Galley sole removal and grinding started

I cut the cabin sole where the new aft bulkhead for the forward cabin will go. I plan to make this a structural bulkhead glass ed to the hull rather than sitting on top of the cabin sole. You can see a little bit of the remaining cabin sole next to the grinder. Luckily the stringers are in good shape. I will just need to beef up the glass work.

 

You can see both stringers in this view. I cut the sole so that there will be an access hatch right where the vacuum hose is. The new stairs will come out further and cover the hole there. The sewage treatment system will go in between the two main stringers. The divider bulkheads will strengthen the structure. But first I need to finish grinding and then apply 4 layers of glass work over the stringers and hull bottom  to reinforce the stringers.

I found a through hull located right at the bottom of the bilge way up under the generator. The previous owner had replaced the sea cock with a cap screwed onto the though hull. It would be interesting to hear the reasoning behind the placement of that one....
I removed the though hull and will glass the hole up.
There was another though hull forward of the head to supply seawater to the head. They had used a plywood backing block which has rotted away. I may need to cut more cabin sole up to be able to repair that one. I not sure that I even want one there. I plan to use fresh water for the heads or maybe both, but I could get the seawater from one of the AC cooling lines. The fewer holes in the hull the better.

Stringer Rebuilding and Galley demo

This post covers a couple of day sof  work...because I am usually too tired to post every night.

Started off with finishing the rebuilding of the rotten stringer. Here is the new plywood screwed, nailed and glassed to the top and bottom wooden beams. First I coated both sides of the plywood with 2 coats of resin to seal it. Then I did the same with the beams. Next I filled the bad spots where I had dug the rot out of the lower beam. The plywood is glassed on with 2 layers of 1.5 Oz. mat between the beams and the plywood. It is screwed into the top and bottom beams every couple of inches as well.

 Next I applied 2 layers of 1.5 Oz. mat to back of each of the original pieces I cut off the stringer and then screwed and nailed them to the plywood. They are nailed through the plywood and into the beams every 3 inches or so. I will be glassing over these pieces so I wanted to make sure they were well fastened to the beams. I will remove all the screws you see in the middle areas. They were used to make sure the glass pieces were well bonded to the plywood. It not very pretty at this point, but once I grind all the rough spots down, fill the few gaps and then apply two layers of 1.5 oz mat with 24 Oz. Roving over them they will look great. Oh yeah and be a lot stronger than the original work which was two layers of mat with 1 layer of roving in between. Final glass thickness will be
3 - 1.5 Oz mat + 1-  24Oz Roving +  2 - 1.5 Oz mat + 1-  24Oz Roving +1- 1.5Oz mat + 1-24Oz Roving.

But first I needed to remove the old freezer and cabinet from the galley area over the stringer. I want to be able to wrap the glass over the top of the stringer, which means you have to be able to get to both sides of the stringer.
Tomorrow I will continue with more cabin sole removal to expose all of the stringer in this area. They did not do a very good job of leveling the stringers up before they glassed them in so they had to add strips on top of the stringers...Lucky for me, now I can remove those strip from the center stringer which will give me the room to wrap the new glass work over the top of the stringer.
That's all for now.

Back to the rot

Started the day by pulling all the old wiring out of the engine room to get it out of my way. So now it is all in Chad's head (bathroom). Then I ground the remaining bits of acoustic ceiling tiles and glue off the forward engine room  bulkhead. Removed the last little bit of the cieling and really old fiberglass insulation.
That's when the real fun began. My plan is to build an aerobic waste treatment system and holding tank in the bilge running forward from just under the generator at the forward end of the engine room. It will have 3 processing chambers to "digest" the effluent followed by a holding/batch tank. The water from the treatment system will be chlorinated as it passes into the batch tank. When it is full, or periodically it will be pumped out. I have work with these systems down in the islands and usually you use the water coming from a single chamber tank to water the garden. The Aerobic system removes all the noxious odors usually associated with holding tanks. Holding tanks are anaerobic systems which produce methane.....
So where was I...O yeah down in the bottom of the engine room cutting out the bulkhead where it goes down into the keel.

Looking down into the engine room and the hole I cut in the bulkhead.
Can't get any lower in the boat.
The light is right where the bulkhead use to go down into the keel.
When they built the boat they put the stringers in place then put the main bulkheads in place and glassed the whole mess with 2 whole layers of 1.5 oz. mat. Not even close to what is required.
It would have been far better if they had glassed the stringers in first and then the bulkheads. The joints where the bulkheads meet the stringer is a hard one to make water tight...and it is sure to be under water in the bilge.

That is how we ended up with this, the 1/2" ply that connected the upper and lower members of the stringer completely rotted out on the bilge side of the stringer. Luckily for me the starboard stringer and the outside of the port stringer are fine. Funny thing, it was the port stringer aft that rotted out too. I guess the guy did a better job on the starboard side than on the port....
So I am drying out the teak wood members. Then I will replace the rotted ply with 1/2" Powerply which is treated against rot. Then start glassing the whole thing up again.....

Interesting view. You can see all the way up to the chain locker. Whole lot of space you can not easily get to to clean......

Started moving forward

I finished up fairing the edges of the taping on the floor structure and port fuel tanks this morning. Then I moved the generator out of the way this afternoon. That little monster is HEAVY, I knew it was not light but it surprised me just how heavy it was. Had to rethink my strategy for moving it.





 I ended up setting my rolling scaffolding up with a beam across the top rungs. Wrapped a chain around the beam and hung a 2000Lb. come-along from it. Set the chain up so that the lift was slanted slightly towards my destination. When I lifted the genset it swung to under that location. It took about 5 moves to get it in place, all nice and tucked in ahead of the port fuel tank out of my way.

So her she sits till I am ready to put her back in place. I need to seal her in there somehow to keep the grinding dust off....good luck with that.

This is the last section of the old "sound" shielding. All the wires are coming from the breaker panel. I think I have come up with plan to make this much more organized by running a couple of large diameter Seal-tite flex conduit. It will bundle the wires together and provide an extra layer of protection.

Progress inspite of it all

Life has been interesting and very consuming lately. Which means the progress on the boat has slowed....I also have been doing a lot of designing trying to figure out the best way to fit everything in. I have managed to finish the fuel fills, covers and fuel exits for both portside tanks and pressure test them both.

Here is a shot of the port side taken today. The blue air hose is connected to front fuel tank to pressurize the tank to 3 PSI. The tank held the pressure for at least an hour, that's when I left.
The Plywood "walls" are aligned with the cabinets etc above them in the saloon. They also create separate compartments for various uses. The Air conditioner for the saloon will be under the floor where the cup is sitting now. There is a dividing wall that goes in between it and the fuel valves. To the left in the picture or just aft of the AC will be the heat exchanger water heater. It is located below part of the galley cabinets. The space at the forward end of the tank will be a deep storage area located under the settee. Good place to store large bulky items.
I guess my next project is to move the generator all the way over to the port side and then start on reinforcing the main stringers and build the black water tank in the bilge forward.