Working at the speed of a striking slug.......

You know you are in trouble when the A/C controls shows this temperature when you switch it on after arriving onboard.

Managed to remove the last of the locker lining pegboard in the vee berth and replaced with 1/8" PVC sheet.

 

For any Whitby owners pegboard removal is an easy upgrade and removes the musty locker smell.  The holes in the pegboard does not provide any more ventilation, IMHO, than the PVC sheet. 

Proper thru-deck chainplate installation...

As most sailboat decks are cored with balsa or some other material any area which is load bearing, or where items such as chain-plates pass through the deck, should have the core removed and the void filled with epoxy or similar. Whitby Boat Works seem to have done the job right . This is a photo of the area where the mizzen chain-plates passed through the deck. Absolutely no water in the core, because there is no core.



The bulkhead which the chain-plate was bolted to did not fare as well. Two chain-plates were secured between a grp panel and the plywood bulkhead of the heads. The plywood suffered considerable water damage where the bolts went through. As I will not be using this area as to support chain plates git-rot or similar will solve the problem. Anyone who is replacing the chain-plates on a Whitby should pay a little attention to this bulkhead.

Still too hot to work.......

but not too hot to pull things apart.

The lockers in the aft heads were not too bad. Just a little de-lamination due to chain-plate leaks etc. (big surprise, not). However, the bottom right hand corner contained an above water bilge drain, which could only be serviced by leprechauns with very long arms. I find hiring these to be very very expensive and will have no fitting on-board that cannot be serviced by an overweight, extremely lazy, aging cruiser.

I also have plans for the sink area which may or may not materialize.

So out came the sink, the bulkhead between the head and the Engine room and the front face of the lockers.

As they say, so far so good. Now if I can just put it all back together.

Dry boat concept - part two.

If you ever want to test deck leaks on a boat, Miami in summer, is hard to beat. Afternoon rainfall is measured in inches/hr. I had assumed that the few leaks in TIH were the chain plates and the odd cap rail bolt/screw. Imagine my surprise to see a constant stream of water appear in the after cabin (port side, aft). Once the monsoon stopped I inspected the area and could find no obvious source for the leak......until I opened the Gas locker. The photo shows half the water drained away. The locker had filled and the overspill came into the after cabin via a small hole in the bulkhead. That in itself is interesting as this is meant to be a gas tight LPG locker with no leaks to the inside of the boat. Something else for the work list.

The concept of a dry boat......

I don't believe that a "dry" boat exists. Between water ingress and condensation most, if not all, boats will have areas where water collects. The solutions are ventilation and limber (drain) holes. TIH has a few small areas of rot on shelves and wooden partitions. So far the water source has been traced to the existing chain plate installation.


Fortunately solutions are simple and relatively cheap. Git Rot Penetrating Epoxy works well on rotten wood.

Incremental improvements...

Aft cabin, port side locker.

"Work is the curse of the drinking class." Oscar Wilde.

Finally got back on TIH after 10 days away.





I had contracted out some woodwork and varnish work because;

a. I have no time.
b. I am c$ap at woodwork and varnish work.

The results look good (photos are from my phone - will replace with better ones later).

The lockers above the woodwork were painted with Interlux Bilgekote, which I am beginning to really like.