Today turned to yet another chilly day, this time with rain. But Don K., Don J., John E. and Wynn Boyer of my stalwart crew arrived dressed for the occasion.
The first task was to remove the multiplicity of fasteners (3 inch stainless steel screws – very historic!) in my worm shoe. The worm shoe itself is a piece of marine grade (18th century?) plywood and has substantial weight of its own. Here is a panorama of my long hidden keel, warts and all. It was not as bad as this appears!
Wynn Boyer got right to work sanding the bottom paint off of the worm shoe to expose the epoxy coating and any serious defects.
Their next task was to remove all of the bottom paint from my keel in order to properly inspect it. They needed to probe for spots or areas of rotted wood, such as that pointed out below.
Don K and Frank, with occasional assistance (more like encouragement) from others spent many hours over the next two chilly days rooting out rot and filling with epoxy filled with wood flour or bonding in precisely cut blocks of cypress. It was all quite painless for me, and I enjoyed the company.
The rectangular 1 inch deep section has been prepared for a block of cypress.
There were a couple of areas of major rot that were located where a quick but inadequate patch was done on the keel before it was bottom coated and covered with the worm shoe back in 2004. All in all, however, John was very pleased with the limited amount of damage from rot. They were all quite impressed, however, with the copious amounts of water my cypress had taken up – but without rotting. They were afraid that they could never dry out the wood enough to get the epoxy repairs to stick. Don K., however, contacted the epoxy manufacturer and was advised to use their new product which was designed to set on wet or green wood. They were back on track and had me sealed up in a few days.
A couple of layers of epoxy coating went on my keel in preparation for the worm shoe. It was decided that no bottom paint was necessary between the shoe and my keel, which would facilitate inspection and repair in the future.
Below is my bottom, ready to go. When looking closely all the wood seams and scarfs, remember that I am a replica split dugout. Since 7 foot diameter cypress are hard to find and precious, my designer Mike Alford and hull builder Craig Wright used a butcher block technique of pre-cut cypress. Those are not planks you see but 2-4 inch thick blocks of cypress laminated together. I know this generation of maritime historians remain kind to our charade because of the educational value of this living replica – me!
Over those same few days, Frank did epoxy repairs to my worm shoe and had it ready to go.
On the one warm and sunny day so far, the gang arrived to fasten my worm shoe, replace some of my skids and hopefully to bring me upright. Here are Kent IV, Don J, Bud Keith, Jerry Nordmeier and John E removing old fasteners from my center skid.
*************************
Today is Thursday and I am back on the trailer, ready for a trip of the year to some place called Oriental.
A large crew came yesterday, and included the usual crew plus Ken Ries, Champ Cox and Dick Mohler. I was dragged on my cradle sideways to get me more centered in the shelter, and then they rolled me over, put me on blocks and slipped the trailer under me.
A word about my trailer. Buddy, my trailer, has been under a lot of ‘pressure’ to carry me and has not complained even though my faithful and overly ambitious crew have been over loaded him by 1200 pounds - and he is showing the effects. Relief is in sight, however. John is working on obtaining a larger capacity trailer and will find a good home for Buddy in the trade-in. Life goes on I guess.
Dick Mohler, the leader for the Oriental Expedition, commandeered this motley crew to stay long enough to load up my ballast and all my gear in preparation for tomorrow.
No one was certain that they would have me back together in time for a trip in April. Beryl, my Director for this year, had to cancel one appearance because of this heroic maintenance effort. It was the annual Museum of the Albemarle Down the River event for all of those 4th graders in Elizabeth City. I missed seeing the new batch of (mostly) wide eyed and curious kids, as well as the other exhibitors like my cousin Silver Chalice from Manteo, the NC Wildlife folks and of course my buddy Black Beard!
Dick Mohler had just cancelled the Oriental trip, but now it is back on.
I have heard that after three weeks of in-water fun I’ll be back in the shed for the more routine annual repairs and varnish. I need it and I deserve it!
See you in Oriental.
The first task was to remove the multiplicity of fasteners (3 inch stainless steel screws – very historic!) in my worm shoe. The worm shoe itself is a piece of marine grade (18th century?) plywood and has substantial weight of its own. Here is a panorama of my long hidden keel, warts and all. It was not as bad as this appears!
Wynn Boyer got right to work sanding the bottom paint off of the worm shoe to expose the epoxy coating and any serious defects.
Their next task was to remove all of the bottom paint from my keel in order to properly inspect it. They needed to probe for spots or areas of rotted wood, such as that pointed out below.
Don K and Frank, with occasional assistance (more like encouragement) from others spent many hours over the next two chilly days rooting out rot and filling with epoxy filled with wood flour or bonding in precisely cut blocks of cypress. It was all quite painless for me, and I enjoyed the company.
The rectangular 1 inch deep section has been prepared for a block of cypress.
There were a couple of areas of major rot that were located where a quick but inadequate patch was done on the keel before it was bottom coated and covered with the worm shoe back in 2004. All in all, however, John was very pleased with the limited amount of damage from rot. They were all quite impressed, however, with the copious amounts of water my cypress had taken up – but without rotting. They were afraid that they could never dry out the wood enough to get the epoxy repairs to stick. Don K., however, contacted the epoxy manufacturer and was advised to use their new product which was designed to set on wet or green wood. They were back on track and had me sealed up in a few days.
A couple of layers of epoxy coating went on my keel in preparation for the worm shoe. It was decided that no bottom paint was necessary between the shoe and my keel, which would facilitate inspection and repair in the future.
Below is my bottom, ready to go. When looking closely all the wood seams and scarfs, remember that I am a replica split dugout. Since 7 foot diameter cypress are hard to find and precious, my designer Mike Alford and hull builder Craig Wright used a butcher block technique of pre-cut cypress. Those are not planks you see but 2-4 inch thick blocks of cypress laminated together. I know this generation of maritime historians remain kind to our charade because of the educational value of this living replica – me!
Over those same few days, Frank did epoxy repairs to my worm shoe and had it ready to go.
On the one warm and sunny day so far, the gang arrived to fasten my worm shoe, replace some of my skids and hopefully to bring me upright. Here are Kent IV, Don J, Bud Keith, Jerry Nordmeier and John E removing old fasteners from my center skid.
*************************
Today is Thursday and I am back on the trailer, ready for a trip of the year to some place called Oriental.
A large crew came yesterday, and included the usual crew plus Ken Ries, Champ Cox and Dick Mohler. I was dragged on my cradle sideways to get me more centered in the shelter, and then they rolled me over, put me on blocks and slipped the trailer under me.
A word about my trailer. Buddy, my trailer, has been under a lot of ‘pressure’ to carry me and has not complained even though my faithful and overly ambitious crew have been over loaded him by 1200 pounds - and he is showing the effects. Relief is in sight, however. John is working on obtaining a larger capacity trailer and will find a good home for Buddy in the trade-in. Life goes on I guess.
Dick Mohler, the leader for the Oriental Expedition, commandeered this motley crew to stay long enough to load up my ballast and all my gear in preparation for tomorrow.
No one was certain that they would have me back together in time for a trip in April. Beryl, my Director for this year, had to cancel one appearance because of this heroic maintenance effort. It was the annual Museum of the Albemarle Down the River event for all of those 4th graders in Elizabeth City. I missed seeing the new batch of (mostly) wide eyed and curious kids, as well as the other exhibitors like my cousin Silver Chalice from Manteo, the NC Wildlife folks and of course my buddy Black Beard!
Dick Mohler had just cancelled