Topsides Sanding (Paint Prep), Part 2

October 10, 2015

Wanting to get a quick session in prior to taking the kids to a local university women's volleyball game (daughter expressing interest), I grabbed a couple hours to continue the path forward with painting the topsides.  I worked the 5" random orbital across the starboard topsides to remove the old paint, and generally get the surface ready for a higher grit pass prior to primer.  I used 60-grit pads, lightly working the surface as I moved from bow to stern...ending up finishing the transom.

If you are wondering what the black splotches are, well I applied spray paint to just cover the epoxy fairing work done after removing the rub rails and the transom brackets for the stern light, motor mount and the ladder.  I applied this protective coat as I wasn't sure when I would get around to applying the primer coat, as exposed epoxy has a lifespan.

Another shot of the stern.  Forgetfulness dictated the use of the finish sander as opposed to the Porter Cable 8335...I ran out of pads for both the 5" and 6" version of these workhorses.

Tomorrow, I will finish off the port side, and if time permits I will clean up and tape off the waterline in order to be ready to apply the first coat of primer.

Total Time: 2 Hrs.

Topsides Sanding (Paint Prep), Part 1

September 29, 2015

Needing to keep the restoration of Alva Anne moving along, I stole some time after work to begin sanding the topsides in preparation for eventual primer coat and topsides paint.

I used the random orbital and 60-grit pads to take off the previous owners faded and drab topsides paint - actually, it may be the original topsides paint as it had absolutely no 

Fabricating Coaming Boards, Part 1

October 7, 2015

For some reason the fabrication of the new coaming boards had been giving me a bit of anxiety, so I decided to face the task head-on and knock it out.  I pulled the 10' mahogany boards from the shop rafters and laid them out on the lawn, set up the planer so as to have room behind and in front of it to allow the boards to pass through the planer unobstructed, and then began to take measurements.  My first task was to decide which end of the boards and which side of the boards to use for the finished surface of the coaming boards.  One of the boards had some checking on an end, and another board had some minor imperfections along the edge about mid-way down.  So having decided how to use the blanks, I set each of the original coaming boards along the blanks (more or less in their position) and used a framing square to draw a cut line across the boards.  The cut line allowed for 2 to 3 inches of additional material on either side of the original coaming board (the pattern), as the planer inevitably causing some "cupping" in the board as the board exits the planer.  Any cupping would be eliminated as I removed the new coaming board from the blank.

I then used a caliper to take a measurement of the original coaming boards to know how much material to remove from the blanks in the planing process.

Once I was happy with the measure of thickness, I set out to plane the blanks down to that desired thickness.  Each board required approximately 7 to 8 passes, while I lowered the planing cutters a bit at a time to control the removal of material.

I checked each boards' thickness with the calipers after each pass - once I had about 5 passes through the planer.  Ultimately, I left the blanks slightly thicker than the originals as I planned to sanded all surfaces smooth and needed to allow for material to be removed in the sanding process.

The boards are laid out in the shop, ready for the next step.  Sorry for the head-tilting shot.

I clamped each of the original coaming boards onto their respective blank, and then used a pencil to transfer the shape onto the blank.  I was careful to replicate any angled cuts in the original onto the blank - with notes for me to follow in the final shaping process.

With both boards traced onto the blanks, I removed the "new" coaming boards from their blanks with a jigsaw.  Happy with this task completed, I cleaned up the shop and generally prepped for the shaping process - which will occur mostly whilst sitting in the boat's cockpit.  I am not sure why I felt intimated with this step as it was rather easy and straightforward.

Total Time: 2.5 Hrs.

Grinding Voids and Filling

September 7, 2015

Having a good block of time today to work on the boat, I set out to finish grinding out the voids in the laminate, as well as removing those areas in which the gelcoat was seeing severe cracking and separation.  Using an angle grinder and a 40-grit flap-wheel disc, I made a slow pass around Alva Anne's bottom, getting rid of problem areas as I went. 

The starboard side had a number of "issue" areas, but they were, individually, smaller than some of the areas on the port side. 

I worked my way from stern to stem, but left what may be lurking beneath the boat stand pads for another day.

After reaching the bow of the boat, I transitioned over to the port side.

On the port side there were many larger areas that needed to be ground out, mostly on the aft section of the keel.

My impression of the laminate, in areas I want to stress, was that the factory did a poor job of ensuring that the laminate was fully wet-out.  I did find a number of pinholes and what appeared to  be dry cloth.  In those areas, I ground out the bad laminate and holes until I reached solid glass.  On a few of the areas, I would ultimately take the laminate down a good quarter of an inch to a half inch, those these severe areas were few in numbers.

The gelcoat varied in thickness.  Generally, the gelcoat would start out with being applied thicker at the aft and then slowly reduce in thickness moving forward.  The gelcoat suffered a few large areas of cracking and chipping.  A light pass of the grinder over these areas would provide enough action to remove the loose pieces. 

