Press release

for general distribution

Family boatbuilding business association breaks up for good

Burlington, New Jersey
22 June 2015


After a long, productive history, John Cherubini, Jr., and Cherubini Yachts, LLC, of Delran, NJ, have severed all professional associations, sources close to both sides report.   John, Jr., whose father designed the landmark Cherubini 44 double-headsail ketch and Cherubini 48 staysail schooner, had worked with his cousin David’s business almost since its onset in 2003.

John, Jr.’s history with the original Cherubini Boat Company began at Burlington, NJ, in 1973, with the lofting and planking of the original Cherubini 44 plug with his father, John, Sr., brother Steve, uncle Frit (Leon), and cousin Lee.  This family group remained, in spirit and in substance, the nucleus of the boatbuilding concern that hand-built 42 boats through the 1990s.  John, Jr., worked in direct labor, production control, purchasing, sales support and marketing, payroll, and especially in design and component engineering, being responsible for devising custom-made deck hardware, tanks, and brackets that made the Cherubini 44 unique.  With Lee he designed the long-popular two-stateroom interior plan, giving the C44 a spacious galley and roomy head compartment at a time when such features were reserved for much larger yachts.

After his cousin David resurrected Cherubini boat production, John, Jr. served throughout the hierarchy of the business, variously as a contractor, direct employee, and encouraging friend.  Taking on his late father’s role, he worked closely with the staff on design and engineering issues to conservatively modernize the C44 design.

David, ten years younger than John, had not the hands-on experience nor the technical education that comes from growing up with a gifted yacht designer as a father.  ‘I had hoped that Dave would want to benefit from my expertise,’ says John.  But, amid family and professional differences, the two fell out for good in spring 2015 and John was constrained to remove his own Hunter 25, Diana, from his cousin’s yard where he was always so proud to have kept it.

John’s complete departure from Cherubini Yachts marks the finale of the surviving family core who began the business in 1975.  His brother Steve and cousins Lee, Rick, Brian, and Mike have all been, to one degree or another, rendered redundant as employees, contractors, vendors or associates of their family’s legacy, leaving David the sole Cherubini at Cherubini Yachts.

John, Jr.’s future in the boating industry remains uncertain.  He has declared an intention to offer reproductions of his family’s artwork, including drafting work by John, Sr., for consumer markets.  It is doubtful if any of the Cherubini 44 and 48, as designed by his father, will ever be built again.

 

- Cherubini Art & Nautical Design

* * *

Interlux Brightside

I chose the Primekote 404/414 as primer because, at the time, I had not decided between Brightside and Perfection.  I have long referred to Perfection as 'the poor man's Awlgrip' and to Brightside as 'the poor man's Perfection'.  All three share similar qualities: they are rugged, hold up well to UV and to seawater, go on very well with a minimum of application effort (just roll on and take care) and are somewhat compatible in that primer for any one of them can be used with the lower grades of paint.  If you can't afford Awlgrip or a guy like Jeremiah at CY to apply it for you, your next bet is to apply the two-part epoxy Primekote and then pick either Perfection or Brightside.

Jerry, from the C44 Second Alarm, has been my boatyard neighbor for two seasons now.  He very generously offered to assist me with the application and did most of the rolling of both the Primekote and the Brightside himself.  I defer to his expertise in applying surface finishes as he's completely redone the hull of his 1981 boat from bare fiberglass to finish gelcoat, almost entirely on his own.  We readily share concerns, advice and encouragement and so he was a natural and welcome partner in this vital chore for Diana.

Taking the time to do it now

I took the better part of two days off from work for this.  To some this sounds irresponsible; but, to me, a boat is like a pet.  If it needs you now, it needs you now; and you are irresponsible to put it off till a situation becomes unhealthy.  I don't consider boats mere things, like that.  They have spirits and souls and feelings and needs.  Sail one and you know what I'm talking about.  I saw it during the Sandy storm-- with 68,000 boats in New Jersey having insurance claims filed, you just know that some of them were owned by people who said, 'It's only a boat.  It's insured.'  I could use the money anyway.'

Forgive the harsh opinion; but these people clog up the insurance-claim process and annoy and delay those of us who truly care.  I saw BOATUS and many others come through like knights in shining armor for boat owners who truly cared-- and I worked very hard on restoring several of those boats myself, if only because of two things:

1. I know what you feel like when your boat needs work, since I love my boat as much as you love yours.

2. I want to see your boat happy and sailing again as much as I want to see mine happy and sailing again.  This is what I do, and this is why I do it.

So I was grateful to Jerry for his help but I knew he knows how I feel about it because I know he feels the same way about his boat.

Brightside lessons

Since this is me, I have to delve into the bad news first!

I uploaded these two pics in a large format to illustrate how the first coat of Brightside goes on.  Formerly both of these places on Diana were repaired, using a combination of Evercoat 27 and WEST epoxy with filler.  The first one, below, had some significant pitting in the gelcoat and, being on the shaded, close-quartered side of the boat when it was in The Swamp, I did not get the chance to finish fairing these.  In truth I didn't really see them that well there.  So Jerry and I decided, what the heck? --and we painted over them to see what we'd get.  I don't think you can notice in this picture but the Brightside does not cover imperfections very well, if at all.

So, Lesson #1 with using Brightside:

It is not latex house paint.  It is not 'high hiding'.  It changes the color and seals the surface; it does not fill divots at all.

The second pic, below, illustrates what I call 'the thin white panties problem'.  (You get no further explanation of the name.)  This was where I filled the factory-installed galley-sink drain hole (relocating it, with seacock, to the bilge).  I was anxious to see how well Brightside would cover over darker-colored stuff like the WEST epoxy with gray and tan filler in it.  The result was that one coat did pretty well.  This would disappear completely on the second coat.

So, Lesson #2 with using Brightside:
It does change color; but when it's white over dark, it'll take two coats.  This is in line with pretty much any other paint; but here I believe it is a factor of the thin application layer of Brightside.  You don't put it on thick; you do multiple coats.  (In other words, it's not Bilgekote!)

