Hi, Wilbur, et. al.,


Told ya so, Skippy. There goes your (and the other's) argument that
spraying fresh water on the outside of your hull and letting it dry would
*draw out* and dry out any moisture (osmotic fluid) within the laminate.
So, now you have a little proof that you were mislead by the fool who
advocates that dumbass, fresh water spray method.

Not quite. The area involved was well under any laminates - and, indeed,
there were no blisters.

The water came from voids which I assume, looking at the structure, probably
filled from the bottom up. It was real water, not just uncatalyzed resin.

Admittedly, it smelled, because it had been against fiberglass, and, in a
couple of small areas, had penetrated into areas with a small amount of what
I assume were uncatlyzed resins.

Proof of the pudding is that we took the yard's moisture meter to the skeg.
The last time we did that, the starboard side was dry, and the port side was
"wet" (not on the surface, but by the meter). Surprise - it's not, any
more.

We were also pleased to note that we had a very low reading everywhere else,
radically different than when we started this over a year ago.

OT, it turns out you were right 6 months ago, as we've been here in the yard
a year (now, not then!) :{)) The amount of time away from the boat has been
staggering, however, and this rudder cavity project was specifically
reserved for Lydia, who's now back on the boat, after 3 months off. She and
I are glad she's back :{)) But it meant that it didn't get started until
recently.


What does all this mean? It means that there is plenty of osmotic action
going to occur the minute you splash. This means new blisters appearing in
your months of hard work and fairing. This means you shoulda listened to
good old Wilbur and dried out your hull for a couple of years in a cold
and dry climate before repairing and fairing.

Nice try. Dry and cold climate is fine as long as you've flushed out all
the WSMs which when they get water in them, expand, and make blisters :{))


But, there is one positive I can think of. With all the fairing work your
bottom will be smooth and fast for maybe six months before big blisters
rear their ugly heads. Before the new blisters occur your boat just might
be fast enough to keep up with mine.

LOL! What a concession. Thanks - it's high praise from you :{))

Seriously, with the amount of barrier coat and bottom paint we're going to
put on, I believe water will be hard-pressed to find a way into the resin
areas...

OT, I don't know if I commented on the cutlass portion of the shaft work.
As expected, despite a very high compression, it wouldn't come out without
cutting, which was pretty straightforward.

Cleaning out and oiling the cavity, prepositioning my crank-it-in (which
wasn't sufficient to get it out, above) gear, and leaving the cutlass in the
freezer overnight meant that I was easily able to hammer (2# sledge on 2x4)
it in most of the way, and very easily pull it the rest of the way with my
compressing setup. Better than last time, too, as the cutlass this time is
dead flush with the skeg, whereas, last time, it was out ~1/8".

Still waiting for final word from the only shop in the area (Savannah, which
isn't really "in" the area) which shows that they do stationary journal
machining, to see if this rudder post can be sent off for machining. If
not, I'm back to the epoxy prep, application and smoothing.

L8R, y'all

Skip