Archives Under "Sailing" (RSS)
Adding a seahood to my Pearson 28
13 May 2011 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | 2 Responses
While working on the chainplates, cabin top handles and traveler I also constructed a seahood for the sailboat. Some folks call this thing a turtle and maybe it has other names as well? On my boat it will serve a few purposes. It will help keep water from working its way into the cabin through the companionway hatch, it provides a mounting point for a small solar panel that I wanted to find room for and perhaps most importantly it will make it possible for me to install a water tight dodger on the boat whenever time allows.
In building my seahood I closely followed the project documented by David Brown here. I only had to make a few changes to adapt the seahood to the way it mounted to my boat. One change was that I built the seahood so that it retained the aluminum strips that Pearson installed originally. These strips will keep the sliding hatch from exposing the wood in the seahood which would allow for rot in the long-run. I also embedded nuts into the seahood so that I could through-bolt it from inside the cabin. I also added too much fiberglass to the seahood but at least it won’t crack or budge if an elephant wanders onto it..
Construction started with the woodwork:
Then I added plenty of fiberglass roving, mat, biax and cloth:
When I was tired of trying to fair out my glassing mistakes I added plenty of coats of paint:
I have a small solar panel that is primarily for keeping the batteries topped up while I restore the boat. It will similarly be handy for periods when the boat is stored and should enable me to take the larger panels down to avoid theft or storm damage etc. I set the panel up so that it pivots on the sides since the boom/mast will prevent it from charging well in a horizontal position. I also raised it up a little to keep it cool and so that my will feet fit under it when I am doing things like flaking down the main.
With the seahood painted I could finally install it and get it out of the cabin so that I could work on other projects. It was also nice to have the little panel off of the stern rail so that I could pull all of the transom hardware for rebedding, though that is for another post.
Traveler Repair
12 May 2011 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | No Responses
When I first acquired the Pearson sailboat that I am restoring it’s broken traveler seemed like one of the larger problems on the boat. Maybe it seemed like an important problem because it prevented the proper use of the mainsail on what I imagined to be a boat that was in decent condition. After all, the boat had just sailed down to Beaufort NC from the Chesapeake Bay, on the outside (in the Atlantic). The sense of how important the traveler problem was and how expensive it would be to fix gives me a decent indication of how little I understood the condition of this boat and what it would take to restore it. Unfortunately I was blind to the largest and most expensive problems that this boat had.
Fortunately restoring the traveler was easy, affordable and satisfying. I was able to source a new Kenyon I-Beam track from Rig-Rite. A local aluminum fabricator at Jarrett Bay was able to re-weld the broken base and the remaining cleanup, install and sealing was nothing new for me. A little epoxy in the enlarged holes, some drilling and sealing with Butyl, and of course sanding and cleaning and the traveler was back on the boat and ready for lines.
At the same time I replaced the cabin top handles which took more work and was close in cost to repairing the traveler. I also pulled and inspected the chainplates before reinstalling and resealing them thoroughly (with epoxy and butyl, my favorite sealing combination).
2011 Spring Boatyard Life
12 May 2011 | Coastal Living, Sailing | No Responses
It’s been a great Spring here at Bock Marine. Most of my time has been spent working on my Pearson 28-1 but I’ve also enjoyed visiting with friends, the occasional bike ride and a little time on the water. Here are a few photos from a sailing trip on Ciganka, a steel Ketch that spends most of it’s time in the Bahamas. You can also see Peter Hampton, who came down from Toronto, as he shapes a piece of steel that we used to extract the through-hulls on my boat. Finally there is a photo of the crane that fell off of its sinking barge and into the ICW channel shortly after I arrived in March. Deconstruction and extraction of the crane and barge turned into a long undertaking and was interesting to observe.
