Telltale 87, Repairs......
Scroll down, there are more pictures...........
Okay, Dec 15th, and we can
finally start repair works. The delay was caused by some hassle with
the insurance, a survey report and disagreement about HOW repair works
should be executed. It was not about what damage was caused and what
had to be repaired. Very frustrating as I could not start any works. I
have settled with the insurance company and I hope that their offer is
sufficient to have everything fixed properly.
To sum up what neeeeds to be done, and to give you an idea:
- The mast has been damaged and will receive a local insert (in the
same wood), and one spreader is broken and will be replaced. The
rigging wire of main- and intermediate stay will be new, as they boke
off
- The rigging is attached to the hull via metal plates, going from
the deck, along the inside of the hull down to the keel. These metal
plates have been dislodged. The forces on these have also moved three
wooden frames, that from an integral part of Sylphe's hull and strength.
- Just above the keel level three hull planks have moved and caused
the leaking.
Well, that is what needs to be fixed, and that involves quite a lot of
work. In order to remove the chainplates and replace them in stainless
steel, one needs to get to the bolts, that go all the way through the
metal plate, the wooden frame and ultimately through the hull plank.
These bolts are 67 year old and indicate some rust and are therefor not
easy to remove. To find each and every individual bolt, we had to
remove the paint on the outside of the hull and Ahmed happily scraped
the paint off, altough he only put that same paint on this spring. What
a shame.
Some of you will remember that we did the same works on the other side
of the hull, 3 years ago in Malta. That was necessary on that side as
water and rust had eaten away the major part of the metal and the
bolts. On the side that we are doing now, things were not as serious
and basically not necessary. BUT now it will have to be done anyway. We
spent the next 2 days, removing each and every bolt, and there are some
35 of them. You can imagine that the location of these bolts on the
inside of the boat is not in the most accessible place. We removed the
complete inerior of the compelte guestcabin and most of the
mastercabin. Still it was a horrifying job. And it took some skin of
several of my body parts. Not to mention that I hit my hand several
times with a rather large hammer......hahaha
Back to the outside: Once the bolts were out, we had to take another
decision. As mentioned there are three frames that were dislodged and
those wil have to be replaced. TERE IS NO WAY THAT THIS CAN BE DONE
SIMPLY. They are bent and you can not simply take one away and
put another one in. There is no access. The only way to do it, is to
remove some of the hul planks and put new, partial and laminated new
ones in. Building up the total frame of about 4 cm's up with smaller,
bendable strips of wood of about 7 mm and epoxy/screw them together. If
this is all too technical, simply forget it. Just remember: we have to
remove some of the hull planks. And this is done in three steps:
Step 1: Drill around the rivets that
hold the plan to the frames;
Step 2: Chissel the cut outs away.
Step 3: Remove the plank
Step 4: the final emmenthaler cheese:
And these are the chainplates, that came out. Thesew will be made new
in stainless steel. Please note that the right one has no top
anymore as this was sheered off by the impact of the accident.
Tomorrow we will remove another two hull planks, but there we stop.
And than we can start building again.
Three days later and re-construction has started, always a welcome
moment. Together with the carpenter off to buy some wood and cut it
into shape. Sione the biggest work is to get the new frames in, they
will be laminated, as there is no way we can make (and fit them into
place) when they are solid and in one piece. With the modern glues this
is actually stronger than a massive peice of wood. So, just fitting,
grinding, sanding and cursing is involved and it goes relatively fast.
And this is what it looks like, simple as that:
And for those that now the guestcabin, it now is a ROOM WITH A VIEW:
Over the X-Mas days all will be closed again...........
AHOY,
Roland
S/Y SYLPHE
www.sail-in-style.com