PRACTICAL
This was a considerable help when
positioning such a heavy and
cumbersome piece of timber, particularly
when sliding the ply upwards into the slot
between the coachroof frames.
Given it’s a key structural part of the boat
it was reassuring to see epoxy squeezed
out of the entire length of the joints. At the
top and outboard edge this excess was
used to create fillets between the
bulkhead and the laminated frames to
increase the strength of the joint.
As there was no scope to use clamps to
hold everything together while the epoxy
set, Martin instead used battens each side
of the scarf, screwing these together to
hold it all in place. The inner faces of these
were covered with shiny brown parcel
tape to stop them sticking to the glue.
A minimal amount of tidying and fairing
was then needed before the bulkhead was
ready for painting. Once painted it was
impossible to identify the location of the
scarf, aside from a small visual tell-tale in
the varnished end grain in the opening to
the forepeak.
Zest’s teak deck had been replaced in
2011, with the new wood epoxied to the
sub deck and epoxy thickened with
graphite employed in place of conventional
caulking. Instead of replacing the entire
deck on the port side – which the
Portuguese surveyor who originally
inspected the boat specified – a section a
little longer than the new piece of ply was
replaced. If you look closely, it’s possible to
tell that it’s not original, but once weathered
the differences are very hard to spot.Making good the hull
The first task was to strip off the antifouling
around the damage below the waterline.
Paint stripper made a reasonably quick
job of this without creating poisonous dust
through dry sanding.
We then ground back the epoxy
sheathing and fairing compound to reveal
the damaged timber. This was removed
where necessary and a wider area of
sheathing removed to allow the wood to
dry, a process that was accelerated with
gentle warmth from an infra-red heat lamp.
Martin tackled this in different ways,
depending on the size and depth of the
damage. Much of it was just abrasion
damage that barely extended beyond the
sheathing, but there were some areas that
punctured the outer Douglas fir planking,
plus a handful that dug deeper.
For damage less than around one inch
in diameter he used a Forstner bit – a drill
bit that leaves a completely flat bottom to
the hole – to remove the old timber, taking
care not to go any deeper than necessary.
A couple of larger areas needed diamond
shaped graving pieces scarfed in place.
When moisture levels had reduced to an
acceptable level, round Douglas fir plugs,
plus the larger graving pieces, were glued
in place. These were sized to stand proud
of the surrounding area, with the excess
chiselled off once the epoxy glue had set.
It was then sanded to a smooth surface,
ready for the sheathing to be replaced.Repairs to the deck
Martin used similar techniques to those I’d
used in preparing the bulkhead – plus
judicious help from a coarse sanding disk
in an angle grinder – to remove the
damaged sections of the side deck and
cut the scarfs in the plywood ready for the
new piece to be glued in place.
In addition, there was a section of the
beam shelf that also needed a new
section scarfed in, as he had with the
carlin between the inner edge of the deck
and the coachroof. There were also some
cracked deck beams, the width of the side
decks, that needed to be replaced. While
these looked like small tasks, there’s often
just as much measuring and cutting
needed as for a bigger piece of timber. In
a project like this it’s frequently the smaller
details that take up most of the time.
Unlike a traditionally built wooden boat,
the new ply had to tuck underneath the
coachroof structure. Martin shaped the
new timber exactly to size, apart from the
outer edge, which was left with an
overhang that was trimmed back later.‘Once properly under way the main structural
repairs were finished fairly quickly’
Drawing shows how the deck structure extends beneath the coachroofClamps holding the repair to the carlin in
place while the glue sets
Looking down at the deck, showing the
scarf cut on the plywood and the new
section of the beam shelf
The new section of plywood
deck glued in place, ready for
the teak to be laid on top