It's been a long time!
Well. It's been a long time between posts, so I hope to throw a couple of photos up and document some of the things that I've gotten to.

First things first, a couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to run out to D&R Marine (convenient link at the top of the page). I went out to specifically get new jib and main halyards and to price a new outboard bracket. Since I wanted halyards that would lead to the cockpit, Rudy decided he was going to make them up for me on the spot. Nice job, even took time to explain his technique as he went along. It is always a nice surprise when you see a website and then meet the people behind it. Rudy and his wife are pretty classy and I had about 40 questions answered. Highly recommended.

Now, as for the boat, as we last left, my biggest concern was this nice little hole that I had in the starboard side.

One of the biggest challenges was to find someone that was competent to do. Living in Rhode Island's East Bay, with Shannon, Pearson and 40 other boat builders in town, you would have thought that would be fairly easy. The truth is all these places are going full out and these folks do not typically do small jobs for hire. Of course, I got lucky. My son Jake's friend, Aaron Teixeira had mentioned his father worked at Vanguard (Sunfish, Lasers, etc) and that he had some knowledge of glass repair.

Arthur came down and offered to "school me" in the proper repaire of fiberglass. Come to find out, he's got about 20 years of experience, having worked not only at Vanguard, but at Pearson Yachts and Clark Ryder.

The first thing I did, was to remove the silver stripe that was about 12 inches from the top of the boat. Then I washed and buffed the hull to get it to a good color, which I would later have to match. I did a few runs with gel coat (which I bought in white) and added a few drops of blue coloring, a few of yellow and I think I actually have a fairly decent aquamarine. I think I got it right with the center one!






The next thing, I needed to get to the inside of the boat. The hole corresponded to the inside of the medicine chest in the head. I took the shelf down and pulled the liner material out. This exposed the fiberglass matting. I covered this area with plastic to keep the glass down, since we were going to be grinding from the outside.

Getting the shelf out was probably one of the toughest parts of this job, very tight getting in there!


The next step was grinding down the area, about twice the size of the area. I would have thought of using a drill with some 100 grit paper, but I also had a grinder and Art assured me that this was the best tool. Very quick. As any good craftsman will tell you, take your time, plan out what you want and need to do and check your work often. There is a real feat of tearing into your boat's glass with a grinder, but it's very reassuring to have an old pro there!

(I should have taken some pictures of the ground out area, but trust me, I was hot to lay the fiberglass in).


We mixed the resin and layed two layers of mat and one layer of cloth. I covered the area around the repair with wax before laying the glass and we covered final repair with a piece of wax paper. Here, Arthur is checking the warmth of the repair.






I think the comment here was,


"Good to go! Next!"

Today, I threw a piece of mat on the inside, just for added insurance. The real trick with laying the fiber glass is to use the roller toget the air out. This area will be covered with a nice piece of carpet. The shelf will go back in and the only thing it will gain me is peace of mind!

Another area that I was exploring is to beef up the transom where the outboard mounts. I sanded down the paint and I will add a couple of layers of glass mat, just for insurance. The picture on the right is the starboard transom, taken from inside the bilge and is the initial sanding. A little bit more sanding and I'll throw the glass up, then the outboard bracket.

Progress! Hope to post again soon.