Summer 2015
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Lou planing Evelyn's new
sheerstrake plank. |
The time we had available for outfitting and repairing
Evelyn for the 2015 summer season has come and gone, and our little ship will
be sitting this season out. While we
will miss sailing her and living aboard her, we do not regret this decision—nor
are we upset by it—because we know that it is the right thing to do for the
boat. When we began this year’s
maintenance and projects and dug into the rot in Evelyn's bulwarks, it became quickly clear that we had two options: 1. fix small areas piece by piece, perhaps never truly solving the root of the
problem and/or missing areas of rot, or 2. commit to fully removing all the rot we could find with the best and most
complete repair we were capable of, with the understanding that it might jeopardize
our summer aboard her. Because we love
this boat the thought of future years with her carried just as much weight as
the oncoming summer, and we have attempted to approach the repairs with
solutions that will last years, if not decades.
We also recognized our good fortune—we had Evelyn in indoor storage
where we could work on her despite the weather, we had a chunk of time before
needing to return to work that we could devote to Evelyn, and we were staying
in our friends’ warm and cozy cottage so did not have to compromise the project
with a need to stay aboard Evelyn. In
addition to all that good luck, the summer would bring just as much—we did not
need Evelyn to enjoy sailing in Maine because work and friends would keep us on the
water. If now was not the perfect time
to delve into a big project, then when was?
Life is always full of unexpected surprises…we had never had an
opportunity like this before to concentrate on the big projects we had in mind
for Evelyn and now we did, and there was no telling if we would ever have such
a perfect opportunity again.
And so, our
2015 spring outfitting/maintenance season has come to an end and will merge
into 2016, and Evelyn will not be going in the water this year. But a lot has been accomplished, and we are
so very happy with the work that’s been done, as well as a wonderful thought
and promise—that the next time we sail her she will be a better, stronger, healthier
vessel. (And if we keep sailing her for many years, we
might not have to do this exact
repair again for a very long time!)
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| Bending in the new sheerstrake. |
Since then, a lot has been done though there is still much
more to do. Our “demolition” stage—also
affectionately known as the “seek and destroy” phase where we said farewell to
all the rot we could find—lasted into mid-May.
Eventually we turned a corner, and were so happy when it was finally
time to purchase new wood and start rebuilding.
At that point, more artistry and skill was involved than I can claim to
have—Lou excused me from much of it, and put his winters of boat yard
experience to good use. He has done a
beautiful job, and I am very proud of the work he has done to preserve
Evelyn. We are also incredibly grateful
to his friends and former coworkers, as well as other boat builders in the area,
who were generous with their advice and tips, who often checked in on the
progress, who let us buy wood from their stock so we wouldn’t have to travel
far for it, who lent us any tools we did not have that made the work easier,
and who were always helpful when we had questions. Their support enabled Lou to make quality
repairs, and we cannot thank them enough.
When Evelyn is back in the water and under full sail, I know that every
time we step on new decking or lean against the new bulwarks we’ll be thinking
not only of the time and energy Lou poured into the project, but of the many
friends who made it all possible—from places to stay to people to question, everyone’s
kindness and generosity reminded us why we love living here so much.
Including the work I mentioned in the
last post, we
accomplished these tasks during our spring outfitting and maintenance this
year:
- Removed the mahogany cap rail, which was mostly in fine
condition and which we hope to salvage because it is a beautiful piece of wood
and we enjoyed the sturdy look and feel it gave to Evelyn’s bulwarks.
- Removed the rotted guardrail/rubrail. This was unsalvageable, excepting the metal
strip atop the wood—however, in our completed project we want the guardrail to
extend the entire length of the vessel (the current one stopped about three
feet before the bow and stern), and would prefer it to be half-round instead of
flat, so we will likely need to invest in new metal.
- Removed all of the hardware on the bulwarks and deck,
for re-installation later.
- Removed the bulwarks; these were unsalvageable and we
intend to redesign the new ones as an open bulwarks, so we did not worry about
preserving any of the existing bulwarks (shape, dimensions, or wood) as we
removed them.
- Removed the top layer of deck, until good healthy wood
was found. Remove the bottom layer of
plywood deck where rot was present.
