LongHouseLife

#Sailing #Restoration #MirrorDinghy

I will endeavour to keep a little update of the repairs etc here.

The boat had been under a tarp, but on the ground for a while before I was given it. It has sat up off the ground either on its launching trolly and in the garage or propped up and under a tarp outside when I needed the garage space recently. It is now on a DIY 'dolly' in the garage where I can work on it either way up as required.

So far.

Sanded down the outer Hull.

Made three small patches in the fore area 2x approx 6” sq and 1 x 12” sq. These were epoxied in and smoothed over with Low Density Filler before sanding back. I have also reinforced the whole outer Hull with 4oz cloth in epoxy. In addition, and as the beaches around here are mostly rock, I have laid a 3” strip of heavy combination mat along the keel line as a replacement for the usual brass rubbing band, as far back as the daggerboard slot. I will keep the brass band around the slot and the skeg.

In the past someone has put their foot through the cockpit I guess and made a pretty hash fibreglass repair – strong, but rough...!

Today I turned the boat right way up to ascertain the jobs for the deck and cockpit area.

I found a small 12” section of gunnel that had rot and has now being replaced with a scarfed in piece of local Larch.

Both front ¼ decks had rotted, so I removed the remains of these and shall cut replacements from some ply eventually.

There is a thin and rotten section of the front panel, fortunately it is restricted to a small area above the buoyancy tank and will be an easy fix with replacement ply glued in on the inner face of the in-situ section. I will then glass tape this on the inner face edges and fill the hole from the outside with chopped strand and filler...

On the Transom one corner had a very small section of the ply skin rotten. I have managed to take this out and replace with a glued in section. Again fortunately the main transom board was still solid.

The floor of the cockpit has the hashed repair, so I will most likely paint the floors with Danbolene once I have sanded them down.

One side bench needs the tape re-gluing down or a new section of tape gluing over it.

The whole of the remaining woodwork is pretty much bare wood, with what was left of any varnish 60% gone.

There are drain plugs fitted in various places, but no hatches to either the fore/aft compartments. What are the merits of fitting something for both access and /or inspection,,?

Standing rigging fittings are all present, but I am going to upgrade these to SS and fit channel adjusters.

The rig is Gunter and the three spars are in good condition, the wood sections just need a coat of WoodSkin. I have removed the fittings in order to sand down and prepare. I have also replaced the Gaff 'Jaws' as one side was broken and the other on its way to the firewood pile.

I have one Main and one Jib, both in good condition. Made by Jeckyl's.

That's it so far I think..!