the day the resin died

Sunday morning Anne and I headed out to the boatyard eager to apply the final 5 coats of fiberglass mat to the deck mast step.  Anne jumped directly into prepping the mast step for the new epoxy - wash down the area, dry the area, sand the area, wipe down area with acetone, tape off the area around the step, spread out drop cloths on deck, and align all the materials and tools.  While Anne progressed thru the preparation, I focus on installing the locker doors in the vee berth area.

When Anne called the all ready, I joined her on deck.  25 layers of mat into the construction of the new deck step we have developed a system for the application.  Anne mixes the two part West Systems epoxy.  The epoxy containers have hand pumps so measuring out the correct ratio is simply a matter of counting out equal numbers of pumps.  For this project we use 4 pumps of resin and 4 pumps of hardener.  Once the epoxy is mixed together Anne pours the mixture over the precut dry fiberglass mat.  Anne purchased a large turkey basting pan that fits our mat sections perfectly so we use this vessel for saturating the mat.  The mat transforms from white to translucent when it fully saturates with the epoxy.  The process now becomes a two person job.  One of us holds the cloth in the pan while the other uses a plastic squeegee to remove surplus epoxy from the cloth.  I then apply the saturated mat to the mast step.  Once the mat is in place I work out all the bubbles and wrinkles to ensure a solid buildup.  Meanwhile Anne begins mixing up the next round of epoxy.   As the epoxy cures is gives off heat, an exothermic reaction.  A massing too many layers on a sunny day can generate enough heat to compromising the strength of the assembly or even ignite a fire.  Dependent on conditions we are limited to applying 4 to 7 layers at during a session.  Since the entire process is sticky hands on work (we do wear gloves), there are no clean hands to take pictures.

Back to Sunday morning,  we are two layers into our final round of 5 layers and the epoxy resin pump rudely belches air.  Anne tries again and gets a mixture of air and resin.  Damn!  I knew we were getting low, but we are out?  In the middle of our final layup?  I finish working layer two onto the wet mast step and then make hasty lap through our section of the yard in an attempt to "borrow" some resin.  No luck.  Anne continues to use the epoxy remaining in the pan and her last mixture to wet out layer three.  By the time I return to C'est la Vie empty handed Anne has successfully wetted out the next layer of mat.  I apply the mat while Anne rigs a cardboard box as a sunshade in an effort to slow the curing.  We deglove and jump in the car.  Our mad dash to the Beaufort Ace Hardware is on.  We need to return with new resin before our currently layup cures beyond the point of being tacky.  Otherwise we must wait for the layup to fully cure and then go through the entire prepation process again.

We did not even question weather Ace would carry West epoxy.  This is a coastal town with heavy commercial and recreational boat traffic.  Quick survey of the glue isle - no.  Quick survey of the paint section - no.  Quick search for anyone wearing a red Ace Hardware vest - yes.  Bad news - our local Ace Hardware does not carry West Systems products.  Closest alternative?  West Marine Morehead City.  Our next course of action? Head home and enjoy a turkey sandwich over a game of Spite and Malice.

After being defeated, again, in Spite and Malice, I return to C'est la Vie in the afternoon.  I clean up the remnants of our morning epoxy session and then make good progress on plumbing the head.

Definitely a two person job

Notice anything different in the image above?  Well yes, Anne is holding up the severed lower 6 feet of C'est la Vie's mast.  But is that really all that unusual?  How about that fleece jacket Anne is wearing?  That's right autumn temps are finally here in the OBX.

Backed by temps in the low 50's, armed with a fish tape and some p-cord on loan from Omar Sails, Anne and I confidently stepped up to the task of threading messenger lines from the top of the mast to the proper exit holes near deck level on the mast.

Being a boat project this task consumed much more time than originally budgeted.  We learned that compression tubes, PVC conduit, internal sleeves, and bolt studs are infinitely attractive to the end of the fish tape than the proper exit hole on the mast.

By nearly noon we successfully threaded the final halyard messenger and had moved on to the electrical wiring in the mast.  We removed some old, unused co-axial cable to make room for a NMEA 2000 line that will transmit data from our new Garmin GWS 10 Wind Sensor stationed atop the mast to the display in our cockpit.  As expected it is easier to remove old wires that to pull new.  Anne's smaller hands saved the day by enabling her to reach blindly into the top of the mast and thread wires to the proper exit.

Stepping back is not an option now

Friday afternoon, Paul from Omar Sails came out and cut the mast just above the damaged area.  Now we are fully committed to deck stepping the mast.

While working on site, Paul, also located and cut the exit holes for the internal halyards.  I was surprised to discover that standard woodworking bits and blades were used on the mast.  He simply used a jig saw with a 10 tooth per inch wood cutting blade for making the cuts on the mast.