At the end of the day, the guys from the shop were coming out and saying things like 'Hey!  John has a shiny boat now!'  I doubt they realized what this meant to me-- it may be the first time I have received any kudos from others on my work with this boat at all.  Naturally I replied that it was all down to Jerry-- for his constant encouragement, invaluable assistance and almost-paternal admonishing me to keep moving.  This is a guy who supervises urban firemen-- he knows how to motivate people and in my case has done it well.

We got the second coat done the following day, after I spent the whole morning (18-20 hours' drying time) sanding this coat with 320.  We had one egregious error (mine, I am sure) where we had to retouch a place where I missed tipping (probably due to intense sun glare that side).  The attempt to get it on and all smooth was not successful.  It ended up being covered but as a lump that looks like a bulkhead pressing through.

So, Lesson #3 with Brightside:
You have about five minutes, and no more, to finish rolling and tipping applied paint.  Don't hesitate-- get it right now, and keep moving on.  You won't be able to go back and fix it; it'll mean another whole coat if you let it go.

This is all well anyway, as I'd like to redo a few places on the transom and resolve the matter of a few divots.  I'll do the third coat in the spring (as well as another barrier coat on the bottom).  For now, Diana's going under a shrink-wrapped cover so I can focus on the engine, the electrical system, and a few odds and ends that can be fit to the boat and finished in the shop.

Thanks again to Jerry for all his work; for this is really all down to him here.

* * *

Moving day

24 October 2014

I have not been happy with the boat's being where it's been.  This is sort of the 'swamp' of the yard.  Well-- it is not really a swamp-- Diana has been sitting on good solid packed gravel-- but the ground immediately beside her is low and tends to fill up in any rain.  This, in addition to the constant mosquitoes, makes doing boat work after 4.00 pm and on weekends less than fun.  So I contracted the guys to relocate Diana to a drier, happier place, especially with regards to facing another (her last?) winter on land.

Here in the Northeast, when placing a boat for the winter season, it is best to situate her nose-into the weather.  This is better for the boat, for any covers, for the stowage of gear on deck and on the ground, for persons entering the boat in the off-season, and for a host of a million other reasons.  Diana, especially, with her low-profile deck and cabin, heads to weather very well-- but all my covers and the cockpit have taken a beating over these (too many) years sitting stern-to the weather, which here in Delran comes to us on a direct line from Philadelphia (bearing from W/SW) in summer and from W and NW in winter.  The compass in the bulkhead shows her facing E/SE.  Enough said.

This is Diana's old spot, in 'The Swamp'.  Here Jerry's C44 Second Alarm has been moved to his new spot and I was standing, for the first time in two years, where his boat had been.  Together these boats and the others in this photo weathered Superstorm Sandy and all the rest.

Now I know how these guys work.  The guys from Riverside Marina come over, back the hydraulic boat carrier to the front of your boat, and then-- wait for it-- remove all the stands.  I mean all of them but the very back and the very bow.  I've seen them do this even on windy days, with the rig up.  Yikes.

Watching them do this with a C44 or Ben's Rhodes Reliant (with that narrow transom!) is unnerving.  Watching them do it with my own boat is an automatic case of the heebie-jeebies.  I was so paranoid that I subtly replaced the stands in the very back with a pair a little closer forward, though they were not at any bulkhead, just to persuade them to leave those as the last two.  But they moved them back (to right where they were before), saying they couldn't get the truck under it.  I was near fits.

Then, to really bring on the stomach acid, the forward pads on the truck would not find the boat.  I've seen this thing in action many times but always thought that for smaller boats the pads would angle inwards.  Apparently, they don't.  The picture shows the back ones too far forward and too low, the front ones way too high, and the keel (read that: whole weight of the boat) on a 3-inch-wide strap spanned between the wheels of the truck thing.  Sheesh.

Meanwhile, between snapping photos (which I did not really do so much) I was worrying that the pads in front are pushing against the v-berth shelf, probably popping off the rode-locker bulkheads I 'glassed there, and definitely scraping off the newly-applied primer paint.

Then Jeremiah in the shop says, 'It better not be scraping off the paint.  It's epoxy.  If they're scraping it off, it wasn't applied right.'  And it was applied right.

End result: Diana arrives across the yard safe and sound.  There was a problem with blocking her, as the guys could not get the strap out from under the keel without blocking the keel bottom in the same place as before-- meaning I still can't scrape, prime and barrier-coat the very bottom.  But I can sort that out another day.  The bulkheads forward were fine (of course).  And the epoxy primer survived very well-- the traces of black wiped off with one hand while I was talking on the phone.  No worries.

In this location the barn part of the shop will block most wet snow.  The weather now comes from off Diana's nose or from slightly to port.  I will have this shrink-wrapped by the end of November (after topcoat on the hull).

The few odd places where the barrier coating was sanded through are the repairs I had to make for the cracks; this is reported elsewhere.  Jerry gave me some leftover stuff so I may not need to go into the quart kit of Pettit Protect that I bought for these (and for the rudder).  The gray cover is because of the instrument holes in the back of the cabin and because the forward edge of the hatch hood is still open (needing woodwork, the last major job to be done to the deck).

On the deck there is a bucket upside-down over the mast step.  The step will be removed for the deck to be painted and then reinstalled with 5200.

The holes forward, where the running lights were mounted, are to be covered with Plexiglas panels, as Diana's eyes (more on this 'secret' later). 

The foredeck hatch is slid open in this picture.  I have to put hinges on it, then remove them, then varnish the whole thing, which, with the boat under shrink-wrap, can easily be done in the shop.

Little Diana likes her new spot in the sun!

In the background can be seen the CY spars rack, welded and bolted to the side of the former storage trailer that is now the lumber-storage room for the shop.  On this rack are C44 spars, the ones for Dave's Reliant, and a few others.  Jeremiah puts each up there with the forklift (another operation that has to be seen to be believed).

