Running oout of reasons

to not move the engine back in place....

I finished the 2nd layer on the outer stringer so I could glass the forward gusset in on the starboard side. So all that is done.

The last thing to go in was the fiberglass angle to support the section of walkway between the gussets. I built the jig that clamps to the side of the main stringer to support the glass work till it sets. The jig has blocks that sit on top of the string so the angles will all come out at the same height.

Working on Aft end of Starboard engine room stringers

Made a little more progress in the engine room today. My plan is to locate the compressor unit for the refrigeration between the main and outer stringers at the aft end of the engine room port side. The freezer will be located on the other side of the bulkhead with the 3 holes in it at the aft end of this platform .

I used another piece of the 3/4" PVC board for the platform. First I glassed a fiberglass angle onto the outside of the main stringer like I made for the walkway on the port side. Next I cut and fitted the PVC board. Then I glassed the board in with 3 layers of 1.5 Oz. mat and 1 Layer of 24 Oz Roving. I do not really need a lot of strength here but I wanted something thick enough that it would not star if something was dropped on it. I know there will be no problems with rot with the PVC board, even when I put fastenings into it through the glass work.

I also cut and fitted the first of the walkway panels to see how they will work out. I used the 3/4" PVC panel for this as well. It is supported by the hull on one side and a fiberglass angle I built on the outside of the main stringer. It just lifts out so you can clean under it. I guess I could run hoses under there though the over sized cut outs in the gussets.

So one of tomorrows jobs will be to transfer the diesel from the forward starboard fuel tank to the forward port fuel tank so I can change the bad rubber seals on the inspection ports. I bought the first Buna-N rubber from an online supplier. The rest I bought from a local hose and rubber distributor. This is the first stuff I bought.....

And this is the second stuff I bought. Boat the forward and aft tanks have been full for about the same amount of time. Unfortunately I do not know for sure which rubber is which. I guess I will find out when I fill the starboard tank. I know that the first rubber I bought was only enough to do two covers while I bought a lot more of the second one. I am sure that the Starboard tanks have the rubber from the second source.

What a pain in the ass.....

More grinding and glassing

Spent 4 hours this morning opening up limber holes and fairing in the edges of the recent glass work.

Here is the completed platform for the muffler. I made it a platform rather than a shelf so that dirt and junk could not get under it. It now a sealed off space in the boat.

Close-up showing the limber hole which just happen to come out in the wrong place. So I made a little channel to direct and leaks that come though it around the platform. The platform is made out of 3/4" PVC board so I do not have to worry about rot.

Next little job was to glass in an angle to support the walkway between the inner and outer stringers. I lowered the walkway so I can just about walk bent over in the engine room. Much better than crawling around on all 4's. I still need to clean the edge up. Oh boy more grinding...

Last job of the day was to re-enforce the glass work on the aft starboard gusset. I had already glassed it in when I started doing the main stringers. So I thought it would be better to just beef it up rather than rip the whole thing out and start over. The light spots are foam filler I put in to close up the holes that had been cut in it. I am planning to build another platform on this side to support the compressor unit for the freezer. So I do not need the limber hole at the bottom.

So I am very closet to ready to move the engine back in place. Then I need to beef up the glass work on the main stringers in the forward area of the engine room.

Port Stringer

Spent the afternoon glassing the after section of the Port main Stringer. I am always amazed at how long it takes. It took 3-1/2 hours of continues work to glass in this part. There are 6 layers in each 2' long section. The glass is 50" long to wrap from 7" on the hull up the inside, across the top, down the outside to finish with 6 inches on the hull again. So each piece is 8 Square feet and there are 6 pieces in each section which means that there are nearly 50 Square feet of material to cover 2 lineal feet of stringer. That makes me feel a little better about what I accomplished....

View from the main salon down into the engine room showing the port main stringer.You can see the Shaft coupling over the grey water tank at the aft end of the engine room. I am going to add s little section the width of from outside yo outside of the main stringers and back to the shower bulkhead to the engine room space. That way I will be able to get to the stuffing box from inside the engine room rather than some little hole in the cabin sole, which actually would be inside the shower in the aft head.....

