Alva Anne: Final Hardware Removal Aft & First Pass Topside Sanding

June 27, 2015

With the first weekend day available to me since I brought Alva Anne to the home "yard," I was eager to finish up removing the plethora of hardware occupying the relative tiny space on her poop deck and transom. Initially, my intent was to start with the obvious obnoxious protrusion from her transom which is, was the motor bracket. But before the transom brackets, I decided to removes the remaining cleats and blocks from the poop deck. The seemingly benign task of removing these few pieces of small hardware turned into a chore, but would be routine work as compared to removing the motor bracket. With the cleats, blocks, and back stay fitting removed, I was now ready to begin work on the transom brackets. An access plate located aft in the cockpit enable me to get a wrench on 4 of the 6 nuts bolting the motor bracket onto the stern. The final two, however, forced me to shimmy (as good an adjective as any), on my back, from the cabin quarter berth, beneath the cockpit seats, and ultimately into the void beneath the poop deck - at least my head and an arm made it into this space. So from the position, I was able to get a wrench on the remaining two bolts securing the motor bracket. As the bolts were slowly, painfully making their way off of the bolts, they became obstructed by the deck to hull flange. I struggled with contemplating just who in the world could of mounted this bracket, AND FIT IN THIS TIGHT SPACE! My 6'2" frame would just not allow me to tweak myself into a better position to extract these bolts....so, I elected to grind off the head of the remaining two bolts. I feel no shame in turning to the grinder.... :)

After a few minutes of noisy grinding, and sparks flying, I was able to wiggle the bracket off of the transom.

After the motor bracket was off of the transom, I quickly removed the stern light. The rather larger hole in the transom this light required will be filled and faired. After a quick removal of the stern light, I focused on the other "bracket." I have no idea what this was being used for...but all of the intrusive hardware simply destroyed the Typhoon's classic transom. This additional bracket was removed by getting a wrench on the bolts from the access plate in the cockpit. Below is the motor bracket casualty.

Once I have all of the hardware removed, I turned my attention to the taff rail. The taff rail was rather thin, which was likely the result of years of sanding. The wood beneath the hardware mounted to the taff rail sat on small elevated islands. It was either sanding or persistent weathering over the years that "eroded" the taff rail into this ribbon of wood. Removal was simple but for two stubborn bungs concealing their fasteners. I will use the old taff rail as a template for the new rail, so I tucked the rail safely away in the shop.

Here is a pick of the hardware removed during this work session: backstay fitting, three cleats, two blocks, stern light, through-deck fitting (for the outboard fuel line and wiring), and not pictured, the two transom brackets.

Once I had all of the hardware removed aft of the companion way, I grabbed the Porter Cable 8335 6" sander, with 80-grit pads and worked the transom of the boat. I wanted to clean things up a bit by sanding away years of grime and grit...preparing for patching and eventual paint application.

After the transom was sanded, I turned to the poop deck, and then made my way forward on the side decks approximately two to three feet.

Sorry for the orientation on the side deck...

After the transom, poop deck, and a few feet of the side decks, I transitioned to the topsides. I was able to finish a first pass on the starboard and port topsides with 80-grit PSA pads on the Porter Cable 8335. I sanded down to the boot stripe before I ran out of gas on this humid Florida day.