The Good and the bad

Well, I stopped this blog last year, put the boat away and went to work on my house. I have done a great deal of work to my house, nothing to the boat. Last year, we pulled it and had a survey. Bad news, there were wet areas in the cabin top. I knew there was one, but the testing revealed it was more extensive.
 SO... I gave up for a while and moved onto other projects. I have done a lot of research. The cost of repairing the boat in the yard would run about 20 thousand dollars. Labor is well over 100 dollars an hour. The O'Day has an outer layer of fiberglass, a 3/8 thick layer of end grain balsa wood.
An inner layer of fiberglass and then, another layer, the inside liner!
Problem, how to get at the wet core and repair it. From the top, ruining the diamond finish, from the bottom, cutting up the inner liner? 
I went with the bottom. The next problem was gravity. How do you get a good bond? As far as the end grain balsa goes, I have the answer. I got the idea from Ice cube trays. I purchased a pile of plastic containers from the dollar store and cut them down to 3/8 inside depth. I cut a 'puck' of end grain balsa that fits neatly inside. I mix West System epoxy with their thickening agent and pour a dab in the mold. The 'puck' is pressed into it and the mold is filled to overflowing.

Meanwhile a took a leap of faith and cut away the overhead liner. Then the bottom layer of fiberglass.
I found a weird little world! There was an area of rotten wet wood. It was surrounded by wet but solid wood. I chiseled out the crap. the surrounding area dried out and looked fine. Now to try my molds.
I wire wheeled the surface and cleaned with thinners. I filled the pucks and painted an unthickened coat of epoxy on the bare outside layer. I pushed the mold into place and it stayed! I used a block to support it but it seemed OK without the support.

Here is the result, so far. the light colored layer at the top of the photo is the inner liner. next is the inner layer of the 'sandwich'. The squares each contain a puck of balsa encapsulated in epoxy thickened with the West System material. They are glued to the outer layer. Toward the back you can see some original Balsa that was dry.
I purchased a vacuum pump. I need to find some tackle to build the vacuum system.

https://www.facebook.com/colin.hulse.75/videos/vob.541680111/10155798887385112/?type=2&

 Interior shots

Summer begins

Sorry, sideways pictures. Speakers mounted and wired in. custom made bracket for the throw ring

Very nice day. Cleaned up the boat and headed out for a few hours in 10 to 15 knots of wind. We hit 7.5 knots for a while with the rail almost buried.

In the water!

If I look like a gun fighter it is because my arms are sore. three days of compounding and hard wax finish. Well It was worth it, she looks great. The new exhaust was leak free and the alternator put out 13.6 volts. Saturday, we headed up to the marina and Gimme Shelter is back in her slip for summer 2015. Yippie kyee yah.
I still have to do some teak and mount the rear speakers.

Spring means work!!!

I got the exhaust finish up and installed minus the heat wrap. That can wait until it is tested.

I installed the new bilge pump. It was tricky making the 90 degree turn but I solved it with a custom made fitting that fit the different hose sizes. This unit senses the water level and eliminates the old fashioned flip switch.







The Alternator was rebuilt. It stopped working sometime last summer due to the battery switch being moved past the off position while the motor was running. That blew the diodes. The re- builder gave me a complete overhaul with windings, diodes and the rectifier / regulator as well as new bearings. They did a great job. I read up on methods of protecting the unit from a repeat problem. 
I am adding a bypass switch. This will send the charge to Battery 1 when activated. Flick it on then you rotate the battery bank switch as required and then flick the bypass off when done. 
In the bottom right corner you can see a sea strainer. The hose running from the sea cock to the pump was incorrect for below the water line. I have replaced it with heavy duty regulation hose. I refilled the antifreeze in the motor but the level has since dropped as air bleeds out. I removed the name from the stern and will put the new one on soon. I washed all the Sunbrella and will treat it with their 303 treatment this week.
I refinished the wash boards and the steps into the cabin. Onto the wax job...Uggg!

Exhaust work

 I sandblasted and painted the exhaust manifold as well as the valve cover and a few other parts. The color is not a match but I found a good quality high temp gold paint, so I hope it will hold up better than the original paint. You can see the block was painted blue by Kubota and over sprayed gold by Universal. I pulled the alternator and still can't find anyone to test it!




Here you see the test fit of the new exhaust.
Note the soot from the old leak. What a
 dogs dinner that was.

Here the unit is brazed and sandblasted, ready for a coat of high temp gold paint and installation.
I installed it today and everything went well. I have to wrap it in high temp exhaust cloth but will run it first to make sure it is sealed up. I bought a sea strainer and fabricated a bracket for it. That went in today. I found the hose running from the sea cock to the intake pump to be cracked and worn. I'm going to toss it and get another six feet.