The story of the Wood That Got Away (Almost)

It's spring and I was still driving around with too much stuff in the car from the house-clean job I got in January.  So I spent the whole morning on Thursday cleaning out the car, including wood I had meant for the wood mill (my brother's place), the guitar pickguard material for the switch plates, tools and other parts.  I set the wood on top of the car to load later... and then forgot it, got into the car and drove off.

Without watching my speed I hit about 55 MPH on River Road, then of course slowed down.  I turned to go over the tracks, stopped at the market for iced tea (and crisps), and then turned, went over the tracks again, straight down Chester Avenue and then along the river (as I often do) to the marina.  Upon turning in to the marina I heard this rattling on the roof.

'Oh; I am an idiot! --I forgot that was on there!'  Over the next two minutes I just mulled it over, talking to myself.  'Maybe it's still on there.  Maybe it's back by the side of the road.  Maybe it's in the yard beside the house....'

Stopping the car at the boat I got out to look.  The plywood for the galley cabinet was there, half-jammed into the roof rack.  One of the mahogany planks was there, simply lying at an angle atop the plywood.  The longer of the two mahogany planks was gone.

I worked the whole day (too poor to waste fuel on two trips) and worried about it.  I even looked about the boat and searched my mind for any way of replacing it with other wood: but there isn't.  I had these planks milled at Edgewater Building Supply about 4-5 years ago, just for this application.  They're for the underside of the cabintop to both serve as backing blocks for the handrail bolts and to trim off the edges of the foam-backed headliner material.  They want only a notch cut along one edge to receive the foam stuff, which is not installed yet, but I wanted to fit them for length on the two sides and get some finish on them as they're still raw and beginning to look it.  So now I was out of luck.

Worse, sap that I am, I worried about the poor piece of wood outside in the drizzle we had in the afternoon.  Well; now even if I could recover it, it'd be waterstained (this shows through most varnish unless it's sanded down pretty far first).

Towards evening I was still at the boat and my mother called and invited me to supper.  (I am a sucker for any free supper.)  I kind of expected this and was saving what little fuel I have left for the trip home for a shower and back down (past the boat again) for her place. On the way home I took the right lane, went slowly, and kept my eyes across the road for some forlorn-looking piece of mahogany with maybe tire-tracks across it.  Sadly, I did not see it, went home, had a shower, turned around and started back along the same route for my mom's.  I thought I saw it (off the road) and made a U-turn, drove by, decided that wasn't it.  Then I saw it! --far off the road, parallel to the train tracks.  I made a quick U-turn (in a parking lot with a sign: No U-Turns) and ran across the road to see it.

How it managed to fly 35 feet from the road and land perfectly parallel to the road (and tracks) can be attributed only to the fact that I was doing 55 MPH, right at about this point.  The board is indeed waterstained; but I can sand that out.  Best of all the corners are all intact.  How did that happen? --I can only guess that it blew so far off the car that it never hit any tarmac at all but landed neatly in this grassy area.  I've seen pieces of plywood go flying and they usually end up as ovals (no corners) from cartwheeling as they land.  This piece survived in perfectly-usable condition.

Now there is yet another piece of this boat with a funny story.  Someday (soon) I'll be showing people over the boat and point up at it and say, 'That was the one that almost got away.'  If there's any nicks or stains showing it'll only be proof of the story and not considered 'ugly'. (There is really nothing on this boat that's 'ugly'.)   It'll be like the backing plate under the foredeck, the ladder/cooler assembly, the 'extra' locker after of the quarter berth, and the 'Uncle Joe' sticks on the cabin sole-- just one more part of Diana's composite personality.

(See here for more of the same....)

I've used so much reclaimed and repurposed mahogany on this boat that it's kind of a motif.  Most of the mahogany that looks like it doesn't match is from older boats, such as one C44 that got a major interior-remodeling project done to it.  It's mostly 1970s-era wood, which, used in Diana, lends an authentic look.  Diana doesn't look newly-restored.  She looks like she was always meant to be that way, indeed like she was always that way all along.  My cabinetry fits aren't perfect (see Steve for that kind of work - https://www.facebook.com/Notcher-Designs-227378264271864/?fref=ts) but overall Diana has a 'factory' look to her.