I prefer six stands, not four (not counting the bow) because it's simple to pull one down to paint the bare spot.  The plywood steps came over from Diana's old place because I used them to fill and fair the old bow damage and will use them now to reinstall the section of toerail, the stem fitting and the anchor roller.  In this photo I have not yet moved the spars and the workbench to the new spot.

The half-gallon of iced tea is Turkey Hill from 7-11-- the very best cold green tea you can get!  :)

* * *

Diana's new stemhead fitting

I never liked the three-legged Hunter 25 pulpit and meant to replace it with something cooler from the very start.  This would mean cutting off the 7/8" stainless-steel stud from the stemhead fitting and polishing it over; but as Diana's PO had put her into some kind of close encounter with a piling, the original stemhead fitting was quite mangled and badly restraightened.  So I determined to make a new one.

I designed a very nice replacement part for this but found no one to make it at a reasonable price.  Then I happened to stumble across one on the Racelite web page and ordered it.  Though the dimensions on the site represented an adequate part, the actual thing seemed to represent them only nominally-- the thickness was not a true 1/8" and the length was entirely too short.  Rather typically I sat on this problem for over a year, working on other things, while I contemplated some solution.

Finally I ordered some flat stock, cut it to length, and sent it out to the local welders' with a pattern of the correct angle.  The part I received was simply beautiful.  I have begun to polish it and will finish it off before it's permanently installed.

 

You can see how the original part was only about 60 percent as long as it needed to be along the stem.  The flat stock welded to the part effectively doubles the thickness for the first three holes.  It is true that the tang for the forestay is still of the thin (original) stock; but as it's already thicker than were the shroud tangs I'll install it as it is and see if, as the rig is tuned, I get any elongation of the hole.  If that will be the case (which I doubt) I'll have it remedied with more welding.  As this Racelite part is meant for 20-to'22-footers, and as it's already meant to carry the load of 1/4" clevis pins, I'm betting it won't ever be a problem.

 

In this pic I have set the part on the bow to check the fit.  Thanks to my template the welder's work resulted in a perfect fit. You will see the gap behind the very top of the fitting-- this requires attention.  If I were to mount this as-is, two things would happen: Diana's J measurement (foot of the headsail) would be longer than that of a stock Hunter 25 by about 7/8"; and the natural stresses of a tuned and ruggedly-used rig would attempt to bend the fitting aftwards, putting the single screw through the deck into a shear load, and some distortion would occur.  This is why it is never wise to suspend rigging attachments over air, as would be done here.  I will fabricate a little block for in this gap, just something to support the compression load, and 'glass or epoxy it into place prior to paint and prior to attaching this fitting.

The horizontal pencil lines are marking where the mounting holes will go.  Only one of the original holes lined up.  I have a mahogany backing block for this, to be bedded in 5200 inside, and will drill new holes for the 1/4-20 hex-head cap screws.  Hex-heads are best for this sort of thing because you can put a ratchet and socket on each one and really tune them well.  Large-scale Phillips and, worse, slotted-head screws are really kind of pointless after a while.  A larger screw implies a larger load which means installation torque matters more.  No one can apply appropriate torque with a screwdriver handle.  I think the only reason people dislike hex-headed cap screws is because they make the boat look like Frankenstein's monster.  Personally, I like the look.  It's its own aesthetic.

The evident damage to the bow was from the PO.  The starboard-side toerail was cut to facilitate the fiberglass repair and reattached.  Coincidentally, this piece will have to be cut down to accommodate the anchor roller.  I'll fill the seam in the toerail with black 4000-UV to minimize the appearance of a crack.  Much of the old fiberglass repair was faired over with 3M filler (the grayer stuff).  The darker brown-olive is raw fiberglass from my sanding.  I have filled all the imperfections with both Evercoat 27 and epoxy and after painting with epoxy paint (Perfection or Brightside) this won't be visible or vulnerable.

The brown thing above the deck is the work-order tag from the welders'.  Mistakenly they wrote it up as being for my cousin Dave's shop; but this was my project and I contracted and paid for it.  (This happens a lot, actually.)

Sales pitch #1

If any other H25 owner is interested in having one of these parts, I will be happy to supply it.  It does, however, require a 4-legged pulpit; though I'd consider that an improvement.  I've designed an updated bow rail for Diana, along the lines of a J27's, complete with step-through end, varnished-mahogany seat/step with nonskid, and mount for Aqua Signal running light; though I'll be installing a plain-Jane castoff pulpit from another boat for the short term.

Sales pitch #2

Yes; the boat beside Diana, evident in one of these pics, is one of her sisters-- in this case a fellow February 1974 boat, this one the later trunk cabin/pop-top model.  They are both of the same series, Diana being number 027 and the other boat being 140.  At that time Hunter had two production lines of H25s at their Marlboro, New Jersey, plant; and I believe that the "0" signified the period's production series of "blister-canopy" or "flush-deck" models and the "1" signified the trunk-cabin models. If these boats were not on the production floor at the same time, they are probably not more than two weeks apart in age.

I have been referring to this other boat as "the sweet sister" and  hope to enter negotiations with her owner to take over her care and to restore her-- for she is still, even with an inadequate cover, in better condition than Diana was when I first found her and would represent a pretty easy, quick and profitable "quick fix" and resale.  She'll need some deck-core repair, paint, new cushions and upholstery, lifelines and probably cordage; and I do not know if there is an engine available.  But it wouldn't take much more than that for her to go sailing again.  As soon as Diana goes in I will have this boat shrink-wrapped and set a dehumidifier in her, to help preserve her.  Anyone interested is welcome to get in touch.

