1. I pulled all the cement out of the bilge area under the companionway bulkhead. In it, there had been this 6X6X24 (Looked like mahogany?) log buried, standing upright. The top of the post was still so wet that it leaked like a sponge when I was trying to take it out. Once all the cement was out I was able to get the log out too. It wasn't attached to anything and just rested, standing upright on a thick layer of harder cement on the bottom of the keel. I haven't heard of any other Flyers with this (most Flyers probably were never taken apart the way this one is) Thinking that this thing probably offered some stiffness and structural support, I replaced it with a solid board cut to match the section of keel and heavily epoxied it in place with West and filler. I then glassed this whole area in with glass mat. Not as strong as the biax or other cloth but this will all be covered with cement and more epoxy and will be glassed with cloth from the top and other side of the bulkhead, in the motor well/deep bilge area.. so its not going anywhere.
2. While doing this I also finished touching up any imperfections in the cabin house sides, inside and out and sanding it smooth. I'm going to be coating this with West System before covering it with varnish for UV protection.
3. And I've then primed in the inside of the cabin ceiling with some Old Salem, High Build under coater. Probably more of a heavy duty primer than I really need in this area but the paint was in such bad shape that I wanted it to look as smooth as possible when its finished being painted. Until now, I had planned on finishing the ceiling beams bright but it became nearly impossible to get all of the old paint out of the wood grain and I was spending all my time doing this instead of other things. There was also a lot of small imperfections like bronze screws showing through and large areas of wood filler that would be highlighted if it was covered in varnish so I decided to just paint it. They were originally white anyways and it looks great like that. I've also been filling small areas with wood filler compound and boat life caulk.
4. Then, I started making the knees which will support the chain plates. I made a couple so far out of solid pieces of 2 inch wide oak.
5. Next, I started to remove the dead wood from the sheerclamp. It comes out pretty easily with a chisel and looks like it shouldnt be too hard make up a new one to fit in there. It's never as bad as it looks once you finally figure out how to do it.
6. Lastly, I finished glassing in the bulkheads. Filled all the gaps between the bulkheads and the inside of the hull with a thick gob of West and filler and then after that cured, I covered all the bulkhead to hull joints with biax cloth and more West. Looks solid.
Once the knees are finished and glassed in place, and concrete is poured, cured and glassed in, I think I'm going to start putting furniture back in there.
It'll be great If I finsh the cabin sides and can get the bulk of the inside done work in the next few weeks and then spend the late summer/fall, stripping the bottom paint, repairing any dings on the out side of the hull, finish the deck, adding the toe rail and rebuilding the mast.
Then its on to rebuilding the rudder, rewire the inside, repair or buy a new motor (make new motor mounts to fit what ever goes in there), fit all the stantions, cleats, winches and other hardware back on, repair the seacocks......
No problem.
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