REPLACING FORWARD DOGHOUSE SIDE

[bob mitchell]

       Poor Wilson, old hull 113, abused, left in fresh water to rot away. Little did I know that behind all that fiberglass was, well, shit. I got my first inkling when I, in karate like fashion, stiff fingered after a stiff drink, poked my fingers through the doghouse wall. Its the damn windows and the plywood endgrain again. Don't let me sound ungrateful - the cabin roof is great, and the deck under the cabinside was well protected by fiberglass. So here is a complete photographic post with text on replacing and upgrading a doghouse cabinside.

       The first thing to appreciate is the original construction of a Newporter cabin. As Clyde Phillips points out,...but first a photo to lead into his discussion....this is underneath the doghouse cabin side

from Clyde, "Bob,

One thing about the joining of house and deck. The lags at that joint were considered by the builders to be holding the deck up, not the house down. Granted the house was installed (completely built in another shop and brought to the hull as a unit) well before the interior was built. The bottom edge of the house was planned down the correct curve fore and aft (this curve seen as you look at the side of the house horizonally--the other curve was molded in) and beveled to match what the deck would eventially be. The two bulkheads boxing in the main cabin held the house while the deck was fastened to the house. Prior to this fastening the deck sagged somewhat and the lagging held it up in place. I'm sure the interior, as it was built in after this process, supports the deck from below. Interesting work and a good job."

So now I need to remove the cabinside and replace it, which is quite different than dropping in an integral unit 50 years ago. Honestly, I have no use for end grain screwing into plywood, so I set out to avoid that scenario by adding blocking between the deck frame cripples (shown in last photo) that were glued and screwed into the deck. I also added a couple of cripples right on top of the vertical plywood partitions to support the deck at the correct location, as determined by dry fitting the new side, adjusting the deck to proper height, and then cutting the cripples to necessary dimension. This assumes you got the old side off intact enough to use it for a pattern, with its curves and bevels.

Pardon all the ugly glue.

      With that done I could add a "carlin", sort of a cabin clamp, to join the cabinside to the deck by screwing into the blocking and the cabinside, there by avoiding endgrain.

However, I noticed the deck beam at the corner of the cabin had a little split in it, and the new carlin needed some support, so I decided to laminate a beam in front of and in addition to the old beam. In this area the deck extends 3" beyond the front cabinwaill, so that was perfect not only for a new beam laminated right in place, but a piece of heavy trim could be put in above that I could screw the front of the cabin into. Sorry, it appears that our new PAID FOR sight has run out of photos for my most, so I'll start PART II