well we’ve had a long period without any work whilst we have agreed ownership issues. The boat has been registered on the small ships register although we haven’t actually had a documentation yet.
over the past week or so frank a colleague has now joined to help with the repairs and renovations. I first task has been to start stripping the Tecdek which has completely lost its integrity over the years. This was put on when the boat was built back in 1977 and so is underneath all the fittings. With the integrity of the Tecdek Lost the water has been getting through onto the plywood decks and directly through the skin fittings rotting away the wood interior.
This is The root cause of the problem and so we are stripping it off along with the deck fittings. Yesterday we took of the Starboard Genoa track which took probably three hours. But it is now off although we did bend it slightly which might give us a problem when refitting.
The coach roof deck is different in that it has been sheathed in a single layer of fibreglass. This has cracked and letting water. The fibreglass overlays a proper teak deck which has lost its integrity and so water has been getting through into the cabin and causing huge amounts of damage. Again we are stripping the surface fittings such as handrails and will strip the deck next week. We will probably end up putting A six mil marine ply Sheet over the cabin top which is glassfibre and then sheath the whole lot with a few layers of fibreglass we will tie that into the cabin top and that will deal with the cabin itself.
Side decks are plywood over a strip of fibreglass which is bonded to the hull. It looks like there is a 200 mm shelf of plywood all around the whole boat which the deck is fixed to. There are a number of deck beams supporting the plywood and some of these are rotten and need repair. None need replacement but they are rotten where they meet the hull.
We have also removed the two booms and brought those home and I am in the process of cleaning them up and removing the running rigging. On the mizzen boom most of the pulleys are jammed and need replacing but on the main boom there appears to be only the clamp leads that are a problem in that they are corroded completely and do not move. I will have to remove the pin and take them out and find completely new replacements.
Saving Anne Marie 