"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
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



Nah, 'Cecil' is some poor schmuck with a record. No relative of mine. Just a
figment of my anonymous stalker's vivid or sick imagination as is his/her
irrational desire to 'get even' for some perceived slight. If he/she wasn't
so dumb he/she might be an irritation but, hey, one can't expect to have
intelligent stalkers these days. I'm not sure who he or she is but I rather
suspect a Scientologist or two since I'm anti-Scientology on the Scientology
newsgroup. I think whoever it is is quiet young. Possible only a teenager.
They just act rather naive and uninformed about many things. Scientology
calls that stalking type of thing - fair-gaming. IOW you are fair game if
you go up against Scientology.

As for the foam, it was two-part urethane foam that creates kazillions of
tiny bubbles that don't waterlog when mixed. Closed-cell, they call it.
Anyhow, my fine yacht has inside what is called a 'component' in the
industry. This is a GRP insert shaped like the hull outside and on the
inside shaped with all the cabinets, furniture, tankage, bulkhead fittings
hull reinforcements like stringers, etc. Also it incorporates the sole which
is the same non-skid GRP/Gel coat as on deck. It is lowered into the hull
before the deck is put on and bonded into place. It acts as a structural
grid to strengthen the hull and does double duty in defining the furniture,
etc. of the accommodation.

Since the hull is round and the component surfaces are flat there is
considerable total space between hull and component in many areas. These
spaces can be and are up to ten inches in width tapering, of course to zero
in places where they contact the hull proper. These spaces are pretty much
worthless for storage but for flotation foam they are ideal. I used a 2"
hole saw to access all these dead spaces and poured the mixed two-part foam
into them. One must be careful as the foam expands quickly 15 times poured
volume and it can create considerable pressure if the space is not
adequately vented. But, I got the knack of it and poured small batches until
the dead spaces were filled to the top. Now my boat is cooler in the summer
and warmer in the winter and doesn't sweat inside in the cold. It also has
about 2,400 lbs of positive flotation which it didn't have to begin with.
The hull is also stronger than it ever was to begin with. It used to oil can
a bit forward when pounding into a steep sea or chop. Since I poured the
foam, it doesn't oil can at all. Nice and quiet and stiff.

Why did you put 13" of foam on top and only 6" on the bottom of your
freezer? Should have done it the other way around as most of the cold will
tend to go out the bottom, not the top??

If we share an anchorage some day, please make sure to anchor downwind of me
so I don't have to smell the 24/7 generator exhaust you probably need for
all your myriad systems. But, do run them so I can visit and sample the
quality of your cold beer. LOL. I recall one time in the Bahamas where some
fellow on a 60-foot Beneteau was jealous because my beer was colder than
his. Mine had ice crystals form in the bottle when opened whereas his
didn't. At that time I had the sole lined with cases of beer. I had to stoop
to walk around but it wasn't all that long before I drank it all up and
could stand straight again. Beer in the Bahamas is just TOO EXPENSIVE so a
prudent sailor carries enough to meet his daily requirements for the
duration of the stay.

Wilbur Hubbard