Home Page | The Story | The Project | Update History | Contact


Project Log:  Sunday, November 22, 2009
Home Page > The Project > Project Logs > 11/22/09

I briefly entertained the idea of beginning the deck or bottom sanding, but ultimately decided that could wait a week--I just didn't have it in me this day.  Instead, I had a pleasantly light day, taking care of a few odds and ends only.  I began by reinstalling my work lights and cords, and then vacuumed out the water that had collected in the bilge (mainly in the shallow sections above and adjacent to the center board trunk, which drain poorly or not at all)

Now that the boat was significantly cleaner, it seemed a good time to crawl into the point of the stem and remove the stem casting, which was secured with four bolts through the stem and two bolts through the deck above.  With nothing to brace my feet, it was a bit of a challenge holding myself in place, but not too bad.

The first nut came off easily with a ratchet.  The second nut spun the whole bolt when I turned it.  The third nut, infuriatingly, was a smaller size than the other ones, and I didn't have that size wrench or socket with me; what in the world was this spate of single nuts of an odd diameter that I'd discovered this weekend?

At this point, I gave in and collected three pair of Vice-Grips, which I secured on the three remaining nuts.  Then, from outside, I used an impact driver to remove the screws.  All three came easily, fortunately, despite the heavy application of cheap white silicone sealant all over everything.

With the four stem bolts removed, I reset the Vice-Grips on the two deck bolts, and removed those from above.  Then, with a little persuasion to break the rubbery bond of the silicone, I removed the casting.

        

With far too much effort, given its small size, I finally removed the last section of old interior liner, up in the chain locker.  I'd originally left this in place because during the original days of liner removal, there'd still been several through-bolts holding this part on, from the deck hardware that I'd yet to remove at that time.  This little piece was more securely stuck than any of the rest of the liner, of course, but it succumbed to a minute or two with a large crowbar, eventually giving way in a shower of brittle, crystalline jewels of aquamarine-colored adhesive.

         

The only deck hardware still in place was a pair of bronze trim/screw rings on the Dorade vent boxes near the mast, which I removed next.  I also removed a cable clam that had been in place for the mast wiring, and made an attempt to remove the mast step, but didn't have the right tools with me to chip away whatever brittle stuff had been applied into the countersunk screw holes, and the mast step resisted prying away by force, so I left that for the moment.


I wrapped up the day's boat-relate work by loading some of the interior debris into my already-full trailer for a trip to the dump sometime soon.  I wanted to be sure to get rid of the piles of junk before the snow flew.

Total Time Today:  1.5 hours

Previous | Next
 

Site Design & Content ©2004-2012 by Timothy C. Lackey.  All Rights Reserved.
Questions and Comments 
Site V 1.0 went live on 12/12/04
Site V 2.0 went live on 8/3/08
This site is now static and no longer updated.