* * *

Waterline stripe

I've been getting frustrated that the progress I have been making on this boat does not look like progress; so I reached a limit recently and opened the can of Pettit Protect I've had for over a year and just went for it.  I cannot say this is a perfect job; there are minor spots in the hull I really should have faired better or filled better, and of course the first roller cover broke down after two coats and for the third I had to dig into my horde of stores for another which was too nappy and not as good.  But the paint's on the boat and that's good enough. 
   
I chose the Pettit Protect over Interlux Interprotect for one solid reason.  To reach the desired thickness, Interprotect requires five coats where as Pettit Protect requires only three.  It goes on thicker.  Therefore I accomplished this with only one roller replacement and in only about three hours of a hot Saturday in August.  
   
The rugged outline of the top edge of paint wants explanation.  In filling and fairing the hull's numerous cracks, I encountered quite a few of what I determined were 'bottom-style' cracks above the designed waterline, especially in the bow.  These are typical of any boat; and for a sailboat that one must conclude will be heeling more often than not, under way, the imposed delineation of a waterline is pretty arbitrary.  So I prepared these places as I would for any 'underwater' area; and once the waterline is established the gray can be sanded down above the line to accept topsides paint.   
  

The black Sharpie lines, applied at the upper edge of the green-tape stripe, will represent the lower edge of the painted stripe(s).  Thus I am 'cheating' the original waterline up about two inches.  

I lowered the rudder in its shaft tube but without digging a hole I was unable to remove it entirely.  As of this picture it has been sealed and re-'glassed (the yellowish stuff is epoxy, with some Microlight filler).  I found every seam in the rudder shell to have been open and filled with bottom paint (not a good sign), which was responsible for the whole thing being saturated in water.  As I used up all the Pettit Protect on the hull, I will have to buy more for the rudder and the stand squares.
   
From earlier photos one can see that I stripped the entire hull bare-- leaving no stripes.  Earlier I had plotted all three lines-- float waterline, designed waterline, and top of bootstripe-- and recorded the measurements.  These current lines come from those plots.
   

 

This sort-of-closeup view shows my 25-foot Stanley tape clamped along the toerail of the boat.  Using this as a kind of number line, I dangled the other Stanley tape from this, at prescribed intervals, taking 'soundings' down along the hull to the stripe.  To get the waterline back onto the hull, I had only to read my numbers back and to plot the marks from them.  
  
I am not sure I'm happy with the replotted marks.  Though I did the plotting accurately, I fear the boat is going to be too heavy, especially forward, and especially to starboard, which worries me.  To starboard are the engine-starting battery, the galley, the toilet itself, the toolbox, the primary anchor and (short) chain rode, and the microwave oven as well as the skipper's usual sitting area below, where the computer and stereo are located.  Everything else is more of less balanced out by a complement to the other side.  For now I shall let these lines alone and count on shifting some weight about (possibly by storing all canned goods to port, for example).   
   
In the background Jerry's 1980 C44 can be seen.  Jerry's a liveaboard who's been doing a heroic job stripping bad 'glass from his boat's bottom and re-'glassing the whole thing.  His stamina and indefatigable fortitude are an inspiration.
  

  
After taking some of these pics I just had to snap this view of Diana's underside all recently done in pewter gray undercoater (Pettit Protect).  
  
Yes; the keel looks a little bent out of shape.  Believe me-- it was much worse before I got my hands on it.
   
The paint does look a little blotchy in this view.  Maybe it's glare.  I can vouch for the effort than went into smoothing this; and the result really is pretty good.  Undoubtedly it's better than it was when new.  
  
The little oval block affixed to the bottom, aft of the keel, is the fairing block I made for the bronze drain plug.  Maybe it's just overkill; but, then again, every girl can use a little help....  
 
  

* * * 

Visit from Santa Claus!

The Cherubini boat shop was graced with a visit from our very own Santa Claus on Friday, 14 December 2012.  This is James Turrell, noted artist and new owner of C48 hull no.8, Amazing Grace, now renamed (after Mr Tyrell's ouevre of choice) Light Reign.  Pictured (in front of one of the former Atlantic City billboards that Dave acquires for use as heavy-duty covers, dropclothes and curtains) are me, Mr Tyrell, Lee, Steve and Dave.  Photo taken by C. Michael Lawrence.

Happy Christmas to all!

Head compartment

In these photos this is far from being done; but I was just fooling about with the camera and took some photos of the head area to record progress.


This is the head sink, which, as all H25 owners know, the boat did not originally come with.

The stainless-steel basin came from an old Chris-Craft; I bought it on eBay for $19.00.  Its drain goes through the forward bulkhead-- to get out of the foot area-- and then to a trap and down to the drain seacock.

The after portion of this countertop (to the left) lifts up for access to a 4-inch-deep compartment above the foot of the bunk.  The two openings outboard of the sink are for toiletries and towels.  The little mahogany stick on the forward bulkhead, inside the locker, is the cleat for the shelf in there.  The shelf divider is sitting against the hull.

I put the tissue dispenser in there to calculate the space for it; but I certainly won't rely on a cardboard tissue dispenser to be kept in the head, under the large foredeck hatch, aboard a 25-ft boat!

There is no headliner or hullliner in place in this photo.  The trim is not installed here either.

The wiring isn't really this messy-- it's just dangling down from the connections block above this doorway where the spar wiring enters the cabin and the cross-cabin circuits pass by.  When it is connected properly you won't see the danging bits in and out of the lockers.


This Wilcox-Crittenden Head-Mate toilet was given to me by a guy called Bill who was working on his friend's boat in Hancock's Harbor, NJ.  I saw it sitting outside the boat on a Sunday and left a note on it: 'If you are getting rid of this toilet, call me and I'll take it.'  The guy called me as soon as he returned to the boat.  It pumps perfectly well-- they must have been switching to either a larger bowl or just an electric one.  The intake/flush lever is a little rusty; that's all I can find wrong with it.

