Hi, Wilbur...

Sigh...

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
news.com...
"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
Heh.

It's currently preventing me from wearing myself out sanding out the
initial fairing compound treatements on our hull.

Methinks you are lazy, Skippy. Wet sanding is probably easier than dry
sanding. It certainly is healthier as you don't breathe toxic dust. Get
out there in your Speedo and get to work! All the boatyard gals will
surely swoon!

LOL! No boatyard gals around - it's storage season, so not even traffic in
and out, for the most part. Those we HAVE seen are mostly geriatric, and,
likely would, indeed, swoon - but as I look about like the storm troopers in
Star Wars (white suit from head to toe, vapor and particulate mask and
goggles), the speedo would be out of sight. Instead, while applying (no
suit, etc.) there's a 40 year old pair of Sportif 4" inseam shorts,
sacrificial to epoxy and, now, fairing compound (also epoxy, but very
flexible).

That (very little traffic) actually works well for us as we'll shortly want
to hang in the slings for a bit to get at the bottom of the keel. The
fairing of the indentations caused on the sides of the bottom of the keel
went VERY nicely, and, so long as I get to it before it cures (5-7 days for
full), it sands reasonably - but when green, like butter. I'll have some
more pix of our progress up in a while, but we are making hay while the sun
shines, so to speak, which was yesterday and for the next couple of days.

I'm not all that fond of sanding with an electrical device in the rain :{))


This morning I motored

WHAT!!?? Philistine!

outside the harbor and anchored in the cleaner water
in the bay to check out the condition of my new bottom paint that was
applied in December. It was in great shape. No crusty stuff at all and
just some brownish slime or stain that came right off using a dime-store,
rubber-dot glove on my hand. And, STILL not a blister in sight.

Not surprising - if you never had blisters, you'd likely not develop any at
this late date. In our case, we didn't have any either - just some weep
spots exposed by all that extra, unneeded, sanding. Of course, when I find
a problem, I fix it, right (unlike some examples, fine for a pinch while
under way, such as sticking some pipes inside a broken boom), during our
infrequent refits, undoing the temporary repair if there was one, at the
time. Thus, I chased any weep spots until there were no delaminations, and
then made sure there wasn't any more WSM hiding to try to make a blister in
the future. Given that the boat had been in the water for 4 years, the lack
of visible blisters strongly suggests that we'll not see any, again, given
the repairs (epoxy), fairing coat (epoxy) and barrier coat (epoxy)
preventing the ingress of water to any which might remain.

On which subject, the manager of the yard wandered over with her meter as we
were taking a break yesterday. Meter barely budges everywhere she put it,
whereas before, in most places it was mid range-to-pegged. Your bombast to
the contrary :{)) - I believe we have this in hand. Regardless, this is the
last time we'll address blisters during our ownership...

Just a nice, clean, smooth bottom the likes of which an America's Cup boat
would be proud of.

I'd have been very upset to have seen any more than that - and, indeed, our
bottom responded to just a deck brush, all the way to the end, 4 years after
the application of our bottom paint, the wreck areas aside (which, of
course, needed redoing, making that part only about 3 years old).

And, the undercoat (duplicate applications in two colors) shed even more
effectively than the top coat. So, we'll likely do the same thing this time
around, since we don't know how long it will be before our next haulout.


Once we have it all fair, we'll do a bit of fiberglassing on the leading
and trailing edges of the keel, the bottom of the keel, and the very
stern of the boat, over the rudder.

Morgan 46s were built as split hulls, which made for much more effective
layup, as every part of the layup was reachable - and they were laid up
flat, having an assist from gravity. However, of necessity, the mating
of the two parts involved some filler at the edges, before they were
glassed over from the outside.

A weak and unseamanlike design which put profit over function, I'm afraid.
I sure would not feel very confortable in your boat in a survival storm at
sea. I'd have ten times more faith in my little 27-footer that
was popped out of a mold in one piece, especially as I have foamed her to
have positive flotation.

Heh. Easy to say on a bathtub, as there's no part which would have been
difficult to reach for layup. Top to bottom, it's over 11 feet on ours.
And, after you lay up about an inch of added thickness from the inner joint,
leading to a 3' wide piece of tape (so called only because it's a long strip
of roving) at the top of the buildup, I believe that our hull is sound.

As you rarely leave the dock (or anchorage/mooring, whichever it is) for
more than a day or two, storage isn't much of an issue. Foam-filling
certainly should help you stay afloat in the event of a disaster - but we've
got our spaces filled with tools and supplies which allow us to stay out for
well over a year between provisionings along with having every sort of spare
necessary to meet the realities of aging parts needing attention. If you
had that ability (not knowing what sort of stowage you had before all the
foam), you wouldn't be able to walk inside that lovely home of yours.

Out of curiosity, how'd you do the foam? Injection? Pour-in? Something
else? Our hull-to-freezer section, I used a commercial 2-canister stuff,
name currently unremembered, of some foam which was impervious to epoxy and
water. That led to a minimum of 6" at the bottom to over 13" at the top.
It's allowed our keel cooler, lauded in different parts a while ago, to
continue to keep our cooling working despite not being in the water. At the
moment, it's 9.9° and 32.8° in the freezer and reefer, and, at the heat of
the day, with the sun on that side, the freezer will rise only a few degrees
while the spillover fan keeps the reefer constant


Snippage of remainder of masochistic tale!


Wilbur Hubbard

P.S. Send cards and letters (checks and money orders) to:

Neal Warren
PO Box 1015
Tavernier, Fl 33070

Thank-ee kindly


Was/is Cecil, of the thousands of "notices" herein, your brother? I seem to
recall a tale from Aragorn recounting something (without names) of that sort
during an attempted dinghy sale. From that tale and description of Cut the
Mustard, as compared to your recent postings, I'd say you're back on the
water (sometimes - do you live aboard?) and having a great time, a very good
thing.

Y'all (wait - even the uneducated southerners only refer to plural persons
that way, though I could fudge it and apply it to all the other readers -
You) have a great day. Perhaps we'll share an anchorage some day...

L8R

Skip


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain