Frisco Flyer trip blog...

While looking of something else I came across this link to a trip blog and the boat is a Cheoy Lee Frisco Flyer named Sumatra....

http://sailing-sumatra.livejournal.com/

Cabin house leaks....

There were two small leaks in thecabin house ceiling. when ever it rqained, there were two small trickles of water on the Port side that seemed to be coming in from the area where the fiberglass cloth on the roof meets the walls of the house. Covering that edge of fiberglass was a piece of molding. I took off a piece of the molding to look under neath and when I saw how there wasnt much of an edge to speak off and that the sealent that was used was spent and no longer keeping any water out.. I was suyrprised that I didnt have more leaks. So i ripped off teh rest of teh molding and decided that what I'll do is get some thin veneers/laminate and wrap the wall in this, bed that in some boat life or something, feather hat up against the fiberglass on the roof then add some glass on the roof and feather that over the "new walls".

After that, I'll repaint the roof and add a new piece of molding to cover that joint as well as the lower section where the walls meet the decking.

Some shots of the molding etc...

Lots of sanding before painting...

Now that I'm done fiberglassing the deck, I have lots of sanding to do before I can ever paint it. I started sanding the micro balloons and epoxy yesterday and relized just how long this next part will take in order to get the deck perfectly fair and level.

It sands easily enough, its just that I cant always see the high/low spots until its all been sanded which makes me think that I'll be sanding until sometime in May.

Someshots of the deck and hull/deck joint.....

Jackstands....

I havent moved the jackstandsfor a long time. As the weather has changed, they have settled into the ground. I've kept the boat level by adjusting them up or down, now it was time to move them out of place, replace the boards under them to support them and slide them back in...

So thats what I did. It can feel a little dangerous when ever I'm underthe boat dooing anything. there was one day when I had to work on the bottom of the keel and looking up it seemed as if the whole boat could come down on me in a second.

So far though...it hasnt happended yet...

Some pics..

More deck pictures..

One more shot of the extra glass in the Winch area and on the rail


This is the first skim coat of epoxy and microballoons. Feels like it took forever to get to this point...

When this was all finally finished, I started to wonder if I had enough glass down on the 1/2 plywood decking. Was just one layer of glass all around, with another on the rails, bow etc? I spent the day stressing about this until I went to Steve's last night to help him slide in his 6 looong bilge stringers into Cicada. While there, I was looking at Cicada and talking to the guy that re did her deck 20 years ago or so and it was still going strong with one layer of glass over a 1/2 inch plywood deck. I feel better now. Cant wait to finish fairing the microbaloons and prep it for painting.......!

Small fingers...

Maya hasn't been able to help much lately because of al the epoxy and fiberglass but she jumped at the chance to clean the old tape off of the cleats left over from varnishing the cockpit area. My fingers are too big for this job and she wanted to help do anything before I started working with all the toxic stuff again...

Deck progress...

After a couple of rainy days there was another break of nice weather and I got a lot done on the decks. Once the last piece of glass was laid and cured, I sanded all the seams and gaps smooth, faired the edges as best I could to the hull, and did a overall all sanding to rough it up before putting on any more epoxy, then I put on a "skimcoat" mixture of epoxy and micro balloons on the deck and over the rail.


A shot of the rail after its second layer of cloth. I had about three inches on deck and two over the edge. The initial layer of cloth down had about three or four inches over the edge. This made sanding easier later.


This is a small extra section of glass where the winches are mounted. Steve gave me a small bit of Dynel. I had enough for the winch pads and the pulpit area..


The forward two thirds of the bow has an extra layer of Dynel and then there is the extra layer along the rails

When it was all sanded and wiped down, I had Maya take a couple pictures....

Fiberglass Deck....Finally!

So when the forecast called for 4-5 days of sunny warm weather, I knew I had to get the fiberglass on the decks now in order to get everything else finished for her to go in. I wanted to just get started with the epoxy but once I was out there, about to spread out the cloth, I realized that I had to grind/scrap, sand a few inches of the hull in order to make a stronger bond between the hull and deck. The hull is covered in a thick gel coat (thick on the port side but thinner on Stbd. for some reason. Probably has to do with when they were building up the hull in the mold back in 1965. Its so clearly thicker on one side that I'm guessing that afterthey sprayed the gelcoat, and then the glass, that the boat rested on its port side and the gelcoat settled more on that side? All just a guess.) and getting that gelcoat off is not easy. The best way was to use a 3 innc grinder and if I was careful, I could feather and smooth it from gelcoat to raw fiberglass hull. If I was in a rush to get back in the house to read a bedtime story or to make dinner for the girls, I would grind it in a real choppy rough way that was harder to sand smooth before the glass and epoxy went on.

Some pictures from the last few warm days...

Glass cut and ready to go...


Three inches or so of the gelcoat was grinded, sanded and wiped clean...


The deck was sanded flush/fair one last time, the transition from deck to sides was sanded smooth and wiped down....


Glass waiting for epoxy...

The weather really cooperated, warm sunny and no wind on the coast for once. Once I had the cloth cut to the rough shape that I needed, I made sure there was enough to extend over the edge to bond to the hull. Then I would mix up 5 or 6 oz of West System epoxy, pour it along the cabin house first and drizzle the rest out on the rest. Once the epoxy had really soaked in and set along the cabin house, I "Squegeed" the rest out away from the house towards the sides. This seemed to work great and I have to say that I ended up being pretty good at this. On the whole deck, I have only found one small bubble that I must have missed. Once the epoxy had kicked off and was getting set, I cut the excess cloth and peeled it off.



A couple days later...... the deck is fiberglassed!!

Ok, whats still left is...

1. sand the deck
2. run glass tape along the edges, cabinhouse and pulpit area
3. epoxy those areas and sand fair
4. mix up PLENTY of epoxy and microballoons, spread, fair and sand
5. do this a couple more times
6. high build paint?? not sure if this is overkill
6. or 7. epoxy paint.
7. or 8. re install, deck hardware
Done.