PREVIOUS: BOAT RESCUE PART 5: INTERIOR REBUILD STARTS.
(Please click on any picture for enlargement).

The interior woodwork has all been fitted, ready for removal, sanding, staining, and varnish varnish varnish!


Galley and Steps on Engine Cover.



You can never have too many clamps!



V-Berth.

Head.

Closet.

Water Tank & Storage Area.

The engine, a Yanmar 2GMF20, finally got some attention. Oil was removed and had no water in it, and the injectors came out easily. I pulled the pan off and there were no mystery pieces inside, in fact the engine appears very clean and still well lubricated. The valve cover came off next, and all the valves open and close when the engine turns over.





High Tide line from when the boat was flooded (fresh water).

 The plan, after the injectors are back from a re-build, is to re-seal the engine, connect fuel, water, and wiring/battery, fill with oil, and start it up. If everything checks out it'll get a thorough cleaning/de-rusting and a coat of fresh paint. I'll also install new filters, belts, hoses, and water pump impeller. The exhaust elbow may also get a re-build out of 1 1/2" pipe.

Back to the interior, a stain colour was finally chosen, with much help from my dear wife, whose eye for colour puts mine to shame. The Joubert plywood I used (Marine Okoume made in France) is very light shaded. I prefer the rich hues of Mahogany, so a stain was chosen that brought out the grain of the plywood, without being too aggressive. Minwax Red Chestnut did the trick.

The next choice to make was in varnish. Minwax makes three types of "Helmsman" : gloss, semi-gloss, and satin. My preference so far is satin, but I have a semi-gloss panel drying for comparison in the morning. Either way, my method includes three coats of gloss overlaid with two or three coats of the final choice, each one wet sanded before  applying the next coat.

My choice of sandpaper.

Wetting it down.

Wetted panel.

Sanding.

The bare wood, of course, is not wetted, but each  coat of varnish is given a light scuff to remove the 'nibs' before re-coating. I use 220 grit for the first few coats then switch to 320 when the surface starts to get really smooth.

A high gloss finish tends to reflect things and detract from the appearance of the wood's grain, whereas a satin finish has a softer and warmer look. AND ..... it's a lot more work to get a perfect gloss finish, but a good looking satin job is quite easy and does not show scratches (perish the thought) like gloss does.

Gloss or Satin ....?

I know, I know ... once I get the boat sailing this will all be irrelevant and trivial, but I'm having fun with it right now!

Update:
After reaching coat #5 on the first few pieces I was not happy with the quality of finish vs. amount of effort entered. So now I'm using a 4" foam roller to apply the varnish and a soft brush to tip it off, and using a quarter-sheet sander and 220 grit paper to scuff the surface between coats. Results are much improved from before, and the whole process is moving ahead more quickly. That "mirror" finish is starting to come through!

Better results.

Previous: BOAT RESCUE PART 4: LET THE RESTORATION BEGIN

As you can see by the picture below, Bennath's hull is now free of all the old bottom paint, and since the photo was taken she has lost the blue beltline stripe as well.

Naked hull.

Time to start the layout for new bulkhead panels. As I could not get 15mm plywood I used 3/4" instead ... a little heavier maybe, but one has to go with what's available.

Maximizing wood use.

One bulkhead was too large to get through the hatch, so it had to be cut in two. The new one was also made in two pieces, with a joint 12" in from the inboard edge. This allows the part that bolts to the hull flange to remain in one piece. The two will have to be joined inside the boat.

Bulkhead joint.

With the bulkheads held in by a few fasteners, the old (cleaned) settees were installed and checked for fit. !/8" had to be taken off the length between bulkheads to compensate for the thicker plywood.

Old stuff back in ... but not for long!

Under the settees are two drawers (bins) and a double sliding door for under-settee access. The drawer supports were made a bit stronger than the originals, which were made from 1/8" plywood and battens.

Drawer supports.

Sliding doors.

The trim over the settees was sanded to bare wood and repaired.

Starboard settee back and shelves.

Fortunately I have a good stock of some South American Redwood that is a very close match to the original mahogany trim. This material was used to make packing crates when our family moved up to Canada in 1961. It is quite hard, but easy to machine, takes screws and glue well, and is almost a perfect match to the old stuff,

Ancient wood from packing crates cut into trim pieces.

