Sunday, August 23, 2009

Oh she is so Rotten!

After a few weeks of bad (ie: four tornadoes touched down in Minneapolis last week and tons of rain) and dropping my brother off at college, i was able to get the rotten bulkheads cut out of the boat. I did notice some delamination of the stringers, which makes it all the better that i am attending to this structural work first. Here is a shot of the rot and delamination and a removed bulkhead separating the crew and skipper sides of the cockpit (which also provides support for a mid-cockpit traveller).










Also as promised, i have a picture of the polished rudder, not like the new anodized Melges rudders. Although i have a feeling that i could either anodize this one, or just keep up on the keeping the rudder clean.
Hopefully progress will pick up on the boat as i continue to remove deck hardware and complete the structural work. Although conventionally, one would do these processes one at a time, by staging multiple projects at the same time, I am able to complete tasks as my time allows and furthermore i am not hindered by waiting for part shipments. After i complete removal of hardware and the bulkhead repair, i will be focusing on other structural enhancements such as the small Megles style stringers, and fixing the sloppy nonskid repair from the previous owners.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Rudder work

So rain plagued the early part of the week along with grinding paint off an old travelift. Progress on the boat has taken a temporary break. I was able to get the tiller sanded down and is looking ready for a coat of sikkens or varnish. I was also able to grind off several layers of bottom paint on the rudder. A messy but necessary job. Now the rudder is polished up and almost has a mirror finish. I will post pictures soon.