Once Paul departed I used a dremel tool with a cut off wheel to reach inside the mast and carefully cut the PVC pipe that serves as a conduit for the electrical lines running inside the mast.  Now it is up to Anne and I to thread through the length of the mast the small diameter messenger lines.  The messenger lines will be used to pull the new halyards through the mast and out the proper exit hole.

Better weather allows progress both inside and out

Clear skies have finally returned to the area.  Anne and I were finally able to build the deck mast step up to 25 layers.  Once the epoxy cured, I ground out the high spots and discovered that we will need to add more mat to ensure the mast is not reduced in height when we complete this conversion.

We cut 5 more layers of mat and plan to add those to the step over the weekend.

Meanwhile below decks a bit of sanding plus a few coats paint and  the holes filled in the port, forward bulkhead are now gone...

Once the paint dried we drilled the new, lower hole to allow a 1 1/2" diameter line to pass between the holding tank and the pumpout fittings.

Filling and Drilling Holes in my Head

When I began route hoses to the new, 50% larger holding tank, my hope of utilizing the existing holes in the forward bulkhead evaporated.  The line in (deposit) hose lines up well with the hole in the upper, left of the image above.  The line out (withdraw) hose will require a new hole 15" below the upper hole.  I could not bring myself to drill anew without first filling in the existing holes. In the image above, the four holes filled are filled with epoxy thickened by mixed it with chopped up fiberglass mat.

Once the plugs in the holes cured, I used epoxy thickened with west systems 405 filler (brown) to fair out the surface of  each side of the bulkhead.  While the fairing remained wet, I applied a layer of mat to each side of the bulkhead.  The mat will bond the repairs to the entire bulkhead and hopefully return some measure of strength lost when each hole is drilled.

Tomorrow we will return to C'est la Vie a drill a couple new holes.

Of course this process took place in the freshly painted vee berth and head lockers.  Once this repair has cured and the new hole is drilled we will need to break out the primer and paint - again.

Rain, rain, rain

Heavy, daily rains have retarded progress on repairs.  For the last 6 days we have waited to add to the 18 layers of mat in place on the base for the new on deck mast step.

We estimate the base will require 25 layers of mat to bring the layup level with the existing lip.  Once the two are level we will then fair out the new base.  The new compression post will drop down through the hole and rest on the original mast step.  A half inch stainless steel plate caps the new compression post.  This plate will rest flush on the base seen above.  If all this is confusing, then stay tuned.  With the forecast improving we should begin to pick up some speed on this project.

Down below I am beginning to re-install the plumbing and electrical ripped out of the vee berth and head to facilitate painting the lockers.  Today I completed rewiring the AC outlets and lights in both the head and the vee berth.

 
Tomorrow I hope to make progress on the plumbing.

Nothing left but to re-install the refinished windlass

Thanks to a great deal of assistance from friends and family our Sea Tiger 555 windlass is completely restored.
Bud assisted me with removing the windlass.  Here is the starting point...

 I struggled to disassemble the windlass so a local friend took the windlass the his workplace, a local Naval Yard.  The assembled windlass returned it looking like this...

I then transported the windlass to my family's home and with more help from Bud we stripped down the windlass into its component parts. Degreasing and inspecting the mechanism we relaized one spring was missing, a couple bolts were nearly stripped, and all the o-rings required replacing.

 I located SL Spares, a UK based vendor that supplies replacement parts, via the internet.  The new parts arrived as ordered from the UK in under 2 weeks.  Bud took on reassembling, priming, and applying the finish paint.  The Lovett's are in town visiting for a day and delivered the windlass.

 All that remains is adding some additional grease and bolting the windlass back to the deck.

More images and comments on this project can be found in our photo album: Refinish Windlass - 2011

Thanks for all the help to everyone that pitched in on this project.

Projects preempting posts

Daily showers here in Beaufort, NC have not prevented long hours of boat projects from preempting blog posts.  By the time I finally come to rest at the end of the day all energy for updating the blog has gone into laying up the mast step or refinishing the trim in the vee berth or completing the new counter top for the head or...

This morning's rain shower only allowed me to apply three layers of mat to the new mast step so after securely tarping over the curing epoxy and cleaning up around the cabin I drove home for lunch.  Over lunch I checked in on the C'est la Vie blog and realized that the last update was on Sept 17th.

While the blog  has not received daily updates, I have continued to add images and captions to the web albums chronicling the evolution of to our two primary projects underway.  If you are looking for more detail on our progress please check out these albums...

Rigging Repairs and Modifications - 2011  - We are currently fairing out our modifications to the interior / original mast step;  building up layers of mat, 18 layers of 25 layers complete, on what will be the base of our deck mast step; and waiting on the machine shop to weld up our compression post assembly.

Refinishing the head - 2011   Most of the headway on this project in the last couple days has focused on refinishing the wood trim in the head and vee berth area.  We have also made progress on the new counter top and will hopefully be applying the final coats of bristol finish to it this afternoon.