April 30, 2015
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| Evelyn's bulwarks on day 3 of our spring maintenance (port side) compared to last spring (starboard side) |
It has been one year since we completed our sail along
the East Coast and returned, after seven months of travel, to Mount Desert
Island, Maine on April 30, 2014. The day
after our return we set to work for a busy spring filled with outfitting boats
and then a summer spent sailing Friendship Sloops for charter. As the summer drew to a close we embarked on
a new adventure, and spent the fall and spring aboard a private ketch, once
again cruising along the East Coast and also sailing out to the Bahamas. Evelyn, meanwhile, was hauled out in
September and winterized for the first time in our ownership—previously we’d
always stayed aboard year-round. But the
timing for this first extended haul-out was perfect—by the end of our cruise
last year we had identified some large projects aboard Evelyn that would require
a longer work period and dry working space, so we found storage indoors and
prepped to begin projects in the spring.
Our busy year has kept me far, far behind in my posts,
and I do plan to eventually share the rest of our travels last year as well as
our experiences this year, but in honor of the one-year anniversary of our
return, I thought it appropriate to share a more current update on Evelyn.
As most of those living along the East Coast know from
personal experience, this past winter was a record-breaker, with plenty of
snow, ice, and brutally cold days. For
most of the winter Lou and I were lucky to be sailing down south away from the
blustery weather, and we were very grateful that Evelyn was safely winterized
where we would not worry—just before we left Maine in the fall, we found storage
for Evelyn in a boat shed. Although the
cold still reached her, she escaped the wind, snow, and rain that defined the
winter and when we were reunited with her last week, we were excited to find her just as we left
her.
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| Lou peeled the fiberglass away from the bulwarks last fall so that the wood had the opportunity to air out over the winter months. |
We began our projects immediately, because we recognize
that they are ambitious and time-consuming, and despite that, we hope that we
will still be able to launch, live aboard, and sail Evelyn this summer. But these projects cannot be put off, and
must be done properly and completely, because these projects involve rot, so we
will see how much we can accomplish before summer. We have suspected for a while that there was
likely rot in our bulwarks, potentially rot in our upper planks, possibly rot
in our deck edges, definitely rot in our guardrail, and maybe, though hopefully
not, rot in the upper edges of the frames.
Since beginning our spring outfitting a week ago, we have found rot in
all of those places. As soon as this
became apparent we committed ourselves to a few things:
- To remove the rot in these places entirely, instead of hoping to fix the problem piecemeal over a number of years, to inhibit the rot from spreading any further.
- To replace and repair in a manner that does not mimic any conditions that may have caused the rot, in an effort to preserve our repairs longer.
- To dive right in, right now…because although it may at times seem overwhelming, sometimes the most difficult part of completing a project is committing to the process and getting started. We did not want to waste the time we have gingerly removing small areas of rot, only to find that our suspicions were correct and large areas were unsalvageable anyway.
With these notions as our guidelines, we found ourselves borrowing
a saws-all and cutting away Evelyn’s bulwarks within hours of our arrival in
Maine. We were anxious at first but soon
glad we did so—though all of the elements of the boat were still strong as a
combined unit, individually they were poisoned with rot. As we suspected the bulwarks were in fact unsalvageable,
and hiding graver problems beneath them.
They had lasted for thirty years, but it was time to go—we were glad
that we dug right in and removed them entirely, because we feel that if we had
not addressed the problem now, it would soon have begun to spiral out of
control. We hate the thought of Evelyn
rotting around us—during our ownership, we hope to be caretakers that make her
better than we found her, in every way possible.
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| Some hard-to-reach areas where the bulwarks, deck, and guardrail met simply fell away, leaving old screws standing in place. |
As they were, Evelyn’s bulwarks were constructed of strip
planks built atop a deck of double-layered half-inch marine plywood. The top layer of the deck sat atop the upper
planks of the hull, the bottom layer of deck sat just inside; the hull is strip
planked in construction, cedar over oak frames.
Outside the upper hull planks was a guardrail. Over the deck was a layer of fiberglass,
which then bent up the inside of the bulwarks.
Over the bulwarks was a strong mahogany cap rail, and then the outer
layer of strip-planked bulwarks was finished with a layer of fiberglass that
then went over the guardrail. Water
always finds a way, and so water found its way into those edges where the
fiberglass ended, into the bulwarks, and then, sandwiched by fiberglass, stayed
there rotting the wood of the bulwarks, before continuing on to the outer edges
of the top layer of deck, sometimes the outer edges of the second, often the
upper planks of the hull, and sometimes the tops of the frames. At some point in Evelyn’s history the problem
was apparently recognized and some repairs were made—based on the different
woods, glues, screws and nails and a bit of sleuthing, it seems that the frames
originally supported the bulwarks, but were later cut down below the decks, and
then bronze supports were made to support the cap rail. Some deck was replaced at some point, but not
brought out to edge of the boat or below the bulwarks—there the old plywood was
left, and it continued to rot and that rot spread to the planks and frames.
After ten days of work, we are still in the demolition
stage, but have so far managed to:
- Remove the mahogany cap rail, which was mostly in fine condition and which we hope to salvage.
