Abaco Dinghy HENNING Caulking, Splines and Stem Repair

25 Oct 24:

We finished caulking the plank seams on our Abaco Dinghy named HENNING. Used a thin caulking iron to get a 1/8 strand of cotton started...

...then rolled the cotton into the seam with a seam roller.

Next we caulked the plank/transom seam.

The caulker's kit.

Removed the bow eye so that we could get to the stem repair.

We hoped to save a little more of the original outer stem, but the center collapsed from internal rot when we clamped it. We used a dozuki to trim out the rotten section. And of course some folks would remove and replace the entire stem, but since it is mostly used to cover the plank ends and the structure is carried on the inner stem, we feel okay with creating a 3 piece outer stem.

We decided to add 3/16" splines to the 1/4" gaps in the transom planks. We cut the splines from teak, and glued one face onto the transom seam with TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy adhesive. The wedges hold the spline in place while we gather the materials and tools to caulk the dry side of the spline.

We left the other face of the spline clean and dry so that we could use traditional cotton caulking in the new, smaller seam. The caulk will create just the right amount of pressure to hold the spline in place while the adhesive dies.

Here' s the DeWALT portable table saw that we used to cut spline strips from teak.

Next we put a sealer coat of paint over the freshly caulked seams. The spline will be trimmed flush later after everything dries.

Log of HENNING.