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With all her port side structural replaced, she's almost ready for her new bottom plating. I want to cut out and prep the rest of her bottom repairs first, which are minor in comparison, then weld all the new plating at the same time. We'll have one additional bottom area to address, starboard bottom at the corner between strake and chine, but there is no structural damage there so the repair is pretty straightforward.
Plating is stitch welded in place from the inside, just as CC did when she was originally built, and she's got a solid transom now with the new plating welded inside and out. The remainder of her bottom repairs are forward of the water-tight bulkhead at mid-ship, and are fairly easy to do, as the main structural in that area is the keel and stringers, which are in excellent condition. Here, none of the existing plating was damaged actually thru-hull, but the corrosion severely pitted the inside of the plating enough to warrant replacement while she's laid up for repairs.
Here's our repair crew. From left to right is Dan, head Mechanic and who donated his shop for all the repairs; then me, head fabricator and grunt who's tightly gripping that can of brew on one of our breaks; then comes Larry, our chief welder and contortionist (ever crawled around in those tight bilge places?) , and last but not least is Johnny, who takes care of fire control. Thus far we are on track for our scheduled launch of the last week of April/first week of May, where the weather is finally breaking enough to allow for paint and fairing.
FINALLY got our first coat of primer on the hull. I used Interlux/InterProtect 3000 as the bare metal primer, and will be using InterProtect Watertite for all the below water fairing. And fairing is a must, but I won't be using the amounts that CC originally applied. When we took her bottom down to bare metal, we found the original fairing compound---and lots of it. We'll make her nice and smooth, but without applying the compound an inch thick.
The rest of her below the waterline paint system consists of four coats of InterProtect 2000, then three coats of Interlux Fiberglass Bottomkote. She'll have a good hard bottom finish to protect all the new metal. Now she's just a matter of days from the water, and it's been a long road getting her to this point, but she should be good for another 30 years of service.
MAY 19. 2002--
We got her bottom rubbed down this weekend and applied the first coat of InterProtect 2000. The weather wasn't very cooperative---high in the mid fifties---it's finally breaking this week though, so she'll get another three coats of 2000, then two coats of hard Fiberglass Bottomkote. She's also getting her topside paint while up--two fresh coats of Interthane Plus. Next week for launch is a pretty good bet--two weeks later than my original projection, but not bad at all considering the work that went into her, and the weather we've dealt with.
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