Eventually we decided to take the deck back at least twelve inches
around the entire perimeter of the boat, removing areas that were alright, to
make certain that all the wood was as good as we thought, to make the new
sections larger so that they seemed more structurally sound and could have
larger overlaps between the lower and upper layers of plywood, to expose the
ends of all the frames and beams to check for rot or damage, and to make it
easier to clamp in our new sheerstrake planking tightly.
- Removed the construction at the bow and stern—built up
to accept the bulwarks, caprail, and lifelines--to check the stems for any rot
or damage. With the new deck and
bulwarks a bit different than the old, we decided to put the bow and stern back
together a bit differently as well to reduce the number of areas where
fiberglass deck met the wood that makes up the rest of Evelyn, and had allowed
water to seep in and cause rot.
- Removed four rotted deck beams in the stern (mostly in
the cockpit area of the vessel), and replaced them with new oak beams.
- Removed 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. Removed the rot that was
found in the cockpit.
- Lined off the hull for a new sheerstrake (using some of
our favorite wooden boats in the area for inspiration), and cut away the upper
strip planks to remove rot and make a clean surface for the new carvel
sheerstrake. Sealed the ends of the
exposed strip planks, as they tend to bend upward leaving end grain exposed, to
help stall any water that might find its way through the seam between new and
old planks. Aside from the upper planks,
the remainder of Evelyn’s hull was healthy.
But the strip planking was a bit difficult to work with and repair, and
Lou is more confident and comfortable with carvel planking, so in the future he
hopes to re-plank Evelyn with carvel planking, when the need for re-planking
starts to creep up on us.
- Twenty percent of the frames (mostly in the cockpit and
aft areas of the vessel) had rot in their upper sections—these frames were all
sistered with new sawn oak, and the rot was removed from the old.
- The last six inches of the sheer clamp were rotted,
where they had once bolted into a custom-fabricated steel piece that was also
fastened into the stern post. Instead of
scarfing in new wood here, we decided to have new stainless steel plates
fabricated that would extend the structure so that it could be fastened into
healthy wood further along the original sheer clamp. This saved us some time, kept us from having
to open up more of Evelyn to get a proper scarf in place, and seems very
strong. We know it is at least much
stronger than before, because when we exposed this area both sheer clamps were
so rotted at the ends that they were no longer attached to anything!
- The areas surrounding both the port and starboard
lazerettes in the cockpit were some of the areas that had the worst rot. The decks, frames, beams, planking, and
structural elements of the cockpit were all rotted here, and all rot was
removed and these areas were rebuilt.
- The new sheerstrake was installed, using new cedar
planking. Lou made patterns for the
plank and fashioned it, and was able to bend it into place without
steaming. He fastened it with bronze
screws, which have since been hidden with bungs. Aside from cotton caulking it and a few areas
that still need to be sanded flush with the hull and deck, these new carvel
planks are complete. We are really happy
with the results, and excited that this first plank has been done so that as we
replank in the future we will not have to remove the rubrail, bulwarks, etc. to
expose this area for planking.
- The bottom layer of decking has been installed, and
fastened with stainless steel screws.
The undersides were sealed with varnish (visible from inside the cabin
to match areas where the ceiling is currently varnished) and the edges were
sealed with epoxy to help stall any water that might find its way there.
- The top layer of decking has been dry-fit and is in
place with stainless steel screws, but is awaiting its final installation.
Still to come…
- Install the top layer of decking.
- Piping in the stern needs to be redone before sealing
the deck. Lou was unhappy with some of
the bends in the engine’s piping aft, and with the area fully exposed, now is
the best time to fix that.
- The existing areas of deck currently have a layer of
fiberglass, so we will fiberglass the new deck as well to match this, bending
the fiberglass over the hull and pinning it with the new rubrail. Originally the fiberglass bent up the inside
of the bulwarks and down the outside of the bulwarks, sandwiching the wood
between it and leading to our rot problem.
This new plan will eliminate a couple of bends that were weak spots for
the fiberglass, and also keep the bulwarks and the deck separate. The bulwarks will be open and only wood, and
secured to the deck with bronze supports, so that the deck/rubrail and
bulwarks/caprail can be repaired independently of each other in the future, and
neither can lead to rot in the other.
