Westsail 32 Hull #667

For Saturday, June 2, 2012, I was anything but focused on one task; rather, I spent 4.5 hours on boat clean-out (bought a new Rigid shop vac), practice session for finding the cabin sole floor (level), and a test area for fairing the non-skid.

I thought it best to go ahead and get the spring cleaning behind me. So after arriving and running my old shop vac for a brief time, the motor finally succumb. It had gobbled up lots of nasty during its time on Froonie, and I can only imagine that the sight of this Westsail 32 just brought it to its last quaff. Conveniently located across the street, I paid a quick visit to the orange big box and picked up a new one. I finally cleared the hull of the last few remaining pieces of teak and doug-fur, and then began to remove debris which was the result of previous work sessions (namely removing the ports).

After I cleaned the W32 out, I set-out to practice creating the cabin sole level line. I am preparing to replace the existing bulkheads (original, factory-installed in 1977), and thought it might be good to go ahead and try the exercise of finding the cabin sole, as described by Bud Taplin. Let me first say that the boat needs some fine-tuning on getting to level. My earlier post describing the process of leveling the hull mentioned the need to come back and dial things in a bit. This I have not done. So, the exercise today was purely meant to become familiar with the practice, so when the new okoume bulkheads are installed I will be an "old hand" at it.

To start, I measured 14" from the bilge surface - top of the glassed in ballast. I then drilled a hole through the primary bulkhead, slipped a string through the hold and secure the bitter end to a washer on the opposite side.

Here is 14" up from the top of the bilge floor.

This is a pic showing the step-up as one moves from the main cabin and into the head area between the main cabin and the forward double berth.

...back to the process. I then stretched this string the length of the main cabin area, and using a line leveler, I found my next attachment point on the aft, engine bulkhead. I put this line oh so very slightly on the low side when I drilled it, as you can see that I did not get perfect level in the following photo. Oh well, this is practice right?! Note that this engine bulkhead will be replaced as well.

My first attempt at finding the level cabin sole...I will no doubt attempt to strike this line again prior to removing the original bulkheads in preparation for the new material.

Also, on my list of interests today was getting at a test area for the fairing of the non-skid. As mentioned in a previous post, the gel-coat became brittle on portions of the non-skid - mainly on the port side. As a result of the cracking and flaking gel-coat, I worked to remove all the loose material in preparation for filling and fairing.

I settled on a forward area of the starboard sidedeck and got to work. I took some coarse griot sand paper and "roughed" up the test areas in hopes of getting as good a mechanical bond as possible. Next, I vacuumed up most of the sanding debris and then solvent washed the test areas. I then applied epoxy resin in a "neat" form, and proceeded to thicken the balance of the resin with 407 and 406 additives.