2011 Boatwork begins with sewing
2 March 2011 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | 5 Responses
Travels, visits and cold weather kept me away from the boatyard for the last four months but I’m back to the yard and boat restoration work again. Instead of freezing here in Beaufort NC I spent February a bit further South in a hotel-turned-sewing-loft overlooking the Atlantic. During February I was able to stitch together new cushions for the main cabin of my Pearson 28 and am pleased with how they turned out. I used a Sunbrella upholstery fabric along with new foam/batting and a breathable bottom material for the cushion construction. I opted for the simplest adaptation of a box cushion that I could find. Unless there was a curved edge I only used two pieces of cloth for each cushion with no side panels (not even for the rear/zipper panel). The foam was cut a bit large so all of the cushions are nice and tight. I haven’t built the seat backs that the back cushions will mount to yet but even the currently incomplete setup has dramatically increased the comfort and appearance of the boat. I’m hopeful that some of the many other projects that I have coming up will also be easier than expected so that I may meet my lose goal of being on the water by the end of this year.
Wrapping up sailboat work for 2010
4 January 2011 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | 1 Response
After months of daily sailboat work the 2010 projects wrapped up in late November. Due to the great Fall weather the last few months of work went well and I was able to accomplish the goal of getting the bilge fiberglass work finished and the bilge painted before I headed West for the holidays.
I used Interlux Bilgekote in the bilge and enjoyed the finality of painting over my summer of fiberglass work. It was also nice to pull up the masking and to organize the boat again after having everything moved around for the fiberglass work inside. Below are some photos of the painted bilge and some odds and ends from smaller projects that happened this summer. I think a few random photos of the Pearson’s deck squeezed there way in as well.
If you are curious about the chart light in the photos it is an led landscaping light from superbrightleds.com. I’m pleased with it as a chart light and am planning to add a few more as spreader and deck lights when the mast goes back up. You can find them lower down on this page:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fmalibu.htm
Mast riser base for Pearson 28-1
2 January 2011 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | 2 Responses
A common problem with the Pearson 28-1 is corrosion in the bottom of the mast. This corrosion occurs because the base of the mast is located in the bottom of the bilge and is exposed to the water that collects in the bilge. Many older sailboats with bilge stepped masts may also experience this issue and a variety of repairs have been created.
The general repair idea is to cut the corroded section off of the bottom of the mast and to add a riser block of some sort to replace the lost height of the mast. I decided to create a riser block using fiberglass and polyester resin. I also installed bronze studs that run down into the keel in order to bond the keel and mast electrically. The resulting repair is strong but was probably more difficult than some of the alternatives.
Here are photos of the base creation and installation:
Stiffening the salon floors in my Pearson 28-1
27 December 2010 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | No Responses
It may be because of my weight, but the floors in my Pearson 28-1 flexed a bit in the main cabin when I walked on them. It wasn’t noticeable at first but after working on the boat for months it started to bother me. I decided that if I was going to stiffen the floor that it made sense to do it along with the the other bilge fiberglass work that I was doing.
The flexing was only evident near the middle of the openings to the bilge. I decided to install strips of wood laminated with 18oz biaxial cloth on the bottom of the cabin floors. They strips of wood were installed parallel to the openings.
Now, not only is the boat actually stronger it also feels stronger due to the stiff floor underfoot. Here are a few photos of the prep and installation of the fiberglass and wood floor stiffeners:
New floors in the Pearson’s bilge
22 December 2010 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | No Responses
After recovering from the layup of cloth in the bilge, work on the new floors (structural cross-members) commenced. The usual sanding, grinding and fairing was needed in the bilge in order to ensure good adhesion of the floor tabbing. Little plates were then installed under where each floor would be installed so that water could move to the lowest point in the bilge with minimal restriction. After those tasks were complete the bilge was ready to receive the new floors and glass.
The old floors were a laminate of plywood and fiberglass and were showing their age. These floors were stripped down from when I removed them from the boat and I decided to replace them with new wood. I started with marine grade plywood that was thicker than what Pearson used and cut the new floors using the old ones as templates. After they were cut they were fitted to the contours of the bilge and the tops of each floor were rounded so that the fiberglass cloth could wrap over the top of the floors with minimal air sucking.
The layup schedule for the floors went as follows:
- The bilge areas around each floor were faired with thickened epoxy and covered with a layer of chopped mat.
- Each floor was placed in thickened epoxy that was shaped into a thick fillet so that the upcoming cloth layers wouldn’t suck air at the joint between bilge and floor.
- The bilge area around each floor and the floors were wet out with un-thickened epoxy.
- Each floor was tabbed along the bilge with strips of 18oz biax.