View of the inside of the main stringer viewed from the bilge. The black marks you see are marks I made on the dry glass to line it up with the top edge of the stringer.
Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, I was out there at night with the flash.

Outside of the main stringer. You can see where the 2 pieces of glass joined about half way along (whitesh vertical line on side of stringer.)
I staggered the joints in the glass by 3".

Here is a shot of where one of the gussets was glassed to the outer stringer. The black at the bottom of the picture is partially rotten stringer. The builder installed all the framing timbers first then tried to glass over all of them. That resulted in multiple "holes" at the inside corners where water could get in. The way they did it the water was able to get into the stingers. If they had glassed the stringers in first and then glassed the gussets and bulkheads in afterwards the stringers would have bee sealed. I am correcting this slowly, one joint at a time. That is why I decided to tear the gussets out, glass the main stringer in and then replace the gussets. I will also be replacing the 1" think Mahogany timber with 1-1/2" thick fiberglass reinforced foam panels. Won't matter if it does leak then...

I'm Back...

Finally got back to work on the Phoenix. Life has been very interesting and time consuming these last few months. So not much work got done on the boat. But I am back to work now.
I am currently working on beefing up the glass work on the stringers in the engine room. The builder only glassed the stringers in with 2 layers of 1.5Oz. mat and 1 layer of 24 Oz. Roving for a total glass thickness of 1/8" which is about 1/3rd the thickness it should be.

The first job was to move the engine forward to the front end of the engine room. I bought 4 - 4" diameter landscaping posts which fit perfectly between the inside of the engine room hatch and the outside of the engine stringers. I held them in place with C clamps then bolted a beam across the tops. I hung a come along from the beam to lift the engine. You can just see the wire of the come along in the center of this picture. I had moved the engine about 10 inches forward at this point. After releasing the weight off the come alongs I moved the posts forward about 12 inches.  Then when I started lifting the engine again it slid forward as it was lifted. It's not high tech, but it worked fine and the engine was never more than a fraction of an inch above the stringer, very safe.

Here is the engine moved all the way forward. You can see the 4 dark rectangles where the feet sat on the stringers. I found that the engine mounts had 1/4" shims under the tapered shims to raise the engine slightly???? I do not know why they did not just raise it using the screw adjustments on the mounts. Good news is that with the shims gone I have the room on top of the stringer for the extra glass I will be adding to the stringers.

Last pic of the engine showing it tucked up into the front end of the engine room. This si where the generator normally sits.

On to the grinding!!!!

Here are the main and outer starboard stringers after a lot of grinding and glassing. At the aft end where the grey water tank sits there are now 5 layers of 1.5Oz mat and 4 layers of 24 Oz. Roving laid in alternating pattern mat-roving-mat-roving-mat-roving. This brings the total thickness up to 3/8". I also added 3 layers of 1808 Biax tape on the outside of the stringer where it meets the hull. I built a nice 1-1/2" fillet in there, because the turn is less than 90 degrees. I was not worried about the inside of the stringer, as you can see the angle is about 135 Degrees. I glassed the outer stringer first and then the main stringer. I still need clean up the few loose strands of roving on the outer stringer and gussets.

Here is a close up of the inside of the main stringer where it meets the grey water tank. The forward bulkhead of that tanks is glassed in with about 8 layers of glass now!!!
The angled section you see at the bottom is the hull where it meets the keel. The keel is about 8" deep, I wonder what they filled it with????

Another shot of the main and outer stringers with their new glass work. I added only 2 layers of mat and 2 layers of roving to the outer stringers. They do not have the same load and are not as tall is the main stringers.
I still need to strengthen the gussets between the two stringers. There's always tomorrow...

The hole in the hull you see is where the main engine thru hull goes. I took it out to do the glass work, I needed to replace the rotted backing  block anyway. I will be building up fiberglass ones.

Stay tuned.