Closing Her Back Up

Rick wasn't fibbing - now that they are closing her back up it is all happening quickly.

Preparing the planks. Each one has to be cut specifically on a radius for its slot in the hull. Clementine keeps watch over the work...

Inner planking going on.

Note the strapping behind; inner planks over the strapping are cut with rebates for the strapping to fit into.

Roughly shaped new section to replace the dodgy repair job around the rudder.

Fitted in place.

Yuck

Jonathan has been battling through the winches, and it seems the further forward you go the worse they get. The two small winches right on the foredeck are going to be left to be dealt with in NZ. Here is why:

Some Interesting Links

Keiran just sent me a couple of interesting links. There is an article about the work on Kamalii written for a local news site in Newport Beach.

Also, he found this photo which shows the foredeck of Kamalii in all her 1960's varnished glory. Nice.

Hard To Believe...

...that she will be back in the drink in about a fortnight. (Yes, she will!)

The Broad View

Jonathan just sent through this great panoramic shot of Kamalii, showing all her Swiss cheese glory.

New Spreaders

Rick displays one of the new spreaders he has made.

Making Good Progress

Richard has just sent through a pile of new photos.

This shot shows the new strapping that has been welded in, and a section of new laminate
on the inner frame.

Sealing the stem.

Plugs where the planks have been refastened.

Dutchman repairs come in all shapes and sizes.

Spars are looking nice.

What To Say?

Not a lot of new pics, as the guys have been working  hard, hard, hard. Jonathan, who is crewing for the trip to NZ, has arrived on board and is suffering through the dust and noise.

I tried really hard to come up with a witty caption for this photo, but I think it speaks for itself...

Our First Unexpected Nasty

It had to happen: our first ugly surprise. Not a major, but the dream run had to come to an end. While removing planking on the port side waterline, all was going to plan, with the worm damaged outer planks coming off to reveal sound inner planks underneath. As they got to the area where the refrigeration sits Rick noticed that the inner planking was feeling a bit soft. It seems that 50+ years of condensation forming around the back of the freezer area and dripping down onto the hull has caused the inner planks in that area to go soft; it's almost certainly the first time anyone has been in behind there since the boat was built.

No big drama, it just means more planking that has to be removed, and removing the planking is what has proven to be the hard slog. Rick and his team are feeling the pain as they try to pry the girl apart, but she does not want to go without a fight. Rick has most of the planking sawn, all the butt-blocks are made, the stem is done, so once they finish the plank removal she should hopefully come back together pretty quickly. None the less, with the extra planking to remove Rick has pushed the launch date back out a week to around the end of the first week of August.

Port side waterline. Worm eaten planks on top, while inner planks are fine.

Waterline planking removed, including opening her up around the back of the refrigeration..

Past Glory

Stem Taking Shape

The new stem wood is almost there. After removing the old wood, a new set of laminates were layed up, screwed and glued.

The wood is then given its first rough shaping.

Now it just needs final shaping and fairing. After that, the waterline planks will be removed and replaced.

Progress Update

Just spoke at length with Rick and here's where we are at:

• Still on target to drop her back in the water at the end of the month.
• All deadwood repairs are done, stem is almost done, and starting on replanking.
• Spars are all finished - hanging out for photos!
• Waiting on the yard to pull the shaft.

Sounds like poor Rick has been busting his gut getting the planking off. The thing is so tight, and the inner and outer layers are bedded in polysulphide bedding (same as deck caulking) and just do not want to come apart. They had to resort to using an air chisel to get the outer planks off!

Rick has found out that the boat used to have a 110V DC generator, which is very weird, but is pretty sure that this was the source of the electrolysis. The strapping is all sweet, and he only had to cut out one section for access reasons.

Keel bolts are sweet, sea cocks and thru-hulls are generally all in great condition, just five thru-hulls that will be replaced.

Rudder is mint - all pins and gudgeons are 100%, no leaks, no rot, copper sheathing is in perfect condition, just had to fit in a replacement piece to fix a botched past repair of some worm damage.

The rigger has gone over everything and fully concurred with the initial assessment - new forestay and main backstay, and replace all mizzen rigging (the main rigging was replaced previously but the mizzen was not).

Rick is going to look at soda-blasting the hull to prep for sealing and painting.Will also copper-sheath the base of the trunk and deadwood.

So she's full steam ahead, and fingers crossed for an end of month splash-down.

The Grand Canyon

Swiss Cheese

Well, not really swiss cheese, but there is certainly now a few sizeable holes in the old girl. So far all is going to plan (continues to hold breath...). The prop shaft is getting pulled shortly and a whole new stern gland and cutless bearing is being installed.

The below shots give a good view of the inner and outer planking, and how everything ties together with the framing and strapping.

This is a shot of some of the outer layers of laminate that have been peeled off the framing where the strapping was rebated into them. You can see how the wood fibre has broken down from delignification. It's a good thing only a few spots have been affected, otherwise we would be having to open up a lot more of the hull.

The new butt blocks being made up.

The stem wood peeled off in preparation for a new laminate. The guy on the left gives a good sense of scale of the boat.