Thursday, December 3, 2020

1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE 03 Dec 20 Hull Graft

 03 Dec 20:

WAVE did sail this Spring, we didn't post photos because the pandemic was new. But here she is early 2020 after her 2019-2020 restoration. She'll be back again soon.



We moved a work table to prop up WAVE's bow, then I cut 12 small boards to chock the finishing dolly in place and screwed them down around the tires. We needed the dolly to be stable o we could position WAVE to get the right hull shape. Next we cut apiece of pattern plywood and made a template of the hull splice, took it out to the 1981 Sunfish SALLY parts boat and cut out the port side bow chunk to use on WAVE with a circular saw. Audrey supervised. I was confused as to why the template looked wrong and realized as I carried the port piece into the Carriage House that WAVE is missing the starboard chunk. Went back out to SALLY and cut the starboard chunk. Took the oscillating multi and trimmed out leftover foam. Clamped the starboard chunk on and marked it for trimming. Trimmed it with a jigsaw.
Then we removed all the hardware and coaming off of SALLY and cut the boat into smaller pieces with a reciprocating saw for shipment to the landfill, they'll make a nice foundation for someone's new home someday. Saved several large, flat strips to use as backer patches. Fiberglass is hard to cut, I can't imagine the work to cut up a big boat. It wears out blades fast. We saved SALLY's 1981 HIN and will attach it to WAVE somewhere.
Attached the starboard chunk to WAVE with woven roving fiberglass cloth and epoxy. We backed the repair internally with several of the long strips of deck from SALLY, and pulled it all tight with wooden blocks screwed together inside and outside the hull. The wooden blocks will be removed tomorrow and I Audrey is nice I'll fill the screw holes. Also foamed in the new center bow flotation foam block, it becomes part of the structure that defines deck crown and ties the deck and hull together once the lid goes back on.


Cleaning out the old foam.




Ready to trim new piece to fit.






Dry fit.








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