Ongoing Progress

It might be hard to tell from the pictures, but both sponson bottoms and battens have been (mostly) removed. Sanding and filing is being done to smooth the area for new material. New battens will be built for both sponsons, then the skin (wood) attached.

 

I have built a wood template from the original drawing for the right sponson (upside down it is left), this template will be used to help RE-BUILD the sponson back to it's original shape. The back side picture shows you the shape, from the front side picture you can see how much framing material will have to be put back on.

 

Some of the other pictures are of the frame that I added new material to, this will provide original vertical support, the next frame back was okay, but the next one will have to be totally re-built like the first one was (cut material to the exact shape, glue and marine nail in place). It has been about every other frame on the right side sponson. This was all the result of our first accident in 1982 at Alder Lake. Finally fixed after 25 yrs... LOL

 

Almost all the black paint has been removed. I will finish that during the next week or so (in between working harvest at the winery). I will not be removing the bottom near the transom until I finish re-building both sponsons. Don't want to remove to much structural material until a like amount has been added back on... LOL

 

Let me preface this with a caveat. I'm starting to step into uncharted waters (course this adventure has been an unlimited amount of unknown to me... LOL), but after the this particular adventure, I'm feeling much better.

 

Saying all that, the sponson I'm attempting to work on has some internal damage that I need to learn how to repair. At some point yrs ago, the recovery area was damaged and water RUSHED in, braking the #2 frame plywood. The plywood was slit open . So I glued that back together, but wasn't totally happy. This is where it gets COOL, Don Kelson told me to take some butcher paper hold it in place, put some dirt on your hands and make a pattern by tracing along the area you want to make the pattern from. IT WORKED GREAT - THANK YOU DON.

 

One of the pictures is the NEW piece of wood I cut out to GLUE in. Some of the pictures are before and after.

 

To explain the rest of the pictures, because that frame was broken internally, the sponson tip and the front recovery area were flexing, this it caused a long crack from the tip back and about a foot along the bottom. I will be cutting out the cracked portion, scarifying new wood, then lay a new piece of wood from the tip of the sponson to the transom over the repaired wood. Should be strong and look good to boot.

 

Other then the deck, this is about the most damage I have found and that isn't bad, just time consuming to fix, but fix it right we will.

 

Today I started removing the wood from the opposite sponson. It doesn't appear to have as much fiberglass on the runner, as the first one did.

 

There is still some work that needs to be finished up on the first sponson, but it is mostly ready for the next step (building new battens).

 

I couldn't resist bolting up the new skidfin to see how it looks with the freshly sanded Okoume Mahogany (Okoume (aucoumea klaineana) also known as gaboon or combogala,  is only found in Gabon, the Congo and Equatorial Guinea in Africa.).

 

Plus I wanted to double check the new bolts to the bolt pattern. Only had to dress up one of the six bolt holes, otherwise all the holes lined up correctly.

I was cruising the internet and I found this VERY interesting video that I seen before. Didn't even know it existed. I opened it with the WMV viewer, it is bigger and faster to load, if you have that viewer, if you have quicktime, you could choose that one also, but it is a smaller viewer and slower to load.

 

There is one segment (blowover and 7 liter race) that has our new boat in one of it's early races (and a race that we suffered damage that I am now fixing...LOL). We are slightly in front of a boat called KZAM (which just happens to be my first hydro plane, My Rose), driving by a very good friend, Jerry Tortorice. Our old boat and the new boat are also seen in the first segment getting ready to go in the water.

 

So cool what you can find on the WWW..... WOW!!!

 

This morning I worked at the winery - we processed (red) Merlot, Syrah grapes and (white) Viognier grapes. Last week we started the Chardonnay grapes. MORE to come, this is just the beginning - around 65,000 lbs of grapes total again this year.

 

I came home after lunch, but the rest of the volunteers stayed to continue on.

 

After getting home, I removed the broken sponson battens, smoothed the edges and routed the sponson transom for the NEW (yet to be made) sponson battens.

 

Also today the new certified lifting slings arrived. I attached one of the hooks to the lifting eye to make sure the holes I had cut in the aluminum were correct (this was to verify that Jim Waddle and I measured correctly.. LOL). The shinny part shows out side the deck when installed, the duller piece is inside under the deck on the other side of the wood engine rail to sandwich the wood for added strength.

 

Friday begins the removal of the paint on the other sponson and then the sponson runner wood and broken battens.

 

Today and yesterday I worked on the port sponson. After looking over the boat, I have made a management decision. Instead of using doorskin on the airtraps and transom, I'm going to use the same wood I will be using when I put the new deck on (doorskin might be 1/8" thick, the deck is 4mm or around 1/4"). This decision will provide a little more weight, but MUCH more strength in areas that need better material. We still will be using the doorskin to re-skin the engine rail on both sides. The sponson runners will be 3/8" and the bottom on the back repair will be 3/8" (or 6mm).

 

The starboard sponson is next. Paint removal and wood removal, then batten repair the battens correctly. Then tackle the repair of the back end of the boat. You know what, that will be the end of removing and the beginning of going back together.

 

Years ago both sponson suffered damage from rough water (different races, but same results on both sides). Mike wanted to take off the sponson bottoms (like I am doing now) and add an additional batten for structural integrity. I didn't do that because of the down time from racing and what I thought would be an extra expense. Had we (I) listened to Mike back then and done it right, the repairs we are making today might not have been necessary. Course I wouldn't of had the opportunity to learn all these neat things. His idea consisted of adding the additional batten. But because of my decision, it was only added in the area repaired. This time we (I) will be making NEW and full length battens before putting the new  sponson bottom.

 

Also, look at the picture of the black before sponson transom and the sanded pretty wood sponson transom. Looks pretty nice, don't you agree. 

 

You can also see the battens that were sistered together yrs ago. Front part of the sponson only had four battens to resist the water pressures. Now there will be a total of five for support.

 

If you like sawdust and paint dust, I have a place you would love.

 

I started removing some of the port sponson running surface. You can see some the battens have been filed smooth, the ones that are not, are broken and will have to be replaced before the new skin is added back on. So far all the screws have been cooperating and are coming out without much difficullity.

 

I have just a little bit more paint to remove from the side of that port sponson, then over to the other side to remove that paint and sponson running skin.

 

Yesterday I removed a bunch of fiberglass from the runner, it was almost 1/8" thick. I think the boat will back to it's original fighting weight. YIPPEE.

 

The pictures from the back of the boat with the black line, is my marking of how much of the bottom will be replaced. After I get the black paint off and the sponson runners removed, I will start removing that section of the bottom after the sponsons are sanded smooth. The center section still needs to have the clear finish removed. AND then the airtrap sides have new wood added, clear varnished and rolled back over (that is about 6 - 8 months away... LOL).

 

The new wood being clamped. I'm trying an experiment. I used Gorilla glue to attached this piece. It did a great job of filling in voids.

 

Attached are some  pictures of new WOOD being added - finally - all be it a small piece. It is a support piece that holds the deck in place at that attachment point.

 

The other pictures are (below, original transom) the current transom and a piece I cut yesterday to start fitting a new transom and make HER look pretty again. The sponson runners (bottom of the sponson that rides in the water) will be all new wood, the air traps will have new skin, the engine rails will be new skin and the deck will be all new.