I had intended to mount my existing 'Frankentoilet' with the crossover sanitation pipe underneath this blue shelf; so the shelf is mounted a little higher than it would otherwise be.  Unfortunately this toilet's pump doesn't mount on the level; it mounts at a slight angle (like a modern Jabsco) on an angled flange on the crossover pipe.  So I can't mount this pump on the shelf, with the crossover pipe underneath, because it won't sit flush.  I have no idea why Wilcox did it like this.  I really wish I were reusing the original Raritan Compact Mk I; but this is similarly 'retro' and works fine-- and best of all the price was right.

The two little openings under the shelf are meant for access to the bolts; and this was supposed to accommodate the crossover pipe underneath so these would allow for cleaning out as well.

Behind the toilet the black ring is a Starboard trim piece around the exit pipe (PVC) leading to the holding tank.

The all-plastic Rubbermaid tool box is actually in its intended place-- this V-berth area has become a true forepeak, having room for only one to sleep but getting equipped with a tool box, workbench, hanging locker, microwave oven, plenty of outlets for charging cordless tools and possibly also a fresh-water supply tank for flushing the toilet. The holding tank is underneath, with most of the plumbing and all but one of the boat's through-hulls.  And that's in only the aftermost 26 inches of it! [wink]

The mahogany in the foreground is the backup to the compression post, underneath where the maststep really is.  It's a piece of the stock I cut for the cabintop handrails, but here it is solid except for only one hand hole (through which the vacuum cleaner's cord is running).  I gauged this hand-hold for someone sitting on the potty and only after installing the stick I realized that the head door's latch has to go at the very same elevation-- so when you reach through it you will stub your fingertips on the edge of the latch plate.  Oh, well.

At the time this was taken the lockers behind the toilet were taken up with the stereo, the outlet strip and the lift-out panels for all the lockers about the boat.

The bronze Barlow selftailing winch (vintage 1977) is a leftover from Warren Luhrs' C44 cutter and served as a doorstop in my mother's bathroom for about 20 years.  It's now slated to be the foredeck-mounted anchor-rode winch for a first-generation Hunter 25 called Diana.  Funny how things turn out!

Here is an 'aerial' shot of this space, minus the toilet, taken from the foredeck hatch opening. 

The door jamb, to the right, was excessively tedious.  It is a T-section and has to fit a very awkward three-sided space and accommodate the natural crookedness of the boat as-is.  It turns out that the face of the head's sink cabinet (side of the port-side berth's footwell) is neither in one plane (it's twisted) nor parallel to really... anything.  Fitting delicate mahogany (the lower portion of that stick is 5/16" square) to a crooked boat is an exercise in near-futility.  But I got it to fit!


The threshold of this doorway is somewhat more robust.  If it appears crooked, it's because the main bulkhead of the boat is not square to the centerline.  Believe it or not that threshold is in the only place it can be to make the (not yet built) door work.

I still have to countersink those screw-holes to fit them with plugs; but I'm keeping it as removable in case something happens with the door later.

The rough plywood sole is only temporary.  The finger-hole, however, will be in the finished mahogany panel.  It's the drain for the space, as there'll be a shower hose here too.


The black square is the pedal for the Whale Gusher foot pump for the head sink.  It feeds from only the port tank, however, despite being likely to be the most-used water source in the boat.

In the foregound (top right of photo) you see the coaming for the foredeck hatch, not yet varnished.

I like the deep-blue/white/black/stainless/mahogany decor theme of this boat.  It's bright, cheerful, nautical and traditional.

* * *

Removing holes from aluminum spars

One vital consideration concerning aluminum spars is that they derive all their strength from skin stiffness.  Aluminum can and will bend; but as the molecules shift about it's important to not give them anywhere to go that they should not be.  This means all extra holes in an aluminum spar will weaken it.

My boat came with the then-common 1970s slab-reefing system consisting of a genoa track mounted on the boom, a cheek block mounted on a slide, and a Cunningham hook above the gooseneck.  The single-line reefing system as depicted in the Schaefer catalogue and elsewhere makes infinitely more sense, not only for sail trim but for simplicity and even safety.  Properly located, the parts of single-line reefing will contribute to a very efficient sail shape for the reefed sail and give one the ability to effect the reef from only one place-- in my boat's case, the safety of the bridge deck and main hatch.

To remove the parts of the old system required the filling of some two dozen holes on the boom and elsewhere.  Certainly one could weld these and have an excellent-- though expensive-- reconditioned boom.  Honestly I never thought of that; but I knew I'd have to fill them somehow.

Then Jeremiah, in the shop, suggested just using aluminum screws, threading them into the holes, and breaking them off to file them smooth.  The sheer simplicity of this idea just blew me away.  After all, so long as the holes are filled with something that can't shift-- thus prohibiting the molecules from moving too far-- it does not matter how you fill them.

Amazing Grace, the C48, came into the shop for a refit and I got the job of preparing the booms for refinishing.  As part of the job the aluminum screws were ordered; as soon as the necessary holes were filled I took off with the broken-off bolts and reused them all on my own boat. After all they only need to be long enough to thread into the wall thickness of the spar.


This first photo is not great, owing to glare; but the aluminum screws sticking out of the side of the boom (spar to the left) are visible. Most of these were for the reefing track.

The black tape marks where the sheetline bail will go.

In this photo you can see where a few of the screws have already been broken off.  I sawed most of the way through each one and then bent them with pliers to snap them off.  These screws are 1/4-20 thread.  They can break off when you're about 2/3 through them with the hacksaw.  The best idea is to saw them as close as possible to the surface of the spar-- but you'll have to choose one thread of the screw as the hacksaw blade will choose one for you otherwise.

The red stuff is Loctite 'permanent' (not my blood; that's elsewhere).  A caveat: the Loctite will work only if the hole is the right size for the screw and decently threaded.  Don't count on the Loctite to fill gaps (or even to stick if there are gaps).  If there is too much play, you can use epoxy (perhaps with a little filling compound) instead.

Here is the side of the boom after the screws were broken off and sanded over.  Can you see where they were? --for you certainly can't feel where they were with your hand.

