More Yard Work

As is usually the case, the forward motion on the paint job has caused reverse motion on the overall project. While preparing the front deck for paint Joan came across a soft spot on the deck and as is usually the case with soft spots, it turned out to be a section of rotten deck. After a few tries to section it off, it became apparent that the best solution would be a single patch of the whole area, rather than a few small ones, near each other.

This section contains the anchor roller, the bow pulpit, and the chain plates for the head stay, so it all came off and a new section of deck was purchased in the form of a sheet of 3/8 " marine plywood. Some trimming and fitting, and the new section of deck can be epoxied and fitted to the front. Because of the radius curve of the deck, I need to come up with some weights to put on top of it when we attach it to the hull and bulkheads with epoxy bog. After that sets up I will sand the edges to the contour of the rest of the deck, remove the paint from the hulls in that area and lay fiberglass over the deck lapped onto the hulls.

Not really too difficult, but still a diversion. Within every setback is an opportunity to make more work for the team, hopefully with commensurate rewards. We have never been fond of the anchor roller arrangement, and it was attached to the rotting section of the deck and had to be removed.

The stainless roller is attached to a sheet of 3/8" aluminum plate, which is glued to a piece of 1" plywood, which is then glued and bolted to the deck. Crude, but effective, if the decks don't rot. Had this section come apart at anchor, it could have been most inconvenient, as well as pretty destructive to the bow of the boat.

This arrangement with the roller forward by the head stay and the windlass back behind the hatch has several awkward features. The roller cannot be lined up with the windlass from anywhere else on deck. The chain between the roller and the windlass (round winch thingy by the hatch) lays on deck when you are sailing and beats the paint to death on deck. The windlass has a deck pass through feature to allow you to store the chain and rode below decks, but because it is right on the side of the hull, it is not self stowing. That is to say that the rode just bunches up along the hull side until it gets in the way of the incoming rode and gets all jammed up, making someone go up forward and untangle it. The large gray hatch is massively heavy and has rotten wood along the sides which needs repair, as well as the black coamings added to protect it from sea water entry take up a great deal of space. I will be removing all of that, replacing some more deck and mounting a smaller hatch which should drop some weight off the front of the boat and free up a lot of deck space up there.  The current thought process is to build a water tight box under the new section of deck, mount the windlass in the center with access to the locker on deck and make it self draining out the side of the boat. We want to be able to raise and lower the anchor from the cockpit without anyone doing any more than pushing a button. This should allow a bit more freedom in roller placement and make it all neater and easier to use.

We will be doing this stuff in a parallel effort with the painting of the rest of the topsides and it should not be too much of an impact on the painting until the final coat is ready to go on.