Rhapsody was hauled on 19 October 2012 for the season. There are a bunch of projects that will be done this year. The forward hatch was replaced by a Lewmar 60 Ocean Series model to replace the one that cracked on the last race of the season. Previously on my blog I
posted the moisture meter survey done in October 2008. It showed the area around the port primary winch as wet. I noticed this season that when the winch was under load, the deck flexed and I could see light under the aft end of the winch.
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| Port Primary Winch Area |
I decided to take care of this problem early before the cold weather set in. So, two days before Hurricane Sandy, I decided to remove the winch and make the cuts to correct the problem. The first picture shows the area under the winch. The holes were not epoxy isolated, but filled with silicone caulk. The area outline pretty much corresponds to the area shown as wet with the moisture meter. I decided to try and make an area that I could cut out and potentially reuse the skin with the non-skid pattern if I was successful in removing it without damage.
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| Outline Cut to Remove C |
In the second picture a cut around the outlined area was made with a Fein Multimaster. I also opened an area under the winch so the chisel saw on the Fein tool could be used to start cutting core from the skin. I also decided to leave the genoa track in place and work beneath it. I pried the skin away from the core a little at a time while chiseling to remove the bond to the skin.
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| Core Removed |
The third picture was taken after I removed all the core. The core was not as bad as the area where the transom and stbd side below the waterline was recored. This is where I stopped on Saturday afternoon, then taped up the area with plastic to protect it overnight.
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| Trial Fit New Core |
On Sunday morning I returned with the materials and tools to do the recore work. A friend gave me a piece of 40 year old marine plywood that was hard as a rock. I decided to use under the winch and genoa track this since it was free, and readily available. The remaining area would be recored with balsa I had left over from the transom and stbd side recore effort. I created the puzzle pieces that would fill the area to be recored. Once these were cut to shape, I masked off the area with plastic sheet and tape. I mixed up batches of West Systems epoxy thickened with colloidal silica. This was mixed to a mayonnaise consistency and injected using a syringe into the void areas along the edges, particularly by the stanchion base. I mixed up batches of 6 pumps epoxy/hardener in plastic cups, as this gave me enough to work with but not too much so the mixture would kick in the cup. It required 6 batches to cover this area. I spread it using a disposable chip brush.
The final picture of this post shows the core and marine plywood bonded. The B notation indicates bow and C notation indicated center when I made the puzzle pieces. The map I used is also shown so I could figure out what order the pieces should be bonded into place. Note that the area outboard was strengthened with fiberglass tape since I wanted to keep the edge by the deck joint structurally stiff. I made sure to put a skim coat of epoxy over the entire surface so if the plastic taped on for the hurricane blew off, the core would stay dry. Now if we didn't have this damn hurricane, I could finish the job! More to be posted after next weekend.
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| New Core Bonded |
