I have a new favorite bar in Beaufort, NC: The Handle Bar.( Read more... )

I finally put Galena's genoa track back on the caprail.
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Finally, the stern of The Good Ship Galena looks like a Westsail again. The boomkin beams are in place and securely bolted down. The stern pulpit is bolted into place. The new mainsheet blocks are rigged and secured. The tiller is bolted into the rudder and Galena is ready to sail... almost.
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I've removed the boomkin and have started to build a new one.

OK, "What's a boomkin" you ask?
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In taking off the cap rail and sealing the hull deck joint (no leaks yet, knock on polysulfide) I found the teak rails to be badly rotted.

Here's a picture of the underside of the cap rail board.
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I had already rebuilt the damaged main winch. I went to the marina to replace them and do some clean-and-lube maintenance on the other winches.
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The main headsail winch, starboard side, has been damaged now for well over a year. My problem is that the Barlow winch company went out of business about 20-yrs ago (old boats are such a pain in the regard). New replacement winches are about $800 each, and, of course, I'd have to get two so they would look good; can't have mismatched winches, can I? So I put up with the problem of one winch not having a self-tailing capability.

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For the first time in weeks, we have nice weather (45° F). So I ran down to the marina to check the fitting of the dodger coaming to Galena's cabin top. Not too bad. I found that I had let the ends spread out a little much. I'll have to pull the two ends together about 3" before I apply any more fiberglass. Other than that it fits well enough.
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Today I started the glue-up of the foam core for the dodger coaming.
After trying to use a few make shift jigs to hold the foam boards in place I decided that I should at least give myself half a chance to do a good job. And that means buying some wood and building a actual platform on which to construct this thing.
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I bought some of the foam from which I will construct the dodger coaming. That's the little raised sill that supports the bottom edge of the dodger where it attaches to Galena's cabin top.

I'm using rigid Dow Styrofoam insulation sheathing in 1/2-inch thickness. I've cut 10-inch wide strips. I'll bend them around a form laminating 4 layers together using West System epoxy to glue it up. Following that I'll do the final shaping before covering the whole thing with a couple of layers of glass cloth.

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The dodger kit is setting on my family room floor. I have unpacked it and am just about ready to start building it. Actually, I'm going to build the frame, then Jane is going to sew the canvas.
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I finally finished the bowsprit and reinstalled it on Galena. She looks so much better with her nose than without.

The weather was fantastic and so there were several of my dock-mates on hand to help. Billy (s/v Betterdays), Terry (s/v Cloud Nine), and Gene (s/v SeaWoof) were all helpful in not only lifting the bowsprit into place, but also in solving the many inevitably problems that surfaced as I tried to bolt it into place.
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After painting the bowsprit with the same paint as was used on the hull I began reassembly.
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Galena's portlights were leaking (surprise, surprise). The wood on the inside of the cabintop surounding the portlights is delaminated. I removed one of the small forward portlights. I placed placed some tape on the inside of the wall. Then I painted a lot of West System epoxy on the edge, allowing it soak in between the delaminated layers.
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Yesterday and today I sealed more of the hull-deck joint. I removed another section of teak toe-rail, about 6-ft on each side. That exposed the joint back from the bow to about 2-ft astern of the chainplates. Conveniently, there was a toe-rail joint just forward of the genoa track. That will have to removed before I can do more. And that's the hardest part of this little project. The tracks are through-bolted and I need someone on top with a screwdriver and someone inside with a socket on a very long extension to reach the nuts. Also, I have to disassemble more of the furniture inside Galena to get at the inside of the bulwarks.
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I had already removed 10-ft of caprail on each bow and cleaned out the old caulk/sealant. I had been waiting for the polysulfide. Since I'm too cheap to buy a bunch of Boatlife Polysulfide, and since I really wanted to use a 2-part poly, I bought the stuff they use to seal highway expansion joints. I used Pecora's Synthacalk GC-2+ which is a "2-part, chemical resistant polysulfide sealant."

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I rounded the tip of the bowsprit to accept the ringband. It fits very snugly, as it should. But there are some voids in there. When I'm ready to attach the ringband I'll give everything a good coating of thickened epoxy and let that fill the voids.

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I've begun to shape the new bowsprit. The three 2x6 planks are now one 4.5" x 5.5" spar. I need to work that down a bit and taper it to 4x4 at the tip.
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Glued the bowsprit together today. Used West System with 403 microfiber filler. The three 2x6's were clamped together and left to kickoff. The cold temperatures overnight gave me some pause but the epoxy seems to be curing just fine.
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I've got to make a decision on this:
Do I fill the joint with 2-part polysulfide sealant, as recommended in almost all references?
Or do I use fiberglass and resin and make the joint solid?
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I'm leaning toward the poly. Faster, easier to work with, more forgiving, proven track record, highly recommended..... Yeah, I'll probably go that route. But then again....