RUDDER TEMPLATE

Last weekend, I cut a template for the rudder.  The dimensions for the template were taken from the J/30 class specifications and laid out on a piece of plywood.  Then the template was rough cut with a jig saw and finished off with a hand held belt sander.

When the template was laid on the rudder, it was apparent that the rudder was a bit fat in the center.  I think this is a relatively common condition for the J/30 rudder coming from the factory.  In the attached pictures, you can see the profile of the leading and trailing edges of the rudder holding up the template from being able to sit flush on the leading and trailing edges.

I've started to taper the leading and trailing edges by grinding down the fiberglass. I have one side nearly complete and will be starting the other side very soon.

WOODWORK & UNDER-SINK NASTINESS

We dove into a couple of new projects on the winter list this past weekend.  Our friend Mary volunteered to refinish the interior woodwork, I think before she realized what she was getting into.  And if nothing else, certainly before she realized I hadn't cleaned everything out of the boat yet from the summer season which meant many trips up and down the ladder emptying the boat before sanding could begin.  Sorry Mary!

And why are we refinishing woodwork?  Over the years, there had been a few leaks in the boat, mainly from the handrails and the windows.  The leaking has stained and damaged some of the woodwork finish.  So, it's time to take care of the damage.  Most of the mahogany is in decent shape, so not much finishing will be needed of mahogany.  Much of the white ash, however, needs to be refinished.

Areas adjacent to woodwork were taped off so that the surfaces would not be accidentally damaged while we were sanding.

Yes, that is the sink you see in this picture.  When we got into the project, I realized it would be easier to refinish the woodwork around the stove with the stove and gimbal removed.  Being that the stove is in close proximity to the sink, this reminded me that I also needed to fix a leak on the sink drain.  So I started to take apart the sink drain, which instantly crumbled into about five pieces.  In addition, the drain hose was not in the best of condition, so out the hose came as well.  The bottom of the sink was corroded, so I decided to take the whole thing out so it could be cleaned up and repainted.

And, of course, since I was under the galley, this reminded me that I had wanted to clean up and repaint the area under the galley.  There are two shelves in this area.  One was in decent condition while the other showed significant signs of deterioration.

The one on the left in this picture will be painted (in lieu of re-varnishing) while the one on the right will be rebuilt and painted.

A picture of the area under the galley after removal of the shelves is below.  The foot pump for the sink faucet attaches to the lower shelf.  This entire area under the galley will be repainted.

RUDDER REPAIR

The first project of the winter season has begun.  The rudder has had signs of failure since I had purchased Hullabaloo several seasons ago.  The boat survey completed around the time of purchase indicated there was moisture in the rudder.  Several seasons back, I had tried to dry the rudder out by drilling a series of holes in the outer skin and running a heat lamp for about six weeks then glassing the holes up.  Turns out this did not work.

The most significant visual sign of failure was a crack in the leading edge of the rudder between the gudgeons.

Weighing the rudder resulted in a total weight of 75 lbs.  Most dry J/30 rudders are weighing in at 60-65 lbs., so this meant the rudder was likely carrying 10-15 lbs. of water weight.

Checking the rudder with a moisture meter revealed significant moisture in the rudder.   The meter I use runs a range from 0% to 30%.  Typically, anything under 10% indicates very dry core material.  10%-15% is slightly damp.  15%-20% is noticeably damp.  Anything over 20% you can usually squeeze water out of the core material.

I mapped out the moisture on the rudder and made markings of the moisture content on the rudder with a sharpie marker.  There were only a few moisture readings under 20% with the majority of readings being in the upper 20's and many readings pegging the needle of the moisture meter at its maximum.

I thought about several potential options:  1-Repair the rudder ($300-$500), 2-Build a new rudder ($300-$600) Purchase a new rudder ($2,000+).  Option 1 is the direction I have decided to go, primarily because of cost.

The first step was to remove the skin of the rudder.  I drilled holes at the leading and trailing edges of the rudder to determine where the balsa core started and stopped (the leading and trailing edges of the rudder are solid fiberglass).

Once the extents of the balsa core were determined, I made a grid of cuts in the skin with a circular saw set to a depth that cut through the skin and slightly into the balsa core.

From there, the skin and balsa core were carefully pried and chiseled off with a pry bar and hammer, attempting to take care to not damage the inner core of the rudder.  The inner core in this rudder appears to be some type of a resin/composite filler.  The inner core, in a few locations, is cracked.  This is presumably due to moisture in the rudder and previous winter storage seasons where the rudder was exposed to freezing and thawing.

A few pictures of the rudder with the skin removed and the remains of the skin and balsa core.

SUNSET

The first good sunset of the season.

LAUNCH DAY

Launch day was May 16th.  Not a very friendly day for launch.  The winds had been up for a couple of days.  My scheduled launch was at South Shore Yacht Club.  They decided to cancel all launches for the day, as they had the previous two days as well.  Unfortunately Hullabaloo needed to be off the trailer by the end of the day so another boat could go on the trailer.  Fortunately, the good folks at Pier Milwaukee were able to slide me into their launch schedule.  It's good to be back in the water.

