I have to laugh that Geoff beat me to the internet with the pictures.
I've crossposted this to rbb as well, as there may be those there who
have some construction suggestions.

Today I'll take copious pictures of the real damage - inside, where
we'll have to take the boat apart.

I also want to add a non-damage discussion point WRT all the marvelous
offers of help which have been arriving, including overwhelming the
phone lines at KBW (we arrived after hours on Friday, so have no
knowledge of what happened other than a yardie commented about the
office phone ringing off the hook; they're out until Tuesday, at which
point I'll learn more). We have put our interior back together, and
if you didn't know where to look, you'd not know anything had
occurred. So, until the insurance company takes it from us, we have a
place to live - one less hurdle to address.

We're also creeping up on possibilities of transportation. We have
two offers, both from people far away, of loans of a vehicle, both of
which require TLC from a mechanic to be functional, so we don't yet
have a resolution on that. Practically speaking, given the realities,
if Flying Pig is to be saved, it will be because we take over the
refit work. That will involve all the sorts of things we did in our
initial work, including hauling lots of stuff. We did that in the van
we gave away the day we left, so have nothing to use for that
purpose. So, a truck, van or SUV, the more beat-up (representing
little risk of compromise) but mechanically reliable, the better. One
of those offered is 1000 miles away, so making this happen is
challenging at very best; a local benefactor would be much more
effective.

Physically, we're still exhausted, because, despite having "nothing
to do" we're not getting nearly enough sleep in regular terms, let
alone trying to catch up with the shortfall. Otherwise, we're sound
of body ...

.... Of mind, we're oscillating between optimism and despair. The
despair part will be more clear below; the optimism is my usual mode,
including the troubleshooting (focus on the solution, not the problem,
but identify the problem before charging off in all directions) of our
situation. I'm happiest when solving problems, so I should have
plenty to keep me entertained for a while.

On to the damage report:

The exterior of the boat I could easily (if time-consumingly) do
myself, having just done much more than the equivalent in blister
repair. For that matter, so could Lydia, as she's done a great deal
of the repair which photos will show survived the abuse. I'll save a
detailed discussion until I have the pix up.

The other fiberglass work is very straightforward, too. However...

Virtually all the starboard bulkheads from the galley bulkhead aft are
detabbed now. Only a little of what I can see came loose from the
hull, but the bulkheads moved substantially (but remained intact; we
lost only one tile on the head/ER bulkhead over the tub, e.g.). It's
a simple process to cut away the old, grind the hull to make a bonding
point, and do it over again.

What's not so easy is the removal of the settee to get to the sole,
removing that to get to the forward, Vee shaped with "frog legs"
extensions, water tank which butts up against the bulkhead between the
galley sink and settees. I presume the water tank has also
delaminated from the hull; it goes across the entire salon, requiring
removal of the other settee, and all the sole, as well. It's intact,
more testimony to how stout this boat is. Of course, it's far bigger
than any of the exits, so will have to be propped up somewhere while
we work. And, in any event, it would have to be removed in order to
access the bulkhead at the hull behind where it was placed.

Under/aft of the salon water tank, is the mast well. The crotch of
the "frog legs" is the majority of the mast well. Support for the
mast step has been compromised. Perhaps it's sound - and could be
addressed with the mast in place. However, when you pull the tank,
you pull most of the mast well (only the back of it, the bulkhead,
remains). Oops. Gotta redo the entire step assembly, probably, and
certainly at a minimum, pull the mast. Rigger Fee Ouchies, followed
by the electrical realities of the fact that it appears this mast
hasn't been removed since it left the factory, as a great number of
the wires up the mast are solid and will have to be cut and then
remade on restoration of the mast

But wait - there's more. On the galley side, much the same exists.
It took us nearly a year of work to build that galley; much of it will
have to be redone after we saw it out. The reefer is integral to the
engine room bulkhead, and aside from the cooling part, won't be
salvageable. It will have to be custom built, all over again, a *very*
fiddly piece of work. To get to the engine room tabbing, and the other
side of the settee mentioned above, the entire galley and starboard
water tank will have to come out.

The only good news in that is the new sole will be done right, instead
of just the extra layer of (very beautiful) teak and holly laid over a
rot stabilization from the prior icebox drain leaking, done in some
prior owner's repairs/maintenance. That tank, too, is intact. We'll
have to saw out the reefer which was custom built from the ground up
(see postings from a couple of years ago) to get to the ER tabbing.

It gets better. The starboard motor mount stringers were heaving in
the pounding, too, as was the battery box, in the location commonly
where the genset would be. That area was the only one where I saw
hull-bulkhead detabbing, as one of the stringers we'd rebuilt, aft,
had pulled off the hull. However, the ER sole will have to come out
in order to get to the tabbing on the galley bulkhead, and it will
take further examination, but I see the distinct possibility for
having to pull the engine (not out, just up, through the hole provided
in the sole of the cockpit) in order to address the likely detabbing
of the mounts stringers.

