vrijdag, 17 december 1999 08.25

Dismantling a 60 year old lady

It is now one week, since Sylphe was helped into her workshop. One week of hard work, new discoveries, and with the glorious result of Sylphe being stripped of her interior completely. Things move faster than expected. The crate and Sylphe are happily in the workshop. Tuzla has got used to having a sailboat under repair and the flow of curious people has almost stopped. So we can concentrate on work. The first day was spent to construct a decent ladder, as the deck of Sylphe is some 4 meters above the floor of the workshop. Since we will be going up and down this ladder for the next 5 months to come, we decided it had to be comfortable and safe, as we would also be carrying equipment, tools and other stuff up and down. So the ladder that we constructed beats the average stairs to reach an addick in a normal house. We can now run up and down.

In only two days and with the help of two guys we took out the complete interior. Sarting in the bow of the boat, we took out the kitchen, one cabin, more bunkbeds, the shower, saloon, charttable and electronics. It went much faster than I expected. It involved some serious hammering with the well known axe (no more mice discovered, by the way), to break away some of the walls, supports and other parts. It was horrible to stand outside and hear the banging of the axe. The deck filled rapidly with all kinds of boatparts. Every time a piece of wood was passed upward to me on deck, I tried to recognise which part it was. Yes, this was the stove, this was the linnen-cupboard, hey, a part of the charttable. It was a party of recognition. Amazingly enough I was not sad or melancholic during this operation.

A few parts of the interior were eaten away by woodrot and water. Only the plywood that was used, was effected. All pieces of tropical hardwood were in good order. Here one learns the difference in material and the devastating effect that water and rot have. I was glad it was happening. Knowing that we would put her back together, this suffering was needed first. Soon the pile on deck was too big, so we started throwing it down. The floor of the workshop is now filled with a pile of unrecognisable peices. Reaching two meters high and the base is some 5 meters wide. It is much more than I expected.

The next two days I spent taking some of the more delicate parts of the boat off, for which I did not need my two axe-loving friends. The winches, steeringcolumn, the ceiling in the saloon, some decorative woodwork. It is the more patient work, where one tries not to damage other parts, while in the process. Taking the winches off was more easy than I thought. They are screwed through the deck. With the interior gone, I can now finally see how they are attached on the inside. A huge metal plate is distributing the enormous powers on the winches onward to the rest of the hull. The metal plate is of course not made of stainless stell, so the rusted bolts come off difficultly. Some times they break off. I will use the opportunity to replace these plates with stainless steel. With all screws and bolts removed, I tried to lift the winch off the deck. I almost hurt my back in the process. These bastards are heavy, I can tell you. No fun.

One of the most glorious discoveries was to find out how the stays (that keeps the mast upright) are attached to the hull. On the inside of the boat, there is a whole system of metal strips, going off both in vertical as well as in diagonal direction. Again to distribute the forces. It is a beauty of enginuity to see how this is made. The fear I had in the beginning, setting sail in France and discovering the leakage, that the hull was slowly pulled apart by the rigging, has now gone. It is virually impossible, now that I have seen the construction. It will have to be replaced by stainless steel plates, but the system remains.

With all the pumps and electricity gone, I have one problem remaining. There is still quite some water left in the bilges of the boat. How to get this out. I guess a bucket will help me out. Strange, after all those weeks fighing to pump water out, that I now have the problem that it won‚t just leak out by itself. However, this is positive. It means that the water entered only at some particular points and that the deepest and most important part of the boat (the keel construction) is still good. Another sign for this, is that the outside of the hull is nicely drying out. If there would be places seriously attacked by rot, they would stay wet, for weeks and months. This does not seem to be the case.

Dismounting the steering wheel, the pedastal, the windmeters, cleats and other parts has followed. Slowly Sylphe is busy with her most sexy striptease. Slowly revealing her construction, her gracious lines (also inside) and the ingenuity of her construction. The beauty of enforced deckbeams, the way that forces from the runnng backstays are distributed, etc, etc. It is a joy to see. In the future, when sailng her, I will be so much more confident in her construction. Now that I am seeing it all. No longer afraid, whether she will hold together, but knowing it for sure.

I only saved some few pieces that I want to use again. Mostly electronics.The fridge, the two new pumps, tools, batteries, the charttable-seat (which incorporates the signal-flags), etc. But most of all items ended up on the big pile. Tomorrow they come to take it away. A part of Sylphe leaves. The broken engine still will have to be hauled out. Again we will need a crane to lift this out and than sell it. For a change it will make me some money. Next weeks program involves the painters. They will come to strip all paint off, both inside aswell as outside. This will than reveal the real quality of the wood and determine how much will have to be replaced. In the mean time, I have found the e-mail address of Andre Mauric, the designer of Sylphe and have sent him an e-mail with some questions, that are still on my mind. Exact year of construction, was she designed as a 12-metre, etc. Will be looking forward to get an answer. Ratsey&Lapthorn sailmakers in England, have found in their files an original sailplan dating back to 1951, of which they will send me a copy. The puzzle and the picture slowly completing. Was the bowsprit originally there?? It is just one of those small items that is still on my mind.

But with that one solved, there will probably be a new one next week, I guess.

Love roland