basic deck view



what a mess, jajaja

 

[christian.hess]

last one for now



a pic of one of the chainplate holes Im filing away and beveling in order for the sealant and or butyl tape do a better job...Im enlarging them slightly so no sharp corners or bumps hit the chain plate and create stress cracks and Im also sealing them with epoxy first then beveling and filing again to shape...with my dremel and rat tail files.

notice that the deck is dry(yay) the wood itself, and if you have a good eye you can see the closed cell foam we used as a spacer between the top of the sealed bulkhead AND the cabin roof or top

tabbing will be added on both sides of chainplate, to the hull on the sides and the bottom has been reinforced too with glass and later on screws into the tabbing and bulkhead....

this HOPEFULLY will be much much stronger than original...tabbing was very very minimal on this pafrticular bulkhead this bulkead had a broken chainplate as it stretched beyond its limit due to water logged and damaged bulkhead

peace

 

[christian.hess]

example of chain plate hole from above:



you can see the nice dry wood(this is key....if it were wet Id be in trouble)

cheers

 

[christian.hess]

edit

MOORING but yeah a pain in the ass...but we have a friend with a nice honda genny...with all power tools needed like drills and sanders and even a shop vac

the tedious part is taking stuff to and from the boat

we just had a small volcano eruption in the east of the country and we had just rolled on the non skid gelcoat soooooooooooo ash is not a nice non skid ingredient soooooooooooooooooooooooo we will have to put on more gelcoat!

tis life

regarding that Im open to suggestions on what cheap non skid item like filtered sand I can paint on top of the gelcoat...basically the gelcoat is just a bottom primer...I need to add non skid as its VERY rubbed off at this point

thanks

cheers

 

[christian.hess]

Doing all of that on the hook? Not bad.

we did the toe rails on the hook too! jajajaja

now that was a massive job...but I left that to the workers...I wanted none of it! jajajajaa

 

[christian.hess]

85f or around 30c...

it has taken 5 months of ripping out, people getting lazy...workers out of money blah blah blah...we started in september

most of the hardwork is already done...for example you might think its easy but ripping out old wood and glass work is tedious and slow...the cabin sides are now painted and Im seing whether I like it white and clean or with vynil like stock

I think Ill do paint and fair it...

Ill post a pic of my new MASSIVE chainplates too

instead of 1/4 inch I went 3/8ths...longer and wider to distribute loads better and you would not beleive the price(labor is cheap)

other stuff

removing an engine

decks

next is rigging(thats all me)

overall nothing is extremely hard just tedious

oh there is nice offshore breaze now every day 15 knots so quite decent no need for fans...and its not humid...but dry salty air...which is good

rainy season is a whole nother shebang!

peace

 

[christian.hess]

refurbished original backing plates with a new eye so I can tie down a jumper strut to the hull to distribute loads and lessen the bending effect of the aft lower stays pulling up the deck

 

[christian.hess]

new main chainplates with a view of the eye on the undersided oif stb backing plate:



the new plates are 304 mirror polished 3/8ths inch flatbar with slow drilled precision holes....the plates are 1 inch wider, and almost a 1/4 inch thicker than original

they have also been extended by 1 hole legth port sides and 3 stbd side

backing plates will be a combo of original straps and original chainplates as extenders to hull...

 

[christian.hess]

what a little paint does to cheer up the cabin and your soul!



I have decided to leave the cabin sides bare...this is cheap oil based paint and I will be using sherwin williams JET BOND which is a plastic flexible bondo type paste that I will use to smooth the crappy job islander did back in the 70s

its impressive how unfinished most interior surfaces are in the cabin, next a pic of original tabbing versus NEW

 

[christian.hess]

hows this for minimal tabbing from islander:



yes its only the kitchen bulkhead BUT it is tied into the hull so I think my filleted, foam fitted bulkheads will be much better

 

[christian.hess]

last pic for now, port main bulkhead installed and filleted, next will be grinding and tabbing as well as adding the lower part with tabbing to the hull itself



the new plate was designed to tie both peices together with the lower bolt that way maintenance and access is better plus if one part of the bulkhead fails or gets wet it can be removed and replaced whereas before you had to do major removing of parts

peace

 

[christian.hess]

quick pic of some recent filleting


monday its chainplate installation and hopefully new intermediate stays!

 

[christian.hess]

doing somoe norsemans up.



and



next install plates! yay

 

[christian.hess]

port plate and intermediate stays installed!

took me an hour and a half to unhook a damn cotter pin on the port intermediate stay...

port chainplate is dry fitted...after enlarging the deck holes and beveling

so far so good

pics to come

after this its finishing the deck gelcoat which is a mess now thanks to a volcanic eruption in san miguel...the ash got blown west about 100 miles just enough to sprinkle my boat and others all dandy

I hate the decks now uh

later!

 

[christian.hess]

careening el salvador style!

 

[christian.hess]

a general view!

you can see the 4 lines from mast to 4 anchors in mud with chains...pilings are galvanized and all you have to do is get the correct 2-3 degree tilt and winch the boat fast to the pilings

tomorrow bottom paint...today was grinding the hull keel joint, 5200 fast cyre in places and some glass patchwork in some areas...to help

simple but you need to work fast cause of the tides...well see what happens tomorrow!

peace

Im spent!

gravy baby