Aft, the tub will have to come out - an interesting project, I'm sure,
and perhaps destroying the expensive tiling job that was done just
before we left, as well as the custom molding into which the
plexiglass custom dividers are set (though, perhaps, given that it's
only a couple of weeks old, the caulk might release the plastic - but
the plastic, too, might be destroyed in the attempt), and at least
part of the sole (installed under the tub in the original building
process) will have to be cut out, and later, custom shimming done to
support it and the tub structure as it's replaced.

So, it's all very straightforward - but intensely expensive to have
done, and nearly inconceivable that the insurance company won't total
it. I have no doubt that at quality contract rates, even if I do the
contracting myself (thus saving some money over the yard being general
contractor), our remaining 100K (after paying for the salvage and
midnight emergency haul first) won't begin to cover it.

Yet, it can't not be done, if the boat is to sail again, as it's
integral to the strength of the hull. In fact, in talking with my
surveyor, now a friend (whose brother's M462 I found an owner for
after the insurance company totaled it following a galley fire), who
was the QC and Service Manager at Morgan during the entire production
run of our boat, he suggests that due to the flexing the hull's had,
more rather than less bulkhead strength is advised. Once it's apart,
that will be pretty easy to accomplish, so I'm not concerned, but it's
very good information to have. He also told me exactly what materials
were used in the tabbing, so, I'm sure it can be done properly.

I've done nearly all of what's needed for access other than pulling
out the tanks, already, in the course of our refit. I have no
illusions of simplicity or ease. I have no doubt that with as many
people as could fit into all the spaces, working simultaneously
(which, of course, can't happen in realistic terms), it would take
many hundreds of manhours to accomplish, but still would take not less
than a month, more likely two, of multiple crews treating each area
(saloon, galley, engine room, aft head) as a separate project. At
typical yard rates, that would instantly kill our insurance policy.

Of course, in addition to all the fiberglass, paint, epoxy, bottom
paint and the like outside, there's the replacement of the rudder, a
significant cost in itself. Even in that, I have a clear idea of
what's needed, as I was able to visit a sistership, the single 463
built, in which the rudder and support at the bottom was removed
during his refit. All very straightforward, all very expensive...

That doesn't address the mayhem topsides; nearly all of our running
rigging is toast, flogged to a nice fuzz, or, stripping the outer
coating leaving the core either exposed or compromised further, or
knotted in a basketball-sized agglomeration, the KISS generator was
ripped from its pole, leaving nothing but a blackened stump and a
wire, the VHF antenna broke its mount, requiring unfishing and
refishing of the antenna line to remount, bimini stitching failed in a
couple of places, the propane system went south (maybe a connection?
solenoid? kinked line?), the genoa is shredded in its furling (now I
understand how it works in hurricanes with furled gennies), the main
has a tear in the leech, the staysail cover is tattered, the toe rail
is shattered where the salvor's line gave way and ripped both chocks
out, the hailer is gone, blown away or shaken loose during the
pounding, and probably other things I'll discover later when I go out
in the cold light of the day.

At the moment I wrote this before proofing, dealing with visitors,
going outside to take pictures and discussing reality with Lydia, I
was trying to regain consciousness with a cup of microwaved coffee (no
stove, remember), before I headed into damage assessment and photos
and uploads later today. The gallery with the current events is
http://justpickone.org/skip/gallery/ in the first subgallery,
Flying_Pig_Is_Aloft_-_The_Adventure_Begins, at this moment empty, but
if you see a picture rather than a file folder, pictures are inside.

Not related directly, but I have to say, again, how overwhelmed and
touched we are by the support groups which have and are springing up.
The couple who took us to dinner a couple of nights ago in Key West
just left after having driven an hour to check up on us. Last night a
couple of sailors and their son, a co-worker of my son's who'd flown
down to help them deliver their boat from Ft. Lauderdale to Marathon,
brought us supper and regaled us with stories both about sailing,
software authorship and flying. A local delivery captain just phoned
to say he'd get up a list of competent, honest local contractors, so
that I might better do the management of our restoration directly than
have the management overhead of the - reiterated as the best in the
area - yard; it just arrived as I was typing this. An Island Packet
Sailnet list member made us a webpage (http://ipphotos.com/
FlyingPig.asp ) as part of his Island Packet Photos site. It goes on
and on. You meet the most caring people in the cruising world...

L8R

Skip and Lydia, blessed, despite it all

Morgan 461 #2 Disaster link: http://ipphotos.com/FlyingPig.asp
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery!
Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog

"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