Here is a close-up of the side of the boom, with a better view of the filled-in screw holes (silver circles).  I sanded these by hand-- 80-grit production paper takes the nubs down quickly and easily.  You will see a trace of greasy-looking aluminum residue following your sanding-- this tells you that you are actually sanding the end of the screw.  When you see the surface of the boom going silver you've come to the end (as you see how I hit it here).

I changed to 120 grit and then to 220 to polish these off.  As I will shortly be applying etcher, primer and paint I'll be able to further fair these places, should they need it, at any point during the future stages.




I filled the holes for the winch bases on the mast as well.  Since those holes were a bit too big to accommodate 10-24s any more, I drilled them all out to 1/4-20 (I should have used 12-24 but didn't think of it!).  In installing the winch bases on the mast again, to avoid running afoul of the old (now filled) holes, I can relocate them.  The open holes shown here are the new ones drilled to reuse the old mast bases in new locations.

(The pole in the back is the fence, not the spreaders!)

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Some inconveniences are beyond counting

I once told my young brother-in-law, as he was building some plastic model airplane and complaining about glue on his fingertips, that to do a good job sometimes you have to love your project more than you care for your self.  This is especially true when it comes to convenience-- after all, most of the things we love are patently inconvenient.  And yet we pursue them anyway; and in this pursuit is how we acknowledge their value to us.

This photo is not great; it's intended to show the nice fat mahogany splinter I got in my foot.  (How? --I wasn't even barefoot.)  In this one week I got this splinter and another as well, tore my fingertips on a jigsaw blade (it was not running), jammed the meat of my hand in the drill-press chuck and mysteriously gashed my leg which bled all over the project in process.

The West Marine sticker is on my daughter's laptop.

Here is the top of the cabin, with no hatch or hatch shroud in place, the day I was fastening down the new hatch-slider rails.  The green tape along a piece of wood is a dam to keep epoxy from coursing down the side of the cabin and over the windows (already let that happen once, so never again!).  I had noticed a stickiness whenever I was kneeling a certain way but in the semi-mad rush to get the sticks into position and screwed down I attributed it to something stuck to my leg.  Only when I was done the most urgent part of it did I happen to notice the red stuff, which I then concluded was blood.

That's the foredeck's hatch coaming in the distance.  At the time of this photo the hatch shroud was being used to cover up that opening-- that's it even farther beyond.

Below you can see something of the main cabin, the compression post, the settee and head trim, and whatnot.


So I took this photo downwards at my leg, probably just to record the solution to the mystery.

Here I am standing up on the quarter berth, my other foot on the ladder step.  The quarter berth is (at this time) the current lumberyard.  The gap below my foot is the 'wet locker,' the one place inside the accommodation that goes straight to the hull skin itself.  Over this I would like to make a panel of slats, like the white-pine ceiling we make for C44s.  On the side of the ladder, behind my leg, goes the stainless-steel double hook to hang up wet foulies.  On the teak cabin face behind me is already another of these hooks.


You can see the cooler under the bottom shelf of the ladder; its cover is accessible when you lift the shelf.  A Fastpin stuck through a hole in the ladder side holds it up.  It's made so that if one should descend the ladder while the shelf is up the shelf won't stick out so far so as to catch a heel and break off-- although it does mean there won't be a second shelf in place for the one coming down.

Also two sections of the three-part cabin sole are visible here.  At the time of this photo the center section is just rough plywood-- it'll be varnished mahogany later.

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JC's secret system for filling deck-core rot

I recently posted a comment responding to a core-fixing issue on the Hunter Owners Web.  I think this is valuable for most fiberglass-boat owners to consider.  Here is the whole text.

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JC:

I filled all of the 'rotted'/'questionable'-core spots on my deck with epoxy. It's so rigid you could hold a teenagers' hip-hop dance party on it.

Once I made a mistake and began filling too close after a rainstorm. I don't know what I was thinking; but when I [pumped with the syringe] I saw that the epoxy actually pushed the water up to the surface. I was very surprised-- thought I had wandered into a really fine mess. What I found was that by continuing to inject epoxy, the ugly baby-vomit-looking water/epoxy slime that migrated upwards eventually stopped-- all the water (and not very much had ever got in) was gone and now the epoxy was doing its job, saturating to the bottom of the void and filling towards the top. The result was a deck area as stiff as any of the other places I have filled.

The only drawbacks to my system of 'drilling and filling' is that epoxy weighs more than does foam or balsa. In very large repairs the weight difference could be a problem. In my 40 years of boatbuilding experience I have never found a point at which this is a problem. The sides of a small production sailboat's cabin are just not enough volume to warrant worry about any increase in weight. The average owner's toolbox would probably negate any theoretical savings.

While it is very true that 'Water migrates very far from the point of entry' [mentioned by the original poster], it is also true that epoxy does the same thing, perhaps even better than does water. Penetrating epoxy is made to do this. I have been filling voids successfully with epoxy since I first heard of the stuff in the 1970s and the only significant mess I ever encountered was when the epoxy would not seem to stop sucking in, and more and more got pumped in with the syringe, until I happened to notice an uninstalled drawer sitting in the pilot-berth area with one whole corner full of the stuff. Through the tiny voids between plywood edge-grain and the fiberglass, the epoxy had migrated 10 or 12 feet along the flange of the boat (and fortunately found something to drip into that was more or less replaceable). To this day that part of the flange on that boat is probably the strongest hull-deck joint we've ever had on one of those boats.

I would trust WEST epoxy with any wood-to-wood or wood-to-raw-fiberglass joint with my life-- and, oh, wait-- I do; because my boat has been restored, remodeled and improved based on that ethic.

 

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A friend, Pilot, then asked me:

'Can you describe the process and the materials you would use. Specifically the typical hole size drilled the distance between holes and the number of holes for a given area. I've read other articles for epoxy injection but would like a builders take on this process.