- Each floor was covered with layers of 18oz cloth that overlapped onto the bilge/hull.
- Interlocking layers of 18oz cloth were layed up over the tabbing in a manner that faired everything out and also unified the layup of all of the adjacent floors.
In the end the floors were firmly in place and well protected from moisture. The previous failure of the floors was with delamination from the hull so extra attention was payed to the adhesion of these floors to the bilge. The results were pretty similar to what Pearson had done at the factory but I’m hoping that the secondary bond of the epoxy will be stronger than the original polyester that was used by Pearson.
Here are a few photos of this phase of work in the bilge of my Pearson 28-1.
Fiberglass layup in the bilge
11 December 2010 | Pearson 28-1 Restoration, Sailing | No Responses
It’s been a productive time since my last report on the restoration of my Pearson 28-1. For most of the five following months I worked on the boat every day.
In July and August it was often too hot to work during the middle of the day. This left lots of time for computer work which was good since I’ve been busy on that front as well. Epoxy work had to take place in the early morning and moved very fast since pot-life was short and working life was not much longer. Fortunately much of the work during the hot months involved wet sanding and the over-spray kept me a little cooler than I would have been doing other tasks.
Sometime after my last post I finally finished cleaning and prepping the bilge for the layup of lots of fiberglass and epoxy. Beyond the sanding and cleaning I did some fairing and also ground out and filled small cracks and voids in the surface of the bilge fiberglass. The goal was to end up with the best possible surface for adhesion of the new fiberglass. Adhesion was really important so I kept sanding, filling and prepping until I was confident that the bilge was ready.
The first major fiberglass layup in the bilge involved adding five layers of 18 ounce biaxial cloth to the bilge. The first layer was as wide and as long as I could fit into the bilge and was something like 45 inches wide by 9 feet long. Each subsequent layer was narrower and shorter so that the fifth layer only covered the bottom of the bilge and a few inches of the bilge sides. The goal for this layup was to maximize adhesion to the existing glass and to reinforce the hull. Around 3 gallons of epoxy and and plenty of fiberglass cloth and mat were needed for this layup.
Throughout this project Alex Baker helped with expert guidance, advice and when it came time for the big layup he even suited up and took the lead (thankfully). Alex works at Bock Marine and is a true expert. I understood that through the planning and prep work for this project but didn’t appreciate it until the glass started to go in. There is a lot of skill involved in good layup and I’m really glad that he allowed me to work along side of him, and to watch and learn a few of his techniques. I’m not sure what would have happened without Alex’s help but learning from an expert is surely much faster and easier than learning complicated things on your own.
The new fiberglass had to go in all at once so that the layers chemically bonded to each other. The goal is to minimize mechanical bonds since they are not as strong. With all of the prep work done, the cloth cut and ready and plenty of epoxy on hand we started the layup at sunrise one hot morning. We worked for more than five hours and by the time we finished it was well over one hundred degrees Farenheit in the boat. The layup went well so once I was recovered I moved into another round of sanding and prep for the next big layup which I’ll detail in my next post.
Here are a few photos showing the bilge before the layup, and Alex rolling out the first piece of glass in the bilge.
Midsummer coastal life
11 July 2010 | Coastal Living, Sailing | 2 Responses
Boat and computer work take up most of my time but I also get out to enjoy some of the sites and events in this area of the North Carolina Coast. The event calendar remains pretty full out here and there is a good variety of options for entertainment. One of my favorite things to do though is to simply go for a walk on the beach.
Probably for this reason I seem to end up at Fort Macon pretty often on my outings. At Fort Macon I can enjoy whatever activity is scheduled and then go for a nice walk on the nice beach there. Recently I’ve attended a cannon firing and a concert of Civil War era music at the fort.
For the 4th of July I did some back-road exploring and then spent the afternoon in New Bern, NC. I was really impressed by New Bern’s beautiful and historic down town and look forward to going back. New Bern is celebrating it’s 300th anniversary this year and consequently put on a great 4th of July celebration along the waterfront. The air show was top-notch and I enjoyed watching the fireworks over the many boats on the water. The perfect weather over the weekend of the 4th as me excited about the fall and was a welcome break from the hot weather that has dominated out here lately.