Think of her as a Hunter 25 built by Cherubini Boat Company!  You'll see when the commissioning party happens!

- JC2

Cockpit drains

Hunter, in their infinite wisdom (read that: attempts to save money) devised a simple way to install cockpit drains in the back of the H25 cockpit.  I really cannot fault this too much because they spared the cockpit sole itself from the potential for damage; and indeed my 38-year-old balsa-cored cockpit floor is one of the soundest parts of the boat.  But by installing the through-hulls through the vertical after bulkhead of the cockpit they kept much of the water from running out.  You always had to sponge out the last 1/2" or so while people stood towards the rear of the boat to get it all to run down to the drains.

This was something I meant to remedy from the start.  I found some nylon drains by Starboard East (that's the brand name) having a flattened side, meant to go in a vertical bulkhead down low to the floor; but they are nylon and subject to UV-exposure damage and stems' cracking and this is not a place one wants to risk that.  After searching high and low I found what the plumbing guy called 'bar-sink drains', at 1 inch diameter (though I have 'bar-sink drains' in the head and galley sinks and they are 'standard' at 2 inches).  They are rugged, heavy brass, but not stainless-steel and will go green unless I paint them.

Here is the mess I started with.  In this photo the starboard drain has already been chopped out.  I left the port side one for later as the boat on its stands is sort of tilting to that side and rainwater will have to go somewhere.  I had once removed the old Marelon (nee RC Marine) through-hulls and rebedded them with 5200 to stop leaks when I first got the boat.  Now I just hacked them out with a chisel.

The flange itself, now separated from the stem, is standing next to the hole.

All the tools used are in the picture!

The next step was to fill the hole.  Here are shown the 'communion wafers' of fiberglass to be used for the fill.  I used about six of these for each hole. These are of 1708 biaxial, because it was what was available.  For a small job like this really any 'glass will do.  I would not use cloth alone; but if you had at least most of it done in plain mat it would be fine.




The smaller ones are for the other holes in the cockpit getting filled at the same time. (Yes; I used the one with the bite out of it.  It doesn't matter.)



My simple 'mooyock' system for this is to apply duct tape to the back or harder-to-get side (the outside of the hull, for example) and to fill from the front or upper side.  Why make life hard on yourself?


This photo shows the power of 5200-- the gash to the left of the hole itself is from the through-hull's parting from the 'glass and its 5200 taking some 'glass with it.

Here is a close-up of the port-side hole before filling.  Apparently I missed a little with the duct tape (doing it by feel with arm down port-side seat locker).

Here is the port-side hole filled.  This-- like all the rest of these holes about the cockpit-- will get sanded and faired with Microlight before Epoxy Primekote and paint.

There is nothing wrong with overfilling it, so long as it's with 'glass.  A patch like this is easy to sand flush and it's reassuring knowing you've got solid material completely filling the hole.

As ever proper preparation is key.  Scrub the back and front sides with sandpaper and clean thoroughly with acetone before mixing up your resin & hardener.


The holes in the bulkhead above were from something the PO or the factory had here.  I really don't remember.  The smaller one is the lower drain hole of the port-side seat locker's drain, which I eliminated when I made the replacement drain trough (which now only uses the upper hole).

In this photo the right side (to the left) is already done (more or less) and the left side is to be filled.  Some days passed between these stages, to allow for a weather window which would let the port one cure before rain might leak through the cover.

You can see how Hunter's money-saving scheme for these did not include ensuring that they were mounted symmetrically.

The ugly patched place to port is from where the PO had installed his bilge pump's Auto-Off-Manual switch-- right into the bulkhead, without sealant, and without cognizance of what happens when these electrical things get wet.  In this photo it's been filled with 'glass and begun to be faired with Microlight.

The big round hole to starboard is for the Whale manual bilge pump.

 
Here are the drains newly installed.

