We stepped the mast on SMEDLEY, adjusted the side stays, rigged the sail, downhaul, mainsheet and rudder.
Launched SMEDLEY and Skipper for Sea Trials and they both did great. SMEDLEY moved smartly in light winds, the sail set great and SMEDLEY tacked and gybed with ease. The deck was comfortable and there was lots of room to move around, the twin rudders were super cool. Our thanks to everyone, especially Capn Scott, for helping find her and get her back on the water.
Now we prep for her debut at Juana's Good Time Regatta in September.
Rigged the centerboard uphaul with 3/16th inch StaSet.
We had some new side stays made and based on the tang pin size the rigger suggested bumping them up from 3/16th inch diameter to 1/4. We'll get it set up and see how we like it, it just looks different now with thicker stays, but we imagine after a few days we won't notice. Certainly won't hurt to have the extra strength.
The 3/4 inch polyester resin bearings on either side of the pivoting centerboards were broken off. They ride in channels on either side of the centerboard trunk and are used to position the centerboard and provide a pivot point.
We decided to make new bearings out of a 3/4 inch oak dowel. We cut the dowel just a little long and rounded the ends with a 3/4 inch roundover bit on a compact trim router. We held the work piece with vise grips to keep our fingers clear of the router bit.
The old bearings were held in with rusty nails, Skipper used an awl to chip away bits of the damaged fiberglass and start a new hole for the dowel.
Rounded out the dowel hole to just over 3/4 inch with a rat tail file and a rounded diamond grit tile file.
We made the hole just over 3/4 so we could bed the new oak bearing in TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy, that epoxy coating helped seal up the raw fiberglass.
Test fit.
Added a small strip of 4 oz fiberglass along the front edge of the board by the bearing, wet out with TotalBoat Low Viscosity THIXO. This will help protect the centerboard should it swing forward of vertical and strike the forward edge of the trunk.
We also used THIXO to build back a damaged area on the tip of the starboard centerboard.
Line for our Alcort Catfish SMEDLEY. On the left is some 5/32d Dyneema that we might use for a temporary side stay and also use for the centerboard uphauls. We also bought New England Rope StaSet, 3/16th for the halyard, bow line, downhaul and outhaul and 5/16th for the sheet. And picked up drain plugs for the transom.
Circled SMEDLEY for a while and decided to work on the fiberglass damage. There are a couple of punctures below the water line that got sanded and taped, a few holes on deck got filled and the giant holes in the transom were plugged.
Overview.
Filled this small hole with TotalBoat THIXO.
Gathered materials for the hull repair, 4 oz fiberglass cloth and TotalBoat THIXO Low Viscosity to wet out the cloth, scissors and some string.
Here's the plan for the bigger deck hole, make a backer patch to hold thickened epoxy.
We cut a piece of cardboard to act as a backer patch for the fiberglass repair. We wet it out with TotalBoat THIXO and it is held in place with string until it bonds inside the hull.
Then we prepped the transom holes for a similar repair.
Inserted backer patch and filled void with TotalBoat THIXO (Thickened Epoxy).
Covered the THIXO with painters plastic to help flatten the THIXO and keep outer cardboard from sticking.
Placed a piece of cardboard over the plastic and THIXO to flatten out the repair, secured string.
Taped the cardboard down to hold it flat and flatten out the THIXO, that should make it smoother to fair.
We will also inject some THIXO into these areas.
While we were poking around we found the vent hole for the hull, it allows air pressure to equalize so seams don't pop on a warm day.
