Putting the Deck Hardware to Bed

Damn, there was more hardware than I remembered taking off. PLUS, I really wanted to add more to the boat. The picture above shows some, not all, of the job ahead. Two areas I really wanted to spend some extra time thinking about and doing a good job on were: the mast step hardware and the chain plates. 

The bow pulpit and the anchor roller are also key areas that I wanted to beef up.

WAIT!! I need to glue the boat back together!

Oh my, that really sucked. Now what is that that I glued the boat back together with?

Jamestown Distributers Thixlo premixed epoxy. I know - bold move. I assure you that I have read extensively on the pros and cons of premenently glueing the hull and deck together. It was a very informed decision to bond this joint for once and for all.

Enough on that. Now time to focus on mast hardware.

When I bought the boat the compression post had been cut out and I didn't know it. Luckily someone from the Com-Pac users group pointed this out to me. This would of been a painful thing to learn the hard way. UUHH, I don't even want to think about it.

I modified the mast step and made it stronger. I also added a SS plate to attach some pulleys and what have you. I used a piece of maple for the compression post.

A few more screws, some more 4000, and some cleaning. It almost looks like I can go sailing!

Yes, I did not paint the cockpit till the bitter end of the project. I learned this trick the hard way. When I refinished my Pearson 26 I painted the cockpit before finishing the job and basically destroyed all off my hard work by mostly working out of the cockpit...which is what you do on a sailboat. It never looked the same after dropping tools on the fresh paint, spilling various chemicals, and of course grinding dirt into the paint. Yes I could of been more careful or I could just paint the cockpit after everything was done. :)

Attacking the Deck

Now that the lead was in the hull and the outside of the hull was painted, it was time to pay some mind to the deck.

 

There were a lot of damaged spots on the deck and it really took some time to look it all over and repair all of the areas. After the deck repair experience from my last boat I've develop a hatred for gel coat. Fixing crazing is a waste of life units and no man should have to do this...pain in the A@#, but alas, it must be done.

After earasing the years of damage to the deck it was fit for painting.

Two coats of white topside paint, then some nonskid.

For the nonskid I used Kiwi Grip. I have experimented in the past with several other products. So far Kiwi Grip is the best thing that I have found. It is on the pricey side, but better that than slipping and busting yourself up or falling off of your little 16' boat in this case.

And while the waiting for the paint to dry - bright work!

When the paint was dry, it was time to start installing the deck hardware.

My Friend G10

I love craftsmanship and seeing projects that have out lived their creators. For me, there is nothing better than walking around a building that is a few hundred years old or picking up a well made tool who's original owner is long gone.

When I was working on my Pearson 26 project and it was time to make backing plates I had many conversations with people and read about materials that are commonly used. Stainless steal, aluminum; wood; the dreaded plywood; and, not so common but making appearances here and there,  G10.

After weighing the pros and cons of all these materials I decided to go with the longest lasting and unfortunately the least environmentally friendly option - G10. It can't rust, it doesn't 'rot', and it's strong as hell.

My hope, that the sum of taking care to do a solid job on this boat, is that this will be a project that lasts many years. That someone someday can enjoy the fruits of my labor and with a little elbow grease - go sailing.

When Hutchins originally put this boat together they used some crappy wood here and there for backing plates or nothing at all. The results were loose hardware and crazing all over many Com Pac 16s that I read about and seen.

Why? I'm not sure, but I was disappointed in their decision to do this.

I started from the front of the boat and worked my way back making G10 backing plates for every piece of hardware on the boat.

Below are pictures illustrating the making of the bow eye plate. Behind the plate was filled with thickened epoxy. I followed this process to complete the rest of the plates.

 

Multitasking

There were a ton of projects to bang out and my mind was racing with ideas. When this happens I'm prone to rush jobs and make mistakes. I really had to limit my coffee intake and obey work lists like religion. 'Haste makes waste,' my mother reminded me as I was running around the garage like headless chicken.

Project 1: Cut new interior wood.

    

I hate plywood, so there was no way I was going to use it. I'd happily do the project two more time to avoid using the stuff. Real wood, CPES, and coats of epoxy sounds like a much better option for some reason that I would love to explain if you ever catch me at a party.

I decided to use local kiln dried Atlantic White Cedar for most of the wood in the boat. I love the wood, the smell, and its working quality.

Project 2: Crazing

There were cracks, holes, dings, and crazing all over the deck so grinding, sanding, filling, and sanding needed to happen before I was going to paint.


Project 3: More trailer love

Now that the boat has all that lead in it, new rollers only made sense. Out with the old..

Ballast

It was time to decide what to do about the lead ballast situation. Part of me wanted to play it safe and conservative and go with 200 pounds of lead and 200 of cement. The other part of me wanted to throw caution to the wind and go a full 300 pounds of lead and 150 of cement.

I ultimately decided to take a risk a do the latter. Creating a stiffer and more stable boat had major appeal. Not having any CP 16 sailing experience didn't help me in making the decision. What did help me was knowing that I had a whole bunch of lead and a curiosity to see what lowering the center of buoyancy that much would do.

Three hundred pounds of lead is heavy! It took very few brain cells to decide that I should reinforce the keel area with more glass. I layered up a couple of sheets of heavy glass mat and epoxy. In the end I felt a lot more confident about dropping all of that lead in there.

Next was to figure out how to lay the lead in in a balanced way. After some reading and thinking I decided to favor the weight a bit forward. It was a good workout moving the stuff back and forth...like I said, lead is heavy.

I finally decided, pulled the trigger, and poured the cement...no going back now!!!

It's really great coming from a place of projects. My dad is a big tinkerer and always has a few project irons in the fire. Currently he is building a little barn in our backyard and lucky for me he was pouring concrete into Sonotubes and had all the equipment out that I needed. Nice.

Attention to the Deck

The paint job came out great for a roll and tip job. The black boot-stripe, I have to admit, does set off the dark red Epifanes paint.

After over two months in the garage the hull was in need of some sunlight and fresh air.

Shifting gears I now need to pay some attention to the deck.

After removing the rubrail months and months ago I had discovered much of the glass behind the rail delaminating. I would image that this was due to being saturated year-round and freezing and thawing over many winters.

I spent a few hours cleaning, dewaxing, sanding, and prepping the edges of the deck for re-glassing.

I attacked the problem in a few ways depending on where the injury was. In some paces I just taped the cracks and injected thickened epoxy. In other areas I did the same and in addition clamped the delaminating materials. Where the problem was only minor, I simply injected or pushed the epoxy in using a mixing stick.

Boot-Stripe

Everyone loves boot-stripes. I rather have skipped it and had this job finished, but if I do ever sell the boat I just really never want to have a conversion that starts with, "So, where's the boot-stripe?"