The nav station was dismantled, the solid mahogany cleaned up by taking a light pass through the planer, and re-assembled. A new plywood top was made too.

Refurbished nav station.

Next came the galley, which is still underway. It seems the smallest areas (galley and head) take the most time. Nothing about boats is square or level, so to get things to line up better I re-leveled the boat using a transit, so that the water line sits level from stem to stern, and port to starboard. I found this really helped to reconstruct some pieces that had disintegrated on removal and so were useless as patterns.

Parts of old galley and some "new" pattern pieces.

Old galley rough-in.

After much noodling the patterns finally fell into place and work has started on the new galley bulkheads.

Back side of forward galley bulkhead.

The original aft galley bulkhead was made in two pieces: one upper and one lower. The upper and lower parts overlapped a few inches and were pretty wobbly. I can see why it was made that way, as the cabinet with sink and ice box was made all in one piece, and would not have fitted through the hatch if the bulkhead portion was included.
I made mine in one piece, and will build the cabinet in sections, doing final assembly in the boat.


One-piece aft galley bulkhead.

Originally there was an oven in the galley, but this was removed and a cabinet installed with a Taylor kerosene two-burner cook top. I plan to drop in my Origo 3000 cooktop from the Vega, and sit it in a new cabinet forward of the ice box. Below the stove will be one or two storage areas (like the Vega) either shelves or bins, that can be easily removed to replace the stove with a gimbaled stove/oven combination such as the Origo 6000.

Origo 3000 in the Vega.

The boat shed has been a great working area, as the PNW wet weather has returned. Pictured below are tomorrow's projects waiting for attention.

Next in line: Cockpit locker partitions.



Anchored in Sequim Bay, on the way to Port Townsend.

Next: BOAT RESCUE PART 6: INTERIOR REBUILD CONTINUES, ENGINE EXAMINED..  

(Previous: BOAT RESCUE PART 3: SO, WHAT DID I DRAG HOME?

The rescue of a 1976 Albin Ballad 30' sailboat

It's a relief to stop taking things off the boat and start some serious rebuilding work. One of the first jobs, after removing all the debris from the old ceilings, was to "de-glue" the hull sides. In places the old adhesive peeled off in sheets, partly due to the moist conditions in the boat. But most of it put up a good fight, and it took an assorted arsenal of tools to persuade it to let go.

Tool Arsenal

My main tools were a razor blade scraper, a wire brush, an old 1/2" chisel, gloves, and a kneeling pad. I found that if I kept the razor blade wet when scraping the glue did not re-stick to the fiberglass. Another useful tool was an abrasive pad, also kept wet. Even after it was all removed (two days work) little bits of rubbery glue were everywhere, trying their best to re-adhere to anything they came in contact with!

Wire Brush in Action

Working inside the bare hull was interesting: everything dropped immediately headed for the bilge, and unless I kept a grip on something I was apt to slide bilgeward also!

Most of the gear I removed was in decent shape. The winches, although dirty with debris, are in good working condition and should be fine after a good cleaning and lubrication.

Winch with Drum Removed.

A coat of good industrial enamel on the interior areas that wouldn't be covered brightened up the inside considerably.

Bow Area Repainted

Repainted Quarter Berth and Engine 'Room'.

The one piece of kit that had failed was the prop. When I held onto a blade while removing the prop nut with a long wrench, it broke off in my had. This happened twice, but the third blade held to allow the nut to be loosened.

Single Blade Prop!

There had been no zinc on the shaft for a while, as the prop was pink inside, and very weak.

Broken Blade.

Today I started removing the old bottom paint. I use a carbide-bladed paint scraper. It's hard work, but removes the paint in flakes, rather than creating a lot of dust with a sander.  Gel Coat damage is minimized by slightly rounding the blade corners on a sanding wheel.  Doing this job a couple of hours a day is usually enough for me!

Bare Bottom.

After the bottom is clean, and has had a final sanding, it'll be time to build a winter cover for the hull.
Next installment: PART 5: INTERIOR REBUID STARTS.

Lines

Gear

Sails

More sails

Soaking wet moldy cushions.

And 42' of mast.

Interior ceilings.

Underneath settee.

First pieces coming out.

Naked engine.

Engine coming out the hatch.

.. and safely on the ground.



Engine awaiting a re-build.



Looking forward,

... and aft.

Lean, clean, sailing machine.