Corners

This post originally appeared on Windborne in Puget Sound

---

Have you ever done fiberglass layup? If you have, then you know how difficult it is to get the wetted cloth to follow a sharp outside corner tightly, with "sharp" being a variable depending on how heavy the cloth is.  It tends to spring back, leaving a gap underneath.

Well, boat manufacturers have the same problem you do.  And on Eolian, there was a place where the cloth pulled away from the gelcoat-sprayed mold corner, leaving a gap between the gelcoat and the cloth.  This revealed itself over the years by the gelcoat cracking up in the bottom of what was now an inside corner, because it was unsupported.

 

The problem area was on the aft deck, where the coach house meets the deck.  Sadly, I did not take a "before" picture...  but this one shows the extent of the area to be repaired after I ground out all the loose gelcoat flakes with my trusty Dremel tool (the perfect tool for this job!).

Now, gelcoat is formulated for application by spraying.  That means that it is quite fluid, tho the thixotropic agents included mean that when you stop disturbing it, it stays put (unlike epoxy, which continues to run and drip, seemingly forever).  But that fluidity makes it quite difficult to control the application accurately.  I mixed the gelcoat in a small cup with a tongue depressor and then used that same tongue depressor as an applicator - the radius of the end was close to the radius of the inside corner of the repair area, if I tilted the stick at the right angle.

After the gelcoat had gone off I sanded it using 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper (wet), a small piece wrapped around the end of another tongue depressor, to knock down the areas that needed to be flat.  For the radius in the corner Jane donated an old Chap Stick container, which turned out to be a pretty close fit.  Sanding is tricky.  You want to knock down the high spots and get nearly level with the surrounding area, but you don't want to cut flush until you are working on the final coat.  The original gelcoat, tho much thicker than a paint layer would be, is quite thin and easily sanded thru.  So you only want to sand flush once.

Because of the fluidity of the gelcoat, it took several applications to get the surface brought up (oh, how I wish that there was a gelcoat formulation even as stiff as, say, Greek yogurt!).  In the beginning I applied a lot, but at the end just a dab here and there to fill the hollow spots.

For final finishing I went over the area with 400 grit wet/dry (wet), and then used some polishing compound.  It comes out as shiny as a factory finish.

And done.

Again, major kudos to Fiberlay for such an amazingly perfect color match.  If you can see any color difference at all in the picture, it is because in the area where I was working the oxidized gelcoat got cleaned off, brightening the color.

(And yes, replacing that fixed port is on the list.)

Roadmaps For Troubleshooting

Our boat, Eolian, came with a full set of factory prints covering wiring, plumbing, and rigging.  And tho there had been changes (mostly to wiring) since she was new, the prints helped enormously in figuring out the actual in-place wiring and correcting several mistakes.

But what if you don't have those prints?  Well if you've done any work on the boat, chances are that you have mapped out some portions of of the systems onboard.  But the best way would be to make a project out of the discovery, and record the results to be used by your future self as roadmaps.

Please welcome new contributor Will, onboard s/v Chaika, a Westsail 32, who has done just that!  And also please note that he has additionally documented the locations of all the thru hulls, perhaps the most important part of the exercise.  Do you know where all yours are?

Canvas Work – A Break From Dinghy Restoration

Over on s/v Cay of Sea, Rick takes a break from his dinghy refinishing and does a little canvas work:

Sanding fiberglass ranks low on my list of favorite things to do, and I had the “itch” to do something else for a day (pun intended). I had ordered twist button canvas fasteners from Sailrite.com after researching price. I bought six sets (eye, twist fastener, and backing plates) for $.94 each. They were far and away the least expensive place to get them, even with shipping added in (about $6). A set of four would have cost so much more at West Marine ($14 for two sets) and approximately $2.60 each at Defender Marine. If there is any way you can avoid buying anything at West Marine, you should. On average, West marks up their prices at 1/3 above any other place on the web, and often above any other chandlery in town. Their stock in trade is convenience – one-stop shopping (or so they hope). On other items, they simply fleece the customer. There is no reason on earth to charge the sort of prices they do for some products, except that – amazingly – people will buy it anyway to avoid having to plan ahead. Occasionally you can get an item on sale at West that is a reasonably good deal. That’s the only time I really consider buying at West.

