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It seems like I just went through a mad rush to get Spark seaworthy, now a month later, I have begun to strip her down for a full refit and restoration. All I have left on the top is the horse, cleats, and the splash guard, everything else, including the benches, centreboard trunk topper, and floorboards have been removed.
The beaching handles gave me a lot of issues, as did the genoa tracks, I actually had to break them as the nuts had frozen to the machine screws and were deeply embedded into the wood stringer out of sight and reach of hand. No matter, I needed to replace them with longer and newer ones anyway
I am hoping this week to bring her home again so I can begin sanding the hull down to bare wood. I did pull a screw from the ply, as Oliver said, it is a #6 and 3/4 of an inch in length. It came out far too easily, so I am thinking of upsizing to #8s in the same length for more thread bite on these 54 year old holes.
The amount of dirt behind the bags was eye opening, as was the sheer amount of room inside the boat once everything was pulled. So far I need to reproduce one of the floorboards, It has been cracked for a long time and my walking on it during my last sail put paid to it.
My goal is a May re-launching. I have a small vacation planned where I want to trail her down to Delaware and sail down the Lewis and Rehoboth Canal from Lewis to Ocean City Maryland and back
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Replacement screws: assess the condition of the old holes with care. If not too bad, and if you don’t mind oversize screws being a bit unsightly, fitting oversize screws is the simplest option. But you most certainly don’t want to find that even those are insecure.
More secure, but also rather more laborious (and modestly more expensive) is to drill out the holes and plug them with hardwood plugs (and that does mean plugs, not dowels, i.e. with the grain going across the longitudinal axis rather than along it) bonded in with epoxy. The job is not onerous, and for a single screw hole it is comparatively trivial; but it becomes the more laborious option if you have a great many to do.
You can cut your own wood plugs from hardwood (ideally mahogany) board if you buy a plug cutter, or you can (in the UK) buy ready made teak plugs from many yacht chandlers; I can’t confirm that they are available in USA but I would fully expect them to be. As a minor bonus, the finished job will be using the correct size of screw rather than oversize, which will look better.
Oliver
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It’s probable that there will be some screws that break or cannot be extracted, so their replacements will need to be offset a little. Would it be too unprofessional to adopt this approach for all of them, using the correct size screws in new locations and filling the original holes with epoxy filler or plugs? I’m not sure if a cutter will produce plugs 3/4″ long, mine are nearer 1/2″, so there might not be grip for the full depth of the thread if that is considered to be critical.
Norman
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well, I am talking of the screws that hold the ply to the hull. Once installed they will be faired over and painted, so I am not worried about going up a size as nobody will ever see them.
I was amazed to see that the rub rail was held on by cut nails. They worked well as it was a bear to remove, but I was not expecting it.
Of course this Thursday is supposed to be a beautiful day, perfect for sailing. The past month has been awful, rainy with small craft advisories due to wind, and I just made Spark unsailable. Oh well, I can bring her home and start sanding in comfort
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More work has been done. I finished stripping poor Spark of all her hardware, trim, seats, and anything else that was not glued in place (and some things that were glued that away easily). Then it was a case of rolling her over on the trailer and sanding. I am about a quarter done in removing all her paint. Thus far I have found a white primer, blue, light green, and finally the dark green.
Thankfully the ply and wood beneath all that paint is in lovely shape. I think once I refasten and fair everything in, she will be a treat to paint. I had to stop as I ran out of time and sanding discs for my orbital sander. Tonight and tomorrow it is supposed to rain, so it was back into storage with half her bottom denuded of paint. Hopefully I can finish the job soon.
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Hi Arthaberland,
When I see your photos, I remember my worshop for Warsow Syren.
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On these photo, you can see the system I made with two posts and a strong strap to be able to return the hull alone.
On the following photos, the beginning of the workshop …
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And the bad surprises I’ve had to repair !
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Warsow Syren is located in Britany, France. So far away … 😉
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She looked far worse than she really is. As you can tell from her bottom, the hull is in good shape. The paint was grotty at best and made her appear 10x worse than the reality of it. I will be stripping off her decks and redoing them though. Years of no varnish and things resting and rubbing on it have reduced them to so many splinters waiting to happen
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Well, Spark is stripped of paint. Took the rest of today, but the rough work is done. Now to dig out the filler on the screw heads and refasten her with new bronze screws.
Now I knew my Geep had been in some sort of altercation in the past. I found the inside of a patch just forwards of the mast on the port Side. I finally found the outside of it, buried under three layers of paint. I can only surmise she was damaged early in her racing career. The patch is well done and was completely unnoticeable to the naked eye on the outside of the hull. I will probably just fair it back in and leave it,
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