On Aug 5, 9:30 pm, Joe wrote:
On Aug 5, 2:55 pm, Bart wrote:



Just about everywhere anything was through-bolted on
my Etchells, I found core rot or wet core. I decided to take
some time off from sailing to bring the boat up to Bristol
standards. I have plans to use the boat in the last week
in August and I want it perfect by then.

You know how core gets wet, people tighten things up
crush the core more and it just keeps spreading. I decided
to cut up a 24" and 28" piece of 3/8" fiberglass panel to
replace the balsa core under all deck fittings. The idea
being, this will prevent any ingress of water into my balsa
core. I will not use any bedding for any deck hardware,
and of course you should never bed the bottom, as you
want the water to find it's way though.

Pictures.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560166062GlPvzp

Neat video showing what wet core looks like and rotten core.

http://good-times.webshots.com/video...01903646kvMSDv

Question. What is the music playing in the background?
Who is the artist?

More pictures to follow later.

Bart

Thanks Bart. Now I remember why steel is better...;0)

Joe

Steel is real, but glass is class!

I'm really looking forward to making the boat look
perfect. For example, I have too pretty good
compasses, but I'm changing them out for newer
ones without the checkering in the lens. And I
am thrilled about the fact I can forget about core
damage in the future.

I have the itchy and scratchies right now--I don't
mind.

Today I ground off most the the gel coat on the deck.
I am adding one more layer of glass to the
deck and the last part is fixing the cracks around
the lip of the cockpit. I have a couple ideas on how
to do that best. Two thirds of the bottom
paint is sanded off. There are only a few defects
in the hull to be repaired. I'll be picking up primer
soon, and I then comes the fun part painting the
hull. I'll probably put gel coat back on the deck.
I have a cool way to do non-skid.

I have a few other things to do. HOOT had a
hollow rectangle to mount the base of a boom
crutch. That part broke and I fabricated a new
one out of a solid 3x5" block of 1.25" thick
fiberglass. Even though I drilled small holes
everywhere, close enough to nearly touch,
I wore out four jig saw blades cutting out the
center. These fiberglass panels are tough!

I am mounting a depth finder and building a battery
mount. I'd like to sail near the islands here, and
can't risk running aground. These boats are hard
to free from a grounding.