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The real beginning. This is going to look a little scary for you guys with aluminum hulls. Take a close look at her port bottom and notice the area under the engine. Yep--you can stick your hand right thru.
I've done a lot of stripping out of her engine room of tanks bilge pumps, etc., in preparation for cutting out these plates. My plan is to cut out her bottom plate from the bulkhead to the strake, from the Port chine three foot in to the keel. The Starboard bottom isn't as bad as it appears.
Finally decided on the replacement plate material. I'm going to be using 3/16 inch Corten A242-A Type 1 steel. It's a special order plate, but isn't that much more that A36 standard hot rolled structural steel, and will match up with the existing Corten plating that CC originally used.
I pulled up the cabin sole hatches, and scraped the hull for hours. I found another repair--this one minor, and about nine inches wide and ten feet long right against the keel on Port. She goes thru the hull in a few small spots, but it's better to remove to the first support member and back to the bulkhead.
Seems my agreement with 21 Mile & Jefferson Marine keeps changing daily. Mark Miller, the owner, and I had agreed to a set of working conditions that were prerequisite to my placing the roamer at his shop for repairs. I've always wanted to do my own welding, but Mark insisted that I let his welding subcontractor look at the repairs. Well after two weeks, his welder finally gave me a price that's twice the retail rate for such repairs, and now Mark won't allow any welding unless I use his contractor. The reason for such a high quote is due to the welding contractors having to kick back about forty percent of the quote to the shop. Bottom line is I've got Bobby, from C & N Marine, transporting her on Monday morning to a shop location that guarantees that I can do these repairs without interruption. It's better this way as now Dan and I won't be held up in getting the bottom work completed.
Advice for those in the Anchor Bay area of Lake St. Claire--avoid Mark Miller, at 21 Mile & Jefferson Marine, at all costs. All he's interested in doing is slow walking your wallet! And to be fair, both his painter and his glassman do some of the best work I've seen, but they are getting fed up with him as well, and will take work on the side.
Got the Port side bottom out, and two of structural beams. We got one of the beams back in, and have one more to remove and replace.
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