TOPIC: Beauty is only skin deep

Latest series of pix on the minor repairs to my Skagit. Boat was fully seperated Friday, flooring and flotation tank removed Saturday. FYI, The only tools I used to remove all of the flooring were my hands, gloves, a framing hammer, and a wonderbar. I don't use grinders or saws unless I have to. Goes quickly and very little mess. Best of all, no fiberglass dust.

Bruce

Nice work!

Frank

Looks like you have a good start Bruce.
Looks like an audience of black dog and white fiberglass in the background.
Neil

Nicely done Bruce.

Bob

Thanks for sharing Bruce, looks like you're getting right after it! Will you be replacing the transom too? (Please forgive my lack of knowledge on the Skagits, maybe it doesn't need it?) Looking forward to watching your progress here.

Thanks fellas - actually I'm moving very slowly on it. The boat was split over 2 weeks ago, and the top just needed to be lifted off & set aside. The plywood flooring only took a couple hours to remove. So I don't really feel like much has been done - it just looks like that. Now the "real" work has to begin. The stuff that takes hour upon hour of work, costs a lot of money, and isn't fun to do. Grinding and glassing. The whole stringer insert has to be reinforced because it wasn't made right. The design was radical in 1959, but Skagit apparently ran out of money and skimped on stuff that the buyer would never see - the stringer network. Shame on you Skagit. Amazingly, even though the stringers are cracker - thin, they held up amazingly well for 50 years. Way better than the fir stringers in a Glasspar or Dorsett. I'll have to lay some mat & biax over the whole thing to beef it up. It won't be hard - it'll just take a long time. I can do small areas at a time - so no big deal. The original plywood floor was still in good condition, except where the battery acid got to it. This is because Skagit used a self-draining bilge well. The under floor void has two 5/8" holes that drain into a sump just ahead of the transom. They are always open. If water gets under the floor, it drains into the sump, and out the transom drain when the bow is elevated. All boats should be done this way to keep water out from under the floor and to allow some air movement. This also gets rid of the need to have an under-floor drain tube. Pretty smart.

The transom is rock solid. It shows no sign of flexing or failure. But... I have to drill some test hole to see how wet it is. They all have some water in them. I really - really don't want to do the transom. It is a curved type & they are a ton of work. If I have to do it, that's just the way it is. We'll see.

Bruce

Bruce,

I enjoyed doing my transom on the Whitehouse. Layers of 1/4 ply, glass, epoxy, etc. It looks like you have easy access to it at this point. But you are right, now the hard stuff begins.