- Remove the rotted guardrail (or rubrail, as it is also known).
- Remove all of the hardware on the bulwarks and deck, for re-installation later.
- Remove the bulwarks.
- Remove the top layer of deck, until good healthy wood was found.
- Remove the bottom layer of plywood deck where rot was present.
- Remove the construction at the bow and stern to check the stems for any rot or damage.
- Remove a small rotted beam in the stern, as well as sections of rotted sheer clamp.
- Remove the decorative teak decking in the cockpit so that it can be re-installed later, to address areas in the cockpit where bad rot was found.
- Line off the hull for a new sheerstrake.
What we plan to do next:
After fixing areas that had experienced damage from rot
in the bow and stern, by splicing in new wood and sistering as necessary the
frames, sheer clamp, and deck beams, we will then make templates so that we can
replace the damaged areas of the lower and upper layers of deck with new marine
plywood.
Meanwhile, we have decided that because the thin strip
planks curve upward and the rot is in many ends instead of one plank, we will
replace the upper planks with a new sheerstrake, instead of many little
spliced-in areas. It is Lou’s dream to
in the future convert Evelyn to carvel planking as we find the need to replace
the old strip planks, so this will set us up for that move when the days of re-planking
arrive. He personally finds the carvel
planks easier to replace than the strip planks, so has
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| Lou, cutting away the bulwarks. |
We’ve already prepared the materials we’ll use to make
templates for the new plank and areas of deck, which will be the step before
creating those new pieces and installing them.
After a new plank and new decking is in place, we will then redo the
layer of fiberglass to match the areas of deck we’ve left untouched. But instead of once again bending the
fiberglass up the bulwarks, and then bringing it down the outer side of the bulwarks
and over the guardrail, we will instead bend it only over the edge of the deck,
and then pin it down with the new guardrail.
Our hope is that though water is sure to still find a way somehow, we
will at least have made it more difficult because the edge of the fiberglass
will no longer be exposed and therefore (hopefully) less likely to delaminate.
The bulwarks, when re-instated, will also be installed
differently. We intend to make Evelyn’s
new bulwarks open, so that water can drain more quickly. The worst areas of rot were often at the
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| rot, nearby a former scupper |
But after the deck is finished, a temporary bulwarks will
do for this year, so that we can continue to focus our energy on completing the
bulk of the project now underway. In
addition to replacing the sheerstrake and decking, we’ll also need to rebuild
areas of the cockpit, bow, and stern that were dismantled to make sure that we
didn’t accidentally miss any rot. Select
deck hardware will be replaced, though we hope to eliminate anything we no
longer need so that there are not more holes than necessary in the newly
replaced areas of the deck. For example,
an old deck fitting to pump out the holding tank was a weak area in the deck
surrounded with bad rot—with the composting head we installed years ago, there
is no reason to replace this fitting.
We hope that we’ll be able to complete all of that, in
addition to Evelyn’s regular maintenance schedule—new paint for the deck, hull,
and bottom; new coats of varnish for the spars, hatches, and cabin; and all the
many other little things a boat needs each spring. We hope to finish it all in the next month,
but if we can’t, we can’t. We’ve already
accepted the fact that there is a possibility that this summer we may be
without our dear Evelyn, but it is an acceptable outcome if that’s what it
takes to get the work done as best we can. If we want to enjoy her, we must take care of
her, and every now and then these bigger projects will arise. After all, it was thirty years ago that Evelyn’s
builder Ben Severns was just putting the finishing touches on his eleven-year
project, preparing to launch Benelly, as she was then known, into the Great
Lakes so that she could make her way to the ocean and begin her journey. In honor of her thirtieth birthday, the least
she deserves is a little pampering!
More Photos...
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| rot beneath the guardrail |
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| Removing the bulwarks--Starboard side first. |
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| cap rail from the starboard side, which we hope to repurpose |
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| bulwarks removed from the port side; next we removed the hardware on the deck |
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| starboard side bulwarks and guardrail removed-- rotted deck edges and planks exposed |
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| areas with holes for wires and fixtures were particularly vulnerable |
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| plenty of good company and inspiration! |
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| deck edges exposed |
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| the worst areas of rot were in the stern, as well as the aft portions of the cockpit. |
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| exposed screws where areas fell away |
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| cutting away areas of the bow, to make sure that the stem and frames are sound (they were!); below is our line for the new sheerstrake |
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| top layer of marine ply deck removed to good wood; bottom layer and upper planks exposed; batten in place for removing upper planks along the line of the new sheerstrake, to better expose frame ends |
More Links...
Here are links to a few posts from when we replaced large areas of the deck in the forward part of the cockpit, a rotten beam and the carlings' ends. We then checked all the deck around the cabin to make sure it was sound, and resealed the deck. During this project we were alerted to the rot in the bulwarks, and began making plans to address the issue when Evelyn was indoors.
- Winter Work
- The Rotted Deck & Beam
- Fiberglassing the Deck
- Deck = Done ... At least at that time! We've opened up a whole lot more now!