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It will be three weeks tomorrow that we are living in Cracker Boy Boat Works fixing the damage from Nassau.
First off I must say living in the yard is not so bad- we are at the end of the yard near the water. We see a wonderful orange glow over Harbortown Marina next door in the morning, we have beautiful sunset views, and views of the birds leaving and returning to Birdie Island at dusk and dawn. There is a songbird who wakes us up every morning with a myriad of tunes, and the blue jays and red cardinals have just arrived from I don't know where. Everyone here is very helpful and friendly, and we have the occasional bbq get togethers at the water's edge where the boat slips are. The downside of course are the different kinds of dusts ( and colours!) in the air constantly landing on your boat, the trek up to the shower/toilet area and the sporadic internet service. In our spot at the end here we also get a bit of a breeze which makes the normal crazy heat in a yard more bearable when you are doing very physical work. But after
all this time we are getting a little restless and perhaps a little down to still be here.
We didn't think it would take this long to fix the rudder. Dropping it from the boat ended up being the easiest part. With it out we were able to see that where the rudder post exits the boat there were some cracks to be fixed. We could also see that the upper part of the rudder was cracked as well, and separated from the rudder post. There was no choice but to take the rudder apart to see if it had moved on the post, or if the post was bent. It took Marty a good part of a day to carefully saw along between the two shells of the rudder, and another day to slowly pry the rudder apart. Once split in two we had to clean out all the old foam and cut the post out from the side it was attached to. We determined that the post was indeed bent and slightly pocked from saltwater damage in one area. It was taken to a machine shop and we concentrated on the keel while waiting for its return.
When the boat was hauled out of the water we noticed right away that the keel was missing paint right down the the metal around the anodes. It seems our primer or filler did not bond properly to the metal. We had to sand down the whole keel to metal and start over again. The anodes were done- they came off like putty. The propeller anode was also in bad shape, and the prop itself was pocked. We had to remove the prop to get to the anode, and sand down the whole prop and sail drive again too. This was all very disappointing, we were not expecting to do that amount of work on the bottom of the boat, especially the metal grinding which be both don't like doing. In the end all was close to being done by the time the rudder post came back a week later. We put the new antifouling paint on and saved some for under the pads, the rudder and the repaired section of the boat where the rudder exits.
We set the rudder post back onto one side of the shell and fiberglassed it in place. A test was done
on the urethane foam to see how fluid it would be and also how much it would expand. Afterwards the two halves of the rudder were placed back together and epoxied. The next day we started slowly filling the rudder with the foam. One batch went off too quickly and started to foam as we poured it in- we were worried it didn't get down as far as it should and there would be pockets of air in the rudder. When we drilled holes to test we only found one area that was hollow. We filled at up and let it all set. The next day we lay it down on its side and drilled more test holes. All seemed good. When filling the holes with epoxy we noticed air bubbles in some, which means there are some little pockets of air in the foam. At this point there is not much we can do other than start over, or drill more holes to try to figure out where they are and fill them with epoxy. Neither sounds like a good idea. We will do a matting around the edge of the rudder and make sure the joining of the
post and rudder is well sealed so no water gets in to sit in the air holes, and all should be good.
The hardest part of all of this rudder stuff was actually removing housing for the top bearing. There were flathead screws which would just not budge with impact devices or otherwise. Marty had to drill them out, which didn't prove to be any easier. The problem, other than the fact they were stuck in with 5200 sealant, was the space to work in- the bench holding the propane tank is right above leaving less than desirable clearance for hammering or for just comfort alone considering you also have the steering column right behind you and you are curled into a little ball to try to work. A few days, curses and broken drill bits later, the bottom part of the housing is now off so we can get the glasswork done down there. I still have to try to get the top part off to make sure there are no cracks in the fiberglass under there and to clean the housing up. In a day or so this will be ready for the rudder to go back
in.
Today we are finishing the matting on the rudder's edge. We hope to get it dry and sanded down so we can apply the first coat of Interlux 2000 barrier coat this evening. We would like to put on four coats of interlux and then the two coats of antifouing by tomorrow evening so we can start trying to get the rudder back in maybe by Thursday. It would be great to be back in the water by the weekend.... fingers crossed all goes well from now on with no more surprises.
At Harbortown Marina we have secured our slip. We will take it for the year, this way when we get back in autumn we can do tests on everything properly, fix anything that is not up to standard, finish a few more things we wanted to...... and best of all- take little day sails or go away for a few days and ENJOY Caribee instead of always be working on her. When we get to our slip next week we will start our summerizing of Caribee- we do not intend to have the same issues as last year when we return! I spent a few
days making reflective foam blockers for all the windows to keep heat out this year. We bought a small stand up air conditioner which we will set low just to keep out the humidity, we will take down all our canvas and maybe put a tarp up over the dinghy and coach deck and around the area where there is a leak we have not mastered yet. We will also have someone come in to check now and then while we are gone and make sure she is tied up well. This will take a few days, at this point we will only be home in Montreal closer to the end of the month. Maybe we will miss the snow after all!
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