I've been plowing away at all the fiberglass work to get my B35 project back to square one. I'm about 40% of the way through final punchlist and am going to thank God I made it when that part of the project is over. While patching holes in the hull I found some pretty severe distortion that made me say oh crap. I'm hoping someone here can help guide me to possible solutions.
The clues....first, if I put a straight edge on the hull from the start of the belly to the stern, the lines are out almost a quarter inch. Also, the lip running around the cockpit that the sole lays in is separated from the hull. You can see in the pictures roughly where the separation is. Before I ground down the old polyester filler, the gap from the crack was about a quarter inch. There are similar signs on the starboard side, but nowhere near as severe.
Not sure what caused this. May have been me ripping out some of the knees, something the previous owner did, the tower putting the hull in compression, or maybe a combination of the above. Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this issue? Should I just build out the low areas with matt and filler and try to fair the best I can? Or try to pull the hull back in line somehow? Pull the tower off and see if that takes her out of compression?
Mark,
I wouldn't worry about the hull sides being out a 1/4" , I 've seen boats that were off a good 1". As for the "knees" they look like the were tabbed in for attaching the engine boxes in place. Just re-tab them and on the deck supports glassed to the hull sides re-glass them where they are. The tower question, is there any distortion or compression signs on the decks? If there is, glass a support where the compression problems are. I think your worrying about too much, the boat has to " work" while underway, make sure you don't create any hard spots in the hull sides when glassing knees into the interior , they will show up like a sore thumb , they make foam spacers to go between the wood tabbing and what ever your using for knee material.
The prep work is key to getting a smooth surface on the hull sides, make sure you use a trued metal straight edge , wood 2x4 's are not very good to use as a straight edge.
Good luck with the project it takes a long time and a lot of cash to redo a boat correctly.
Pete Fallon
Mark,
Your so called knees are actually 3/4" plywood that are tabbed into the hull sides, these were for attaching the motor boxes, inner trim panels and at the stern there are 2 about 10" apart that were used for attaching the stern cleats, they were made from 1" oak uprights with a piece of 2" oak spanning between them to screw the stern cleats into.
Make sure you re-attach the fuel tank bonding straps when you put things back together.
As long as you don't have a spongy feel while walking around the cockpit sole you should be okay, if it's soft beef up the supports below decks and along the inner hull sides.
When fairing the hull use a long board sanding board (sold at fiberglass supply shops) this will keep you from creating dish marks along the flat surfaces. If your not careful you can make a real mess of the topsides, creating sanding marks, divots and swirls that really show up after painting. Sometimes your better off letting an expert do the finish coating. I have seen some God awful messes that owners have attempted to refinish there boats. Also if your replacing the cockpit under- pinnings (old mahogany boards) try and use fiberglass stock sold by McMaster Carr you will never have to redo it again.
I noticed that you have stripped the waterline down to the green glass, did you have it soda blasted?. Make sure you fair the transition line smooth so there are no hard lines that might show up later. Also if your gel coat has spider cracking you have to get all the way to green glass or they will show back up after a few years if your re-painting with Imron.
Keep at it , the hard work will be over soon , but the money bleeding never stops. Where are you located and where are you having the repairs done?
Pete Fallon
Thanks for the clarification. The boat is located at summit north marina in Bear, DE. When I'm done she'll go down to Ocean City, MD where I'll fish it. If any of you are in the area stop by and say hello or take a look.
Yes, I had the hull soda blasted down to the old barrier coat and then stripped the barrier off with a DA. I want to know that the bottom is in good shape before going back in the water. At some point there was a bottom job done before that took care of most of the blisters so that saved me some time. I'll make sure to fair in the waterline. Also patched all of the thru-hull fittings for vents, bilges, etc. Last count there was something like 28 holes of various sizes that needed patched. What a pain in the ass. But this way I can start fresh and keep the hull looking clean with only minimum amount of penetrations.
There was significant crazing in the gel coat. I used an air file with 80 grit to strip down the gel to where the glass is starting to print through, but still left a thin layer of the original gelcoat. This got rid of 95% of the cracks. Still have a little bit of spot sanding to do but I'll take care of that right before primer. I do have a longboard and will use that to do the fairing. And yes, I was planning on having someone come in to shoot the final couple coats and maybe even help out with the filling & fairing work. A painter we use at work a good bit just shot a boat in the yard I'm in and it came out real nice. He's offered to help on T&M so I can take on as much as I feel comfortable with.