Oh yeah. . . the project!  I purchased a used headsail deck bag with my “new” (to me) jib, but it was a bit worn in one area.  The aft closure of the bag depended on UV damaged hook-and-loop fasteners. The hook-and-loop tape and had lost most of its grip, and I planned to change the closure method with canvas twist-and-eye sets. I don’t really like snaps – they corrode, can be difficult to operate when they age, and can lose their grip. These twist fasteners are fool-proof, don’t hurt your arthritic hands because they don’t become difficult to operate, etc..

Image from sailrite.com. This is what you get in one set. As you can see, the eye is fitted into one side of the canvas, and the twist lock into the other.

I installed 4 sets right through the hook-and-loop tapes – and I managed to install both male and female pieces facing the right direction in the correct sides of the work piece! I’ve found that the most effective way to form the holes through acrylic canvas (like Sunbrella) for the eyes and the push-through points is to use a soldering iron. Just get the iron hot, set the piece  where it should go, and touch the iron to the fabric several times. It will melt the material while forming a hole, and seal the fabric threads at the same time. This probably will NOT work with regular cotton duck/canvas. You’ll have to some sort of cutting tool for that.

The piece of green webbing above was used to form a loop in the back of the bag for support off the deck.

Webbing sewn into one side of the bag (starboard side) – not one end on either side of the bag – that would have made stowing the sail very difficult.

I sewed down a preexisting length of hook-and-loop tape to form a loop on the forward top of the bag (it was originally intended to go around the forestay), and fashioned a harness from line. The line is temporarily knotted into the correct length and shape. Next week I’ll get a couple brass snap hooks from the hardware store and substitute them for knots. That will expedite stowing the sail and hoisting the bag when needed – I won’t be standing on the bow retiring knots each time.

Here’s the harness knotted to the right length. The jib halyard lifts the bag off the deck when managing the ground tackle, and keeps it off the deck when at the slip or at anchor.

I used my Speedy Stitcher sewing awl to attach the loops. This is a great tool for a job like this. I’ve also used it to repair sails in place (on deck). It goes fast, and is practically the only way to sew a locking stitch by hand through the heavy materials we use as sailors. I’ve easily and quickly sewed heavy gauge leather chafe patches on canvas with it. An interesting price comparison is observable here:  This tool sells for $36.99 at West Marine, but you can order it through Amazon for $11.90.

Forestay Built From Scratch

Most sailors regard standing rigging with a kind of religious awe... that only wizards of the fourth class are allowed to make modifications to it.  But not Rick aboard s/v Cay of Sea... But it does require attention to detail. Here Rick tackles creation of a new forestay:

Well, not from scratch exactly.  I purchased the end terminals and wire and assembled the stay, which is definitely more expensive than having a stay made up by a rigger with swaged terminals.  However, as I gradually replace rigging wire, I want to replace each piece with shrouds and stays that I built with Sta-Lok fittings.  I want the knowledge and skill required to re-rig without having to hire out work to a rigging shop, and the expensive terminal fittings are reusable.

I learned some interesting things during a phone call to riggingonly.com.  Tom was very helpful and knew all the products, sizes, and orthodoxy like the back of his hand.  I had questions for him regarding sizing of eyes and pins, because what I found on my rig didn’t make sense:

• 1/2″ eye at the masthead
• 7/16″ stemhead pin hole on bow chainplate with 1/2″ toggle on the old Harken furler (which I did not reinstall)

Why were they different?  Tom suspects that when the boat was built, the rigging contractor didn’t talk to the builder or designer, so there were some missed cues and make-dos.  Tom feels like the rig should have been designed with 3/16″ wire – and most of it was – except for the forestay and backstay: these are 1/4″.  Apparently 1/4″ wire typically called for larger 7/16″ eyes, but the boat was already built with 3/8″ chainplates. . .  so there was a make-do fashioned, and it turned out okay – after all, the rig has stood without mishap for 34 years as designed.  Best rigging design, however, matches pinhole with pin size exactly.  Why 1/2″ eye at the masthead?  Not sure.  It didn’t match anything up there (7/16″ toggle and pin). And it turns out that simply using a different toggle to up-size the was the wrong approach too.  Not knowing that, I asked about reusing the toggle, but Tom said different wire size required a larger turnbuckle, and a different sized toggle.  Not only do the pinholes and pins have to match exactly, so do the toggles for the same reason: point loading or stress risers where the size is mismatched will weaken the ultimate strength of the stay or shroud at the terminal fitting. Instead of the mismatched pins and eyes, I will now have 7/16″ pins and eyes at the mast and stem on new 1/4″ wire.

