foam | Project Ensign

Scratch and itch

I think that title may have been used in Don Casey’s “This Old Boat,” but it’s applicable to the work underway on the Ensign. We’ve been grinding, sanding, and grinding some more in preparation for interior reconstruction, and we’re nearly there.

Tony, Nick, Alex S., Bonnie, and Michael D. continued work Friday afternoon. Bonnie settled in with the RO sander and sanded part of the cockpit and bilge. When she’d had enough of the dust, she turned her attention to cleaning the deck hardware – i.e., winches, cleats, etc – in kerosene.

Tony, Nick and Alex cut out the rear bulkhead at the aft end of the cockpit and began removing some more pour-in foam. With limited access, that job is proving to be tough.

Michael D. sounded the decks and circled areas where the core is likely damaged. The starboard sidedeck from the winch base to the chainplates is soggy. The foredeck triangle from the stem fitting aft about 2-1/2 feet is soggy, and the aft deck is shot. We’ve got a fair amount of core replacement to take care of. Typical deck construction consists of a layer of end-grain balsa sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass: the upper skin, which forms the deck, and the lower skin, which forms the bottom of the deck and the interior of the cabin. Repair requires removing the top skin, scraping out all of the damaged (wet) balsa, cleaning the lower skin, then placing new balsa in a bed of epoxy before finally covering it with new fiberglass. Once that’s done, the surface will need to be faired, primed and painted. We’ll postpone deck work until we have the interior bulkheads reinstalled.

I spent some time sanding the interior of the cabin with the RO sander and 80 grit paper to prepare the surfaces for fiberglassing and, eventually, paint.

We ended the day by setting two of the cockpit floors (grate supports) in thickened epoxy. We’ll get an order in for marine-grade plywood and begin reconstructing the cabin on Friday, if all goes as planned.

2010: 04/04
POSTED BY: vBurgh
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: cockpit floors
foam
grinding
sanding
week two
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Foam, dust, spars and sails

At the students’ behest (honestly, it doesn’t take much arm twisting) we spent a class period in the shop and managed to make significant progress. I’d done my best to line up some projects and materials to maximize our time, and I was eager to capitalize on their enthusiasm.

Kaitlyn and Klara went right to work on cleaning the spars with 3M’s restorer compound and wax, while Simone and Becky sanded the cockpit seats. Michael R., Jared C., Tony, and Michael H. sanded the cockpit slats, which we’d disassembled yesterday evening, and the cockpit coaming. A few of them have a study hall following our time together, so they stayed on to continue working and managed to get the wood completely sanded.

Simone and Becky sand the cockpit benches

Tony and Michael sand the cockpit coaming

Michael D. and Joey did their best to remove the remaining forward attachment for the rub rail and loosened the stem fitting before making a supply run. I drilled out a rusted fastener to complete the rub rail removal, and pulled the last bolt to free the stem fitting. Both the rub rail and stem fitting need attention. The forward hole on the stem fitting is cracked, and the rub rail could use a good cleaning. Both should be repairable. I tried cleaning a small portion of the rub rail to see what it would look like, and I’m satisfied that it will clean up just fine.

Bonnie and Alex G. filled a tub in another room and began cleaning the mainsail. It is in fair condition, but has a few stains from rodents (not to mention a smell) that we’d like to get rid of – or at least improve. The sail should be serviceable.

Matt and Matt got some kerosene and began cleaning up our bucket-o-parts: winches, cleats, chainplates, and other hardware.

Constanza and Josh did their best to dig the pour-in expanding foam out of a small cutout in the lazarette. I don’t think they made much progress thanks to the small opening. It appears it’s going to be necessary to open that hole up if we’re going to get the foam out. And the foam must be removed if it’s as bad as what we found in the cabin.

Constanza and Josh work to remove foam from the lazarette

Nick, Alex and I worked on demoing the cabin. Armed with a Sawzall, we cut away the v-berth to expose the foam, which had collected so much water that it spurted out of the cuts and flooded the sole. Every piece of plywood and every section of foam was saturated. We carved out shoebox-sized chunks of foam, each one weighing a couple of pounds. The task was made more enjoyable by the discovery of colonies of black ants that had been happily munching on the rotten wood until we disturbed their tranquility. Little by little we hacked away at the water-soaked foam, stopping periodically to shovel it out of the way.

Nick begins cutting out the starboard berth

After we’d cleared the cabin, we cut through the forward bulkhead. Again, water poured from the cut. I had estimated earlier that the forepeak and v-berth probably held close to 200lbs of water. I’m pretty certain of that now. We hauled several loads of foam to the dumpster, each weighing 40lbs or so.

Nasty foam - and ants

Yours truly cutting out the forward bulkhead

We found a shovel to be most effective, if not a bit unwieldy, at carving out chunks of foam as we excavated the forepeak. The Sawzall was useful at times, but the shovel enabled us to pry large chunks free fairly easily. Nick and I worked until 5:30 before calling it a day.