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After removing the water damaged chart table
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In hindsight, it appears the entire chart table assembly was installed as a unit. Removal, on the other hand was a little more difficult. I removed the table surface by removing the plugged bulkhead fasteners and the upward pointing screws on the aft underside, working with a socket wrench attached screwdriver bit. That allowed removal of the compartment floor, which exposed the dozen or so stainless screws fastening the base of the assembly to the floor liner. Lot's of close quarters and skinned knuckles! Eventually, the last pieces puulled out, leaving the tabbing in place.
Once the table assembly was out, I realized how bad the hull liner had gotten. The original leak and toerail leaks had saturated the foam backing, so I started tearing it out. I then discovered the small cabinet over the settee (with the sliding doors) was also suffering from rotten components, so out it came. Once I removed the hull liner there, I discovered the main bulkhead was also much worse than expected, again allowing a screwdriver to push right through the wood near the tabbing. So, off came the mast, and out came the bulkhead. This allowed an easy repair on my compression post problem, as well.
Once the main bulkhead was out, I saw that the forward bulkhead (that supports the drawers) was also a little water damaged. I may regret the decision someday, but I decided the integrity was still good, and the removal might lead to the very bow (and maybe over to port), so I quit there. After all, I had to race again by April.
The next step was to remove the underside of the deck, from the main to aft bulkhead. Unlike my previous port deck repair, where I was able to salvage the original liner, the damage was not so extensive, so the liner came out in small pieces, as the original adhesives were still working. As expected, the balsa was just black soup, while the plywood was damp and in a mixed state between shot and okay. After removing everything up to the deck itself, I epoxied in new marine plywood, then a layer of glass. Then the new balsa went in with another layer of glass. Since I couldn't re-use the original liner. it took several more layers of glass to make up the thickness to match the original sections. Unlike the port repair where I used polyester resin, I used West System epoxy on the starboard.
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The Okoume grain is a little more open,
but the teak stain isn't too far off. |
At this point, I spent a rainy night on the boat and realized how the toerail was still leaking a bit. I wasn't willing to do right thing, which would have been removing the toerail and opening the hull/deck seam and re-bedding everything. Instead, I took another R33 owner's advice and used spray Stop Leak on the underside, to contain the leak. Since I was using 1088 certified materials for the new parts and the deck core was not involved, I basically decided I could live with a few small seasonal leaks. It did influence me to use perforated hull liner which would allow any moisture to dissappate. I also used silicon caulk along the inboard edge of the toerail, which seems to have made a huge improvement. My theory is the stainless flathead screws/aluminum toerail connection is nearly waterproof just from built up corrosion, so the principal leaks were water sneaking in the edge of the toerail, then down the bolt holes in the fiberglass.
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The cabinets provide a lot more space and
they don't spill when you heel! |
As marine grade Teak plywood has become impossible to find, I chose Okoume, which is a species of mahogany that with teak stain, doesn't look too bad with the other teak components. I was able to reuse all the teak lumber trim as I reproduced the bulkheads and rebuilt the chart table. I had considered a major re-design of the chart table (as the stock one is so tight), but I knew it would lead to quarterberth redesign, which would lead to missing the 2008 season. I stained and varnished all components before installation, except I left the tabbing area raw plywood, to allow good adhesion to the epoxy used for retabbing.
I reproduced the underdeck wood handrail component, again reusing the teak handrail, replacing the teak plywood with okoume. At this point, I reattached the genoa track, chainplates, lifeline stantions, and put the mast back up. I added a mast deckplate for halyards along with an anchor light and replaced a few connectors while the mast was down.
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Lot's of volume
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Probably could have fit
more bottles |
By far the most important part of the project was to utilize the dead space behind the chart table drawers as a wine rack.