Assembling the stay was fairly straightforward.  I installed the eye fitting on one end of the wire after reading the instructions several times, plus consulting other on-line resources.

Tools and materials needed for installing Sta-Lock eye. Pretty simple stuff.

Push male threaded body onto wire, then unlay the outer strands of the wire.

I’m realizing now that I didn’t take enough photos. . .  that’s the danger of being a reporter/blogger and project doer at the same time – I get too involved in the project to take the correct kind of photos to complete the sequence.  The next photo should have been of the wire loosely unlayed around the cone.  Unlaying the wire isn’t easy.  It’s stiff and stubborn, and you don’t want to completely bend it all out of whack – you will have to relay the wire around a small conical fitting that slides over the core of the wire, so it’s best to keeps the general direction of the lay of the outer layer.

Here you can see the re-layed wire around the cone and the fitting slide up towards the end of the wire.

There is a slot in the cone that allows it to compress as the body of the fitting is screwed on.  It must remain clear of the outer strands – that is, a strand shouldn’t lay right into the slot, because that will keep the slot from compressing closed.

The body has been filled with sealant (Boatlife polysulfide caulk), and the threads of the body are treated with Lock-tight to prevent galling and secure the fitting against working loose.

After I had the eye installed, I could measure against the two old forestays I had, so as to cut to proper length.

All three nailed to the covering board on the seawall bulkhead. The wires are then straightened and stretched to length, and I marked the new wire.

There was an inch discrepancy between the two old forestays. I split the difference with the new one.

Carefully comparing lengths and judging how much wire will be inside the body of the fitting.

Assembly of the turnbuckle stud-end of the wire.

Finished wire, ready to install on rig.

Altogether, this took about two hours, because I didn’t know what I was doing.  Had I to do many more, I would have gotten a lot quicker.  I am also confident in the strength of the fitting.  The design is such that is impossible to pull the wire out of the fitting.  It just can’t happen.  I think the most difficult part is unlaying, and re-laying the wire to properly form around the cone.  But it’s not hard, just a bit fiddly.

And then there was a follow-up post, where Rick's attention to detail caught a subtle problem.  This may be the most important part of this post - taking the time and attention to say, "Hmmm... something doesn't seem quite right."  This is where the person in a hurry would have produced a disaster down the line.  But not Rick:

I was dissatisfied with the second fitting I installed. For a reason I couldn’t understand, the stud end of the fitting wouldn’t accept as many threads as the eye fitting had. Here are photos to illustrate:

Here’s the eye fitting. Only three threads showing after assembled.

Here’s the stud end. 5-6 threads showing. That means only 3-4 were captured. I was uncomfortable with that, especially since the other one assembled so smoothly.

I took the fitting apart and reformed the uneven threads around the cone. Reassembly was not really any better. I took it apart again and looked into the other end. There is a “former” that inserts into the female side of the fitting. That former was skewed to one side, which prevented the end of the cone-shaped wire side to seat evenly and snugly.  After a few more minutes of prying the former around with a tiny screw driver, I captured the stud into the vice (with wood blocks to keep from damaging the stud threads), and gently tapped the high side of the former with a mallet/screw driver. It unjammed immediately, and I was able to seat symmetrically into the bottom of the female side. Here’s a photo of the former from StaLoc’s website:

You can’t see it in this photo, but there is a hole in the middle of the bottom of the cup, which is where the core of the wire lands.

This shape fits perfectly into the bottom of the female-threaded side of the fitting, and “forms” the wire around the end of the cone insert. Once I had the former seated, the fitting went together perfectly.

Here it is, replete with sealant squeezing out the top, and red Locktite on the threads. Note that there are only 3-4 threads showing between halves of the fitting.