- New rubrail/guardrail needs to be built and installed.
- New open bulwarks need to be built and installed. In the fall we will measure to find what new
bronze supports might need to be fabricated to add to the ones that already
existed on Evelyn, so that these can be made over the winter. Neither of us weld, so this is something we
will outsource.
- The teak we pulled up from the cockpit will need to be
cleaned up and then reinstalled.
- The mahogany cap rail will need to be cleaned up and
then reinstalled. We will need to make a
few alterations to its shape, to mimic the shape of the new bulwarks. The old bulwarks swept upwards and then down
again in the bow, and we have decided that we would prefer the new bulwarks to
simply follow the sheer of the vessel.
- Deck hardware will need to be reinstalled—this will be
selective. There are some fittings that
promoted rot, that we are rethinking (for example the holes in the deck for
electronics, such as the radar—the radar is old and will eventually need replacement,
so we want to reinstall this in an easy to reach area). We also want to replace some of the cleats
and fixtures that were worn or tired, since now is a great time for that as
well, so that we can eliminate putting screws in our new deck, and then drilling
into different spots in the future—we want as few holes as possible in our new
deck.
- We did some sanding and prep-work for our usual yearly
maintenance of spars, hatches, etc. but when it became clear that Evelyn would
not be going in the water this year and nothing would be exposed to wind, sun,
water, we stalled the sanding, painting, and varnishing work. When Evelyn is re-assembled, we will need to
paint and varnish all of her surfaces.
Despite Evelyn’s year of travelling and heavy use since her last big
haul-out, none of the paint or varnish was in bad shape, so these tasks should
take no longer than they usually do.
So Evelyn, we promise you that while you will not sail this
year, when you do sail next you will be a stronger and newer version of
yourself—and we’ll continue to do our best to make you better year after year,
so that you only grow younger.
Maintaining you is our small contribution to the world of wooden and traditional boats that we love so much.
Photos from the first days of the project, while we focused on rot removal, can be found here.
Photos of the second half of the project, while we focused mostly on rebuilding, are below:
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| bulwarks and upper planks cut away to remove rot |
 |
line drawn along the hull to make space for a new carvel sheerstrake,
and portions of the old strip planks cut away |
 |
| rot removed from the sides, planks, and lockers of the cockpit |
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| upper planks cut away, as well as two layers of marine ply decking |
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| new sisters for rotted frames--20% of the frames had rot |
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upper planks removed, as well as the lower and upper layers
of marine ply deck around the entire perimeter of the boat |
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| new sisters for rotted frames--20% of frames had rot |
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stern post and carlings--the ends of the carlings were rotted and no longer
attached to the metal fittings, so we had new stainless steel
extension pieces fabricated to join everything together (not pictured) |
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| sistered frames and new deck beam |
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| new frame sisters secured with bronze screws |
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| planing the new sheerstrake |
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the moment when we were surrounded by scraps of fresh wood,
instead of scraps of rotted wood, was a wonderful turning point in the project |
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| bending in the new sheerstrake plank |
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| bending in the new sheerstrake plank |
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| bending in the new sheerstrake plank |
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| bending in the new sheerstrake plank |
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| new lower layer of marine ply decking around the perimeter |
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| cutting away the upper planks on the starboard side |
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| new lower layer of decking around the perimeter |
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| planing the sheerstrake plank flush with the lower layer of decking |
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| new plank on the port side of the stern |
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| new plank and new frame sisters in the stern |
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| new decking and planking on the port bow |
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| lower layer of decking and upper edge of planking |
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| lower layer of decking and upper edge of planking |
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| rebuilding the cockpit area |
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| dry-fitting the upper layer of marine ply decking |
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| putting all the puzzle pieces back together... |
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| upper layer of decking, new around the perimeter of the boat |
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| upper layer of decking, dry-fit around the perimeter of the boat |
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| new sheerstrake planks! |
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| new sheerstrake plank--planed to shape forward, but not yet planed aft |
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| bucket o' bungs |
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| bunging the fasteners for the sistered frames |
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| bunging the fasteners for the sistered frames |
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.
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