These nifty little fittings came with very good flanged nuts for the other side.  (I did not use the rubber gaskets.)  The surface-mount flanges are not too thick-- certainly much thinner than the flanges of normal nylon or Marelon through-hulls would be.  When I drilled out these holes I was relieved to find that they would miss all the balsa, which starts about an inch or two forward of the holes, and would go through solid 'glass.  It did occur to me that I might rout out the 'glass to set the flanges flush; but what tool would I use for that in this tight corner and how would I get them smooth and level enough?  I have lately decided I will mask these off and fill the space behind them and around to the outboard edges with Microlight, so as to keep water from pooling against the edges of the flanges.  Though I set these in with 5200 I did not get as much 'ooze-out' as I would have liked.  Most of it is between the stem and the hole I drilled for each one, where it should be.


My yardmate Roland made a very good point that these 1-inch drains are probably too small for offshore work.  I don't expect to do much sailing far offshore in this boat; and boats with cockpit drains of this size or worse have done successful passages.  But his point is well taken; and once I have fewer tasks in front of me I may look to replacing or adding to these with larger ones.  My choice of size for these was governed by only the existing transom fittings; but they could be changed too.

After discussing with him I did decide I will not install check-valves in these lines.  They are almost straight runs and are subject to pooping from heavy water directly aft, which would lead to not only water shooting into the cockpit but the water already in the cockpit not going out.  But the check-valves would further restrict water flow.  The H25 is pretty buoyant aft and would probably rise away from heavy swells; but who is to say what happens in such conditions?  People with experiences about cockpit flooding at sea are encouraged to comment!


I don't have a photo of the underside, but the Marelon elbows I meant for the bilge-pump outlets screwed onto these brass fittings perfectly (with plenty of Teflon thread-seal tape) and I was able to hook them up using the old hoses.  I did, however, wait for the 5200 to fully cure (about a week).  Shields no.148 hose can be a monster to fight on and off; and experience has shown it is strong enough to work loose the 5200 on recently-bedded fittings and through-hulls.  So-- proceed gently, with patience.

I reused one of my old hoses for this (just temporarily) but found the other was too short.  I hacked off a piece from the (as-yet) unused bilge-pump lines, not measuring very well as I was doing all this from lying inside the starboard-side locker, and got it almost too short again.  For now one clamp is sufficient; but these will all be done properly before the boat goes in.


The very dusty state of this cockpit is due to its being prepared for Epoxy Primekote and paint.  The nonskid of the sole did come off with scraping from a chisel; but it is adhered really well and since I don't need to bed down any more hardware to the sole I may only rough it up enough to take the Primekote and paint over it.  The same goes for the deck/cabintop.

* * *

It's not my fault!

Re: pics from September 2011

   The first thing one has to consider in viewing evidence of my progress so far is that the boat was in pretty sad shape to start with in 2003.  Most of what there was of it fit into one of three categories:
   1. bits that were worn-out, too old or damaged from age
   2. bits that were badly maintained by POs
   3. bits that were badly done by Hunter or my dad in the build and design stages and desperately called out for some revisionist thinking.

   Enter an idealistic dreamer (read that: 'idiot') with more thought than power and definitely more enthusiasm than money or resources.

   The second thing one has to consider is that my employment record has been spotty (at best) since I got this boat.  The good bit is that had I not had a steady job as a classroom teacher at the time I bought it, I never would have got the boat later (and I would have been boatless and poor Diana would have been scrapped).  The bad bit is that, after a year of having the boat located 50 miles away, my cousin Dave took over the old CBC property and offered me a spot there, gratis (basically he 'ordered' me to bring the boat up here and get it done); but then I lost my teaching job due to a budget cut (what else?) six months later and have not worked steadily since.

  So Diana appeared in a window of time that was as narrow as her transom and was (and remains) never to be repeated.  Luck is as luck does.  At least I have a boat-- and despite how it looks it really isn't that far away from sailing salt water again at all.  Most of the delay has been due to my nitpicking-- in the process of too many years I have rebuilt about 75% of the original boat and another 10% or 15% from now it'll be done.  I do what I can, when I can, with what I have.  What else is there?

* * *