Hull Spot

Comment

Comment by Clyde A. Phillips on August 6, 2013 at 12:40pm

This is a nod in the direction of Bob's comments.  My approach of removing not only the fiberglass skin but also the plywood is so that I can look for hidden problems.  That is because if I buy a Newporter it will be one that has been poorly or not maintained.  Old number 120 (one of the newest) looks to me as having been well maintained, but I would do a tap test of the hull to hear how sound she is.  I hope she was bought at a price below the asking price, but I really think, based on my studies of all the pictures, that the owner was asking below her value.   

Comment by bob mitchell on August 6, 2013 at 10:49am

   Plan 2 is better - the polyester "skin" can not be secured with fasteners. The good new is it comes off, at least on my boat, fairly easy, in big sheets. But to put epoxy over the polyester would be a waste of time and money.

And I understand your goals completely - believe me, I had no idea what I was getting into!!!!!! Looking forward to your adventures!

Comment by Britton Moses on August 6, 2013 at 8:06am

That's the reason behind wanting to repair rather than rebuild. We want to use the boat and not land ourselves in a work yard for the next decade.  I've seen a lot of your pictures and while I know that once you are finished, you will have the security of knowing she is solid throughout, I don't think that is the extent we "plan" to get into here.  There are two different angles we were thinking of taking...

1. Dig out the rusty nails, add a new ss fastener below the ones removed (thinking the polyester fiberglass skin still needs to be secured to the frame), fill all the holes with epoxy and then lay a new layer or two of epoxy fiberglass over the existing polyester fiberglass.

2. Sand all the way down to remove the existing fiberglass, dig out the rusting nails, and do the same repair to fill the holes and then lay new epoxy fiberglass.

This will be a learning process for us as we go. I know that polyester resin doesn't adhere to wood well, but that epoxy resin adheres to anything, so if we make sure the polyester skin is secure by new fasteners, will laying the epoxy fiberglass over that make it a once again watertight skin?

Comment by bob mitchell on August 6, 2013 at 6:04am

    Tell you this - from a person that has pulled all those nails - they will not come out without a fight. I use a large "catspaw" (nailpuller) with a foot long cheater bar on the end - and I still have to wail away with the hammer. Many of them break off, making those impossible to remove. Since the nails are below the plywood surface, you have to dig into the wood - so you have to decide, are we going to use this boat or are we going to rebuild this boat. I chose to rebuild because I was interested in boatbuilding. That was five years ago - and you can check out my ALBUMS to see some of what is involved. My boat was probably the worst in the fleet because it had been kept in fresh water with years, no, decades, of neglect. But there are a lot of Newporters out there with rusty nails sailing along! And then there are some that the polyester skin was stripped off and they were recoated with epoxy fiberglass.

         By the way, I will post some frames tonight (with the plywood removed) so that you can see the nail pattern, and what the frames look like with the plywood removed.

Comment by Britton Moses on August 6, 2013 at 12:13am

Our current plan of attack is to sand down the entire hull and go after all the rusting nails, hopefully being able to determine a pattern and get them all whether exposed yet or not. After cutting out the rusting nail heads, we would fill those spots in with epoxy and then finish off the hull by adding another layer or two of fiberglass. Of course, this is what we have in mind now, but once we get to working on it and sand it down, we will be able to determine whether or not that seems like the right approach at the time. 

Comment by Clyde A. Phillips on August 5, 2013 at 11:57pm

Rusting boat nails:  This is coming out of a long time dream of mine to, on retirement, to sell my house and buy a Newporter.  This has been tempered later by various unavoidable circumstances that put the dream on hold but not the dreaming.  So, during the dreaming time I have come up with what, if I get a Newporter, I would do.  One of the things that developed in my thinking is what to do with rusting nails and rotten planking, if found.  That has since been changed to what I would do-period.  That would be remove all the planking and decking and replace it all.  That would give me a good way check out the frames, apron, keel, stem and see what had deteriorated to be in need of replacing.  We used to say when I was a teenager and trapping muskrats that if we found one muskrat footprint it means that there are three other feet around and four feet means one rat, and one means others, so it is worth trapping the area.  If I see one rusting nail that means there are two or three more, and that area needs replacing.  If there are that many showing their presence there are many more ready to rust.  It's those hidden nails getting ready to rust that bothers me because that means that in the near future another area will need replacing, and so it goes until everything has been replaced after years of chasing small numbers of rusting nails.  Let's get it done all at once and relax in a boat that is new where the water hits the hull.  It will then easily last for another 25 years or more.  Add that to my present age of eighty and that will suit me fine.  Someone else can then repeat the process and keep her sailing.  A beautiful boat should last forever!

Comment by bob mitchell on August 5, 2013 at 9:20pm

Those are the galvanized nails that hold the plywood planking on - it isn't  unusual for those to be rusting at this age. The fiberglass covering from the 60's was polyester resin, as opposed to epoxy. Polyester is still the main component of pure fiberglass boats, but where wood is involved epoxy resin has adhesive properties that polyester resin lacks.

Comment by bob mitchell on August 5, 2013 at 9:04pm

Those are the galvanized nails that fasten the plywood. - eventually they rust out.

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