The port bow had very little issue, at least for me.  It did appear that numerous voids had been filled by the previous owner, or a hired hand at the local boatyard.  

In all, I believed I mixed about 12 separate batches of thickened epoxy; each batch consisted of three pumps off the metering machine, followed by the addition of micro-balloons to bring the mixture to the ubiquitous "peanut butter" consistency.  :)  

Again, I moved across the starboard bottom, from stern to stem, filling as I went.  

I used a 4" squeegee to apply the thickened epoxy, and, in terms of application, attempted to fall somewhere in the middle of too light and too heavy.  I will have at least one more round of filling, and quite likely two more rounds, before the I consider the bottom fair.  I finished with the starboard side and quickly moved over to the port.

As I stated previously, the port side had a few larger areas that required filling.  In these larger areas, I used a 10" squeegee to span the larger diameter depressions that I had ground out.  However, most of the port bottom, like the starboard bottom, were easily handled with the 4" squeegee.

The gelcoat appeared to be in much worse shape on the port side, thus the larger filling patches pictured below.

I finished up toward the bow of the port side with skim coating larger areas that had poor gelcoat adhesion, and then called it a day.  I will be coming back later in the week for a pass on the random orbital sander with 80-grit paper.  It feels good to be re-building the bottom and to have made that critical milestone in the project where you move from tearing down to building up.

Total Time: 6 Hrs.

Re-blocking and Sanding the Keel

 September 5, 2015

I had a couple hours to work on Saturday morning due to plans in the afternoon that would take me to Gainesville for the Gators' season opener against New Mexico State, so after an early morning workout I jumped right into the work.  Since my time was limited, I thought the best use of that time would be to re-block the boat to provide sanding access to the underside of the keel.  But before I could do this there were places on the underside that I needed to finish sanding.  That sanding work complete, I turned to slowly raising the aft portion of the keel off of the block in order to stage another set of blocks just forward of that one.

I set up two sets of blocks on either side of the trailer's keel board, and then bridged those two sets of blocks with a couple additional boards.  The effect was to remove the weight of the boat from the trailer and transfer that weight through the blocking to the concrete pad.  This also provided me with access to the very aft portion of the keel's underside for sanding work.

Once I had access to this portion of the keel I made quick work of eliminating the remaining anti-fouling paint and barrier coat.  There would be some additional grinding work to eliminate voids in the laminate, but that would be on another day.  Time to get ready for the Gator game!

Total Time: 2 Hrs.

Removing Port and Starboard Boot Stripe

September 4, 2015

Over the course of the 2nd and 4th of September, I worked for a few hours to remove the boot strip on both the port and starboard sides of Alva Anne.  I worked carefully to preserve paint lines as I will be using those to create a new waterline.  The new paint scheme for Alva Anne will include a couple changes from what the previous owner displayed on this Cape Dory: there will not be a boot stripe, and the waterline will be raised roughly an inch from the original, scribed waterline - this new waterline will be several inches below what the previous owner set.

Working with the random orbital and 60-grit pads, I made steady progress work from the bow to the stern.  I also had to remove the some anti-fouling paint below where the sailboat stands had been contacting the hull.

After an hour and a half on the 2nd and a couple hours on the 4th, I had the bottom ready to begin the process of filling and fairing the laminate voids, cracking gelcoat, and nicks in the surface.

The topsides still need some attention (sanding) prior to the first coat of primer.

Total Time: 3.5 Hrs.

Sanding Port Bottom, Part 4

August 29, 2015

Wanting to finish the bottom on Alva Anne and needing to get to the repair aspect of the bottom job, I set out today to finish the port side.  I had two areas that still needed sanding on the port side; what I thought was going to be about an hour's worth of work, turned into two.  I unfortunately ran out of 40-grit pads, and not wanting to make a trip to stock up on them, I switched to 60-grit pads.  The smoother 60-grit pads definitely had an impact on surface removal performance.

The areas were fairly manageable in size, but the surface was stubborn.

At the end of a quick session however, I was able to finish up and clear the port bottom of the old barrier coat and antifouling paint.  I do have the areas beneath the sailboat stands, as well as the old boot stripe.  I will have these areas cleared through a few sanding sessions over the coming week.

In the picture below, the old waterline (darker red line) and the top of the old boot stripe (lighter red line) can easily be seen.  The previous owner had the antifouling paint as high as the transom - the small black triangle of paint on the extreme lower portion of the transom.  Having the antifouling paint at this height is quite a bit higher than what was originally struck coming out the Cape Dory boatyard, and I can't figure out why the previous owner chose to do this.  Anyway, I am taking the waterline closer to what was originally intended.  The new waterline that I strike will be between an inch and two inches higher than the original line.

A parting shot of the trailing edge of Alva Anne's keel and rudder.  I'm looking forward to repairing the issues in the laminate and gelcoat, and then getting some fresh paint on her.

Total Time: 2 Hrs.