Pretty in Red

The freshly painted tiller went back in this morning with two new 3/8" stainless bolts. I'm glad I spent the time getting the tiller off because when Phil Jones' guys at the yard go to replace the rudder shaft's 3", packing gland, support hose, they won't have to spend a bunch of time breaking the tiller free—and it looks good in red ;-)



A freshly painted tiller.

Tiller Removal

Removed the tiller so the scale (rust) could be ground off and then repainted. Clearly it had been awhile since the tiller was last removed. One of the two stainless bolts refused to budge and so had to be cut off.

What Supports the Floor?

Got 60+ bungs into the mast. Amazing how many holes one sail track can create.

So, what does support the 13/16" thick floor boards? In a nutshell, floor joists. The joists are 2" thick by 1-3/4" wide. There's a stringer, fiberglassed into the hull, upon which the joists, running athwart, rest upon. The joists are fixed to the stringer by fiberglass.



Looking forward and outboard on the starboard side. The stainless water tank is forward.



Looking outboard at the floor support structure. Starting at the bottom are: (1) turn of the bilge for the fiberglass hull; (2) a stringer fiberglassed to the hull; (3) a floor joist that has been fiberglassed to both the stringer and the hull; and (4) a fixed portion of the floor.

Paint, Hose and Bung

Reinstall the newly painted linear actuator bracket.

Cut the new exhaust hose to length and installed it on the wet muffler.

Put the last remaining bung into the deck.

Attempted to remove the ferrous arms off the rudder shaft. Unable to move the bolts so wet them down with a penetrating oil and will try again tomorrow.



There's severe poultice corrosion occurring under this aluminum Raymarine linear actuator mount. This is happening because the wood, underneath the mount, is hygroscopic, i.e. absorbs moisture. The corrosion is easily eliminated by placing a non-hydroscopic substance between the aluminum and wood. I simply elevated the mount above the wood by using stainless washers.



In the bilge looking aft. The bellows for the PSS can be see at the top of the photo. The prop shaft's intermediary support, with the green patina, is right behind it. There appears to be nothing wrong with the hose connecting the stern tube to the intermediary support. But, with the fuel tanks out it's an easier job to replace it. As evidenced by all the muck in this area of the bilge, it's very hard to get to.

Getting the New 3" Exhaust Hose In

Nellie's new 3" wet exhaust hose is in! Removing the Webasto exhaust line, the wet exhaust's 3" through-hull fitting, the linear actuator and its wood support, then soaping the fiberglass inside the bulwark did the trick. However, using Trident Corrugated #252 hose, which bends fairly easily, was the answer. It's interesting that the 'loop' area, which is behind the stern's bulwark, has several spots which are too narrow for the exhaust host to fit. Naturally when the hose tries to enter such an area it merely jams. I used a 1' section of the old hose to probe the route for the new hose. Knowing where the 'shallow waters' were really helped. Removing the wet exhaust's through-hull helped in two ways: (1) gave me better physical access to the 'loop' area; and (2) with the new hose in place it's easy to put 5200 on the through-hull's hull mating surface, twist the through-hull onto the hose, and then manhandle the through-hull into its hole.



Removing the wet exhaust thru-hull made it easier to get the thru-hull into the new hose. Only then was the thru-hull reinstalled into the hull.



With the wet exhaust thru-hull out, hull thickness in this part of the transom measures about 7/16".



The new hose in place on the freshly painted thru-hull.

Replacing Teak Deck Screws with Dowels

Finished the deck repair. In all 150 screws were replaced with dowels. One deck board under the port forward cabin window had warped upwards. It was successfully clamped flush to the deck and its failed screw replaced with a dowel.

Dowels vs Screws to Hold Deck Down

Repaired all the missing bungs on the stern and starboard side. The process is (1) remove the stainless screw (I use a power screwdriver but will revert to doing it by hand if the screw starts to strip out. Doing it this way only 2 out of 150 screws had to be slotted with a Dremel tool before removal); (2) drill out the screw hole its entire length (about 3/4") using a 1/4" twist bit; (3) using a toothpick coat the inside and bottom of the hole with epoxy; (4) roll the dowel in epoxy to cover its sides and bottom; (5) hammer in 1/4" x 3/4" dowel; and finally (6) Using a random orbital sander with 60 or 80 grit (it's best if the sand paper doesn't have the dust pickup holes as the dowels just love to get into the holes and rip the sand paper) sand the dowel flush with the deck before the epoxy dries so that the sawdust is mixed with the wet epoxy forced into any gaps.

New, 1/8" Thick, 5250 Aluminum Fuel Tanks -- $3,400

Got a $3400 fuel tank bid from Andy Bloodsworth, using 1/8" 5250, or $137 more per tank using 3/16" 5202. He estimated 6 '4x'10 sheets of aluminum at $200/sheet. Asked him to bid with A36 14 ga mild steel too.