'My boat was surveyed 3 years ago and an area around the windlass was found to have an elevated moisture level. Rather than pull the windlass and start replacing plywood core and all that's involved in that, injecting may be the solution that stems the moisture migration and solidifies the deck.

'My own personal thoughts on wet core and soft decks is, it's a distraction, and after 37 years of sailing on many different boats some that I've owned I have never seen a catastrophic failure based on moisture or soft decks.'

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So I told him (writing a veritable book into the process!):

If you know there is water present you can drill a hole-- only through the fiberglass layer(s)-- from one side or the other and then apply a vacuum hose to suck it out. This works surprisingly well-- it's the first step I recommend in fixing rotted outboard-skiff transoms. They all rot (motorboaters don't seem to care for their boats like we do ours); and this is the best way to save them. (I am doing my motor bracket's backing board the same way.) You then drill a few smaller holes, sized to fit the syringe, maybe about 3/16" or 1/4", into the top of the transom and pump in the stuff.

I used to thin the epoxy with acetone (not what Gougeon Brothers recommend; though when I told of them of this they said 'Who are we to argue with the Cherubinis about treating wood?" ) But you really do not need to thin it; as it's only doing its job by penetrating the way it does.

You might go cautiously at first, with just a little (3-5 pumps' worth?)-- it will migrate down. When it comes out the hole you drilled for the water, at the bottom, you know it's done what it should (and you know the transom was toast). Next batch, tape over the hole and after it's kicked off, go for broke and really pump it in.

For a deck, you do basically the same thing. You might drill a hole into the underside for your vacuum hose. Tape it securely to make an 'airtight' seal-- I have done this adequately enough with duct tape-- and run it till the vacuum cleaner's motor labors. For Diana I knew the deck to be already dried-out (but for a mistake involving a recent rain, as I said). Be sure to plug up or tape over any openings in the underside-- for the epoxy will definitely find them. You might station a partner below to watch for drips! --and be very wary of when you are pumping in tons of epoxy and apparently making no progress! Spots to watch are along the flange/toerail seam and anywhere silcone (or something worse) was used to bed down through-bolted deck hardware.

Topside, you drill a few holes to begin (you can always drill more if you think you have to). The best tactic is to choose a spot, maybe a few square feet and outboard (low) on the deck, drill pilot holes-- into the core only (mark the bitt with tape if you're worried, to be sure)-- near the highest border of the spot, and fill till you see the epoxy is no longer soaking down in your pilot holes. Don't make the mistake I've made too many times and go silly drilling too many holes-- when the epoxy makes it down to the lower holes you get a dribbling mess all over.

I generally make the holes about 4 inches apart; but it depends on the size of the area you are working with and how serious the rot is inside the core. In theory even rotted core is still 'there'; and epoxy will bond very well with wood or foam dust. As I said before, it is heavier than core material; but as I said too it's never been a terrible concern in the proportions we're talking about. For odd isolated areas it is a very solid, reliable, permanent fix. And if you do not get it all, the parts you do get remain strong and make a good base or boundary for you to fill other places.

If you choose to drill only in places where there is nonskid, you have only to fair over the holes and repaint the nonskid patches. For my deck, which was pretty bad, I resigned myself to repainting the whole deck (with Perfection) and I was redesigning the pattern of the nonskid patches anyway. The little indentations left when the epoxy is done flowing in can be faired with Marine-Tex or epoxy with silica gel, either of which will be rugged enough to not fall out in future and will be able to take paint (after the usual proper prep). Gelcoat, being polyester-based, will not stick well to epoxy (though the reverse is true). So in using epoxy you've pretty much given over the hope of refairing the affected area in polyester- (or vinylester-) based products.

This system should also be used any time you have to mount or re-mount hardware to a cored deck. Drill a pilot hole-- only through the fiberglass to the core-- for each mounting screw and fill it. Do the same in the area under the bit of hardware, like a winch and especially anything in compression or tension, like a padeye or halyard-lead block. When it's cured, drill through the solid-epoxy core you've just filled and bed down the part with 5200-- which will keep out water, hold like crazy especially in shear or tension, and provide needed flexibility. In many cases you will need only fair-sized fender washers with the under-deck locknuts because the epoxy block you just made can serve as an adequate backing plate, especially for anything in shear, like cleats and halyard stoppers.

I had doubts about the integrity of my hull after I rebedded the keel and so drilled a few exploratory holes into the bottom strata, between the keel bolts, to probe them with epoxy. This was supposed to be only solid fiberglass; and it was. No hole took more than a fraction of the syringe's worth. It was-- and is-- solid.

For Diana I had made a new, short little bulkhead at the back end of the cabin sole on which I stood the ladder/cooler shelf structure. I used 'high-quality' 3/4" MDO for it. Within too short a time this board was rotten from water behind it (from the cockpit-seat locker leaks), even though it had been well saturated (so I thought) before I installed it. (I blame it on using Dave's MAS and not my own WEST epoxy. MAS just does not penetrate as well; period.) Removing the bulkhead was out of the question; and it could not stay like it was. I drilled pilot holes down into the top edge of the plywood, straight into the depths of the laminations, just like I would have done for a plywood motorboat transom, and poured in the epoxy. It took three or four tries and made an awful mess (the stuff ran straight through the spoiled core and gushed out the bottom edge, finding gaps in the 5200 and dribbling into the bilge, where it glued down a stray PVC fitting that I still haven't ground completely away) but I sorted it and now it's solid.

I think this is a good solution for your [Pilot's] windlass mounting bolts. Given enough epoxy in the surrounding core, it will take the very severe shock and shear loads very well. Once epoxy has found something to latch onto-- the rough inner surface of the fiberglass deck, the rotten core, the remnants of any plywood-- it will stay in place and provide a very sturdy inner stratum through which you can drill even big bolt holes. And it takes 5200 very well, adds stiffness, and displaces all gaps that might otherwise find condensation or stray moisture. The one thing it does not do well is flex-- but for a windlass mount you had better not have much flex (let the nylon rode take the shock loads!) and a rigid deck is always stronger and thus more secure underfoot than one that moves and flexes to the point of fatiguing the glass fibers within and weirds you out when you step on something you'd prefer to feel solid.