A view from the lift

Up the River & Into the Harbor

The Cold Crew

The Not So Cold Crew

HANDRAILS

New handrails have been installed.  The cabin top rails are teak.  The interior rails are white ash to match what had previously been in their place.  Both sets were replaced as the exterior rails had been sanded so many times they were really wearing thin and the interiors were substantially stained from water.  I used the old rails as approximate templates to make the new rails.

I've changed the connection detail so that the rails are attached through the deck with a screw and washer.  The original configuration had the rails connected together through the deck with threaded rod and a nut on either end of the threaded rod.  The nut connection was sunk into the handrails and capped with a wood plug.  I was not a fan of this configuration as maintenance requiring the rails to be removed required drilling out the plugs.

The debate is on as to whether or not the exterior rails are 'crew friendly'.  They give a nice handhold in rough weather but they tend to clutter up the deck a bit.

Here are a few photos:

ALMOST READY

The bottom is painted, the deck is cleaned, the teak is refinished and we're almost set for launch on Monday.  All that is absolutely needed before launch is to buff and wax the topsides, which should happen today, Saturday, and Sunday.

Other things on the list are to install handrails that I had build a couple of years ago and not installed as well as putting the instruments in place and building a new mounting bracket for the instrument on the mast.  These things will hopefully get wrapped up this weekend.

COCKPIT SEAT REPAIR - COMPLETE!

The seat repair is complete!  Once the 2000E was dried, I sanded it out using a combination of a 6" random orbit sander and hand sanding (on the edges).  After sanding, I re-taped off the area to be painted.  Lesson learned...make sure the tape is adhered well along its edges.  I had a bit of paint that seeped under the edges of the tape in a few areas.  Nothing anyone is going to notice except me, but it is a fine detail I will pay closer attention to next time.

After the sanding was complete, the surface was cleaned with Interlux 202 solvent, then washed with water, then cleaned with the recommended thinner for the paint product I was going to use.  The paint finish I decided on was Interlux Perfection with Awlgrip course grit.

The first layer of Perfection was applied and Awlgrip grit shaken onto the surface.  I worked a small area at a time, first applying Perfection then shaking on the grit, then moving onto the next section, always keeping a wet edge on the paint.  To shake the grit on, I used an old nut container with holes drilled in the top.  This served as an oversized salt shaker.  I put on as much grit as the paint would take.

Once the paint had dried, I was surprised by how much of the paint had been absorbed by the grit.  At this point, excess grit was vacuumed off.  Then another layer of Perfection was applied.  After the 2nd layer of Perfection, a third coat was needed to provide sufficient cover.

A bit about Interlux Perfection.  The paint is a two part product.  I decided to roll it on as opposed to spraying because of the relatively small surface area I was dealing with.  I used the recommended thinner and thinned it out per Perfection's recommendations.  This was done with all coats of finish.  The thinning helps reduce roller marks.  There are no noticeable roller marks on the finish product.

Because this is a non-skid surface, I didn't want a high gloss surface.  I used Perfection's recommended flattening agent, which is also a two part product, to get a semi-gloss surface.  I used a 1:1 ratio of Perfection to flattener.  Thinner was added to the paint after it was mixed with the flattener and only to the recommended ratio of paint to thinner.  i.e. I didn't adjust the thinner ratio based on the total paint and flattener quantity.

The products used are not friendly to one's health.  I wore a quality respirator and gloves whenever using the product.  This included while preparing/mixing the paint.

I'm very happy with the finished product.  The non-skid has excellent grip and the finish seems to be very durable.  We'll see how it performs this season.

All that is left now is to install the traveler.  This will include modifications from the original layout.  More to follow on that later...

SPINNAKER POLE BRIDAL

The bridal for the spinnaker pole was not in very good condition, so I decided to replace the cables with 1/8" Amsteel lines.  The old cables were cut off and new Amsteel installed in their place.  The line is braided as opposed to tied to provide a stronger attachment.

COCKPIT SEAT REPAIR - NEARING COMPLETION

Over the past week, the seat repair has gotten closer to being complete.  The repair was faired with Interlux 833.  I would have preferred to use a more fine filler, but 833 is what I had, so that's what was used.  In the large area of repair, I had to use several applications to build the area up and provide a relatively flat finish.

After the areas were filled, Interlux 2000E was used as a final filler to take care of minor surface imperfections.  There are currently two coats applied.  We'll see if another coat is needed once  it is dried.  I also did a minor amount of filling between coats with a fine filler to take care of pin-hole size voids in the finish.

One of the hatches had been chipped out along the edges over the years from lines being caught in the hatch while they were closed.  The chips were addressed prior to filling and finishing.  The chips were ground out and new fiberglass was laid up for the repair.

OUTHAUL REPAIR

So over the course of the past few seasons, there have been grumblings about the function of the outhaul.  I thought little of it until I tried to move it under a relatively light wind load last season.  That was enough to realize something needed to be done with it this winter.

