Monday, August 9, 2010

Deconstruction

Nothing too exciting has been going on these past couple of weeks. Since reaching the finishing point on the hull below the waterline, I've turned my attention to the deck and interior. I've been working my way from bow to stern disassembling everything in my path.

So far I've completely gutted the v-berth in the cabin. Before Windsong was even out of the water I had began to remove teak trim and cabinetry and have started the refurbishing of those pieces. These past few weeks I spent time removing the remaining trim, tearing out headliner and the old strips of wood it was attached to, chipping off old formica, ripping out foam insulation in lockers, and generally clearing the space out.

Aside from interior destruction, I've begun to remove all deck hardware. Once old hardware is removed, I will pot all holes with epoxy to seal leaks and prevent core rot in the future. Removing the old hardware is difficult in some areas, particularly the teak handrails. The bolts used to hold them in are very stuck and it took a good amount of effort to get them out. Eventually a boat yard friend showed me the wonder of an impact driver and I ordered one immediately to help speed up this process. Looks like those teak handrails will need to be replaced due to lack of upkeep and accidental damage trying to remove them.

There aren't many interesting pictures of this process. But I've been trying to take pictures of whatever I take apart so I can have a guide while putting the puzzle back together. If you are interested in the pictures of dissassembling Windsong, feel free to browse this gallery:
My new West System epoxy kit should arrive this week and I will begin to pot the hardware holes soon after. I plan on following the process shown here (click link). I'll try to do some good photo documenting of the process for the blog.

1 comment:

Mid-Life Cruising! said...

It seems that to improve the interior of a sailboat, you must first destroy it! Sounds like you're past the first step. She's going to be sweet!