Epoxy and wood = perfect together.  :)

The quarter berth

The first-series H25 came with a 12-foot-long berth to port.  Having come up with the original concept for this interior when I was 14 or 15, I suggested that the ‘nav station’ be its own little cubbyhole but got vetoed by budget and marketing at Hunter, perhaps the first of many rude awakenings over the years about how these two departments, not engineering and design, govern how boats get made.  So when I got an H25 for myself I was determined, as with the bridge deck, to rectify this fault and create something cooler about my boat for myself.
 

Immediately ahead of the quarter-berth I added a bulkhead to correspond to the forward bulkhead of the galley on the other side.  In this photo the camera is leaning on the vertical grab post that terminates the inboard end of that bulkhead.  But the original space was only 12’0” long, a kind of head-to-head double bunk.  Putting in this bulkhead left the quarter bunk about 5’8”.  So I would extend it.

[photo 2011.09 q.berth 1a.jpg]

Fortunately on poor Diana, the after bulkhead here, at the foot, being the mounting space for the (dumb) idea of the gas-can locker, had got so rotten from the boat’s being operated with the hatch open in rain that I was able to remove it... with no tools.  One of the first things I did was to build a new bulkhead 9 inches farther aft and make a shelf over the foot end.  It appears as a winch-handle shelf in the cockpit-seat hatch.  The same shelf extends forward over the foot of the bunk, making a duffel-bag locker there (see the one at the far end, here cluttered with small boards and other stuff).  The lockers along the side were an afterthought.  I had a piece of wood in my hand, going around the boat fitting it into places, and suddenly got the Eureka idea to make what we used to have on C44s up front, the underwear, t-shirt and swimsuit ‘stuff lockers’ over the bunk.

This side locker face was VERY hard to fit properly.  There was no structure here to rely upon-- I was measuring things in thin air.  It is not parallel to the centreline nor to the angled side of the bunk.  Immediately forward of it, in the space where the fiddle-rail shelf used to be, is the electrical panel.  (In the photo the panel is lying back in the bunk with two rectangular holes for the switch panels.  It appears here face-down; the switch panels are to the right when you look at it.)  This was hard to fit against the back of the cabin but I finally just left the end long and figured I’d make some kind of bin in the back end, over the end of the fiddle-rail shelf.  This end of the electrical panel actually formed a good anchoring point for this new locker face.  I mounted it with no bottom and cut the bottom to fit.  It’s bonded to the hull with 5200, lending strength and stiffness in this notoriously flimsy area.
 

The fit of the overhead of this space has yet to be determined.  I intend the roof of the locker for the shotgun but have to install the traveler and backing plates before I can see what I have to screw the hinges and latches to.
 

The bit of what looks like plain trashy plywood in the back of the crosswise locker is a bit of plain trashy 3/8” CDX plywood I had been using for templates and the like till one day I got the silly idea to make dividers for these lockers out of it.  Diligently I fit the pieces, sanded them carefully (try sanding CDX some time!) and saturated them in Salem sealer before installing them.  As such they’re adequate for humidity and will last ages.  Another divider is visible beside the blue duffel bag.  One of them I signed (before the varnish and installation) as a tongue-and-cheek reminder to the next owner that I really did know what I was doing using this plain trashy plywood and that it was meant as a joke.  The one in the back blocks off a ragged piece of ‘glass from the earlier bunk-foot structure.
 

The little cubbyhole down at the far end is where the original after bulkhead was-- its forward bulkhead is heavily ‘glassed to the hull.  The two blades of ‘glass after where I cut it off have remained strong even though the wood between it was rotten to nothing.  There’s still some (good) wood in there.  The inside of this locker isn’t pretty-- I put it there mainly to trim off the remains of what had been there.  I had to make a floor in it, uncharacteristically blocking off the space below to keep things from disappearing into an invisible and almost inaccessible wedge in there.  I call this locker ‘Indiana’ because its plywood face is the shape of that state only mirrored.  Beneath the foot of the bunk, beyond the original bulkhead (still there under the bunktop), is another locker against the inside of the hull.  If you were to peel up the front of the mattress some day you would assume there are only the two stock traps under the bunk; so it might be a good hiding spot.  But I’ve just said that in this blog; so you can rest assured that’s not the only secret spot this boat holds!
 

I will take other photos of the under-cockpit area and the ladder but I have been waiting to pretty it up with more trim.  I have been going up and down that ladder about 6 years now and only recently have I considered that the treads might like another coat of varnish.  Captain’s Varnish is made for spars and is excellent for durability as well as UV protection.
 

The trim around the lockers came from C44 hull 5, which was in for restoration while I was collecting scrap wood.  The wood is only 3 years younger than this (1974) boat.  The trim around the teak cabin back looks washed-out from the flash, but it is really more golden than the long-varnished other stuff, and it is all Honduras mahogany (not the pretend stuff you get now).  I just screwed it on and let the screws show-- it’s too thin for plugs and it’s how the trim was originally on this boat.  I also don’t believe in staining wood that’s already pretty.  I leave it as-is, apply sealer and then Captain’s Varnish and let it have its own identity.  So the interior appears a mix-up of varying wood colors, which is exactly how it should be.  It reflects the reality and naturalness of the natural material.  (Also it is much less work.)  I tried a bit of stain on a bit of mahogany-plywood bulkhead and even though I used only a very little it got so black that it was downright ugly and I remade the piece and just varnished it as-is. Varnished mahogany marine plywood, going back to the Cherubini Sea Scamp days, is as much of my heritage as are original artwork, Roman Catholicism and frozen waffles.  In this boat I am surrounded by what I am.

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