With the boom in my basement, the work has been easy to complete.  I started with removing the reefing lines out of the boom.  Very easy to take out.  Then came the removal of the cast aluminum pieces at the ends of the boom.  The aft casting came out easily after remove of a couple of screws. 

The forward casting proved to be a bit more difficult.  Two of the four fasteners were completely stripped out and did not want to back out of their holes.  So, with a bit of persuasion from a grinder, the fastener heads were ground off and the screws punched into the boom so that the casting could slide out of the boom.  Prior to reassembly, the mounting holes were drilled out and tapped to a slightly larger size fastener.

With the castings off, the guts of the outhaul could be removed.  As it turns out, the blocks inside the mast were completely seized up.  Back when the outhaul operated properly, it gave a purchase of 3:1.  The setup consisted of a set of blocks, one connected to a fixed point in the boom and the other connected to a cable running to the aft end of the boom, around a pulley, and out to the sail.

The new setup includes an added block and line to double the purchase to 6:1.  Between the newer Harken blocks and the 6:1 setup, the outhaul is moving much more smoothly.  The entire outhaul assembly had to be put together outside of the boom and then fished inside.  All in all, I think I am very happy with this upgrade.  I've considered adding a short piece of track and a Harken ball bearing car to the aft end of the boom so that the operation of the outhaul would be effortless under heavy load, but that modification may wait until a later date.

BULKHEAD FINISH PANEL

The bulkhead finish panel is complete.  I used what was left of the old finish panel as a rough template for the new panel.  Then the panel was fitted in place, marked, and final trimmed to the proper size.  All the mounting hardware was also fitted.  New cleats for the engine cover to rest on were made out of leftover white ash from another project.

I had a bit of a challenge trying to find a piece of mahogany plywood to make the new panel out of.  The cost of a full sheet of plywood, plus a special order charge, was a bit ridiculous.  In lieu of the more expensive mahogany, I opted for a free piece of marine grade birch plywood and stained the panel to match the mahogany.  Obviously the grain differs, but the color match is relatively close.

Here are a few photos of the old and new panel.

The window was bedded in place with Life-Calk after the panel was installed.  A padeye tie-off point for harnesses was also re-installed with a new backing plate made of 1/4" thick fiberglass panel.

BULKHEAD REPAIR

The bulkhead over the engine has been repaired.  The old bulkhead was removed and found to have absolutely no integrity left in it.  All of its mounting locations were completely rotten and the bulkhead came out in two pieces.

A new bulkhead was constructed of marine grade plywood.  The plywood was wrapped in fiberglass and several layers of Interlux 2000E applied.

I decided to modify the mounting conditions of the bulkhead.  The old mounting consisted of four screws across the top of the bulkhead into the floor of the cockpit and another couple of screws into wood blocks at the base of the bulkhead. 

The revised mounting condition across the top of the bulkhead remained the same except a piece of fiberglass angle was installed to provide a bit of additional support between the bulkhead and cockpit floor.  At the sides of the bulkhead, a piece of fiberglass angle was attached between the bulkhead and adjacent fiberglass to take place of the blocks that had previously been installed at the base of the bulkhead.

I considered glassing this entire bulkhead in but decided it was better to use mechanical fasteners so that the bulkhead could be more easily removed in the future if needed.

COCKPIT SEAT REPAIR

There's been a bit of a soft spot in the port cockpit seat for the past couple of years that I decided it was time to tackle.  So out came the cutting tools.  I cut the top layer of deck into pieces about 2" x 2" with a dremel tool.  In retrospect, a larger cutting tool would had made this part of the process go much more quickly, but the dremel tool worked just fine.

With a bit of cutting and prying, the top layer of fiberglass was removed.  It turns out there was quite a bit of wet balsa core.  Here's a picture of the initial area that was cut out and another of the remnants of the cut out.

As I got further into removing material, there was more wet core than I had anticipated.  The wet core wrapped around the front of the traveler.  So more fiberglass and core was removed.  In order for the new fiberglass to have something to adhere to, the existing fiberglass needed to be feathered back around the repair area.  In some areas, there really wasn't enough area around the repair to allow for a perfect feathering, so the best that could be done had to be good enough.  Here is a picture of the area ready for the new layup.

Since fiberglass work was going to happen and I'm also going to rework the traveler, I decided to fiberglass in all of the old traveler hardware mounting locations.  Areas where hardware was mounted were ground out so that they could be filled and a couple layers of fiberglass laid in to prevent the filled holes from cracking out in the future.

So all of the areas of glass work were ready to go.  New balsa core and several layers of fiberglass where cut to the proper size.  The major repair consisted of three layers of a 29 oz. biaxial fabric while the small repairs consisted of two layers of fabric.

At the large repair a layer of glass was laid over the bottom layer of existing fiberglass.  Then the perimeter areas were filled with MarGlass filler.  The new balsa core was set and mudded in at the perimeter by more MarGlass.  Then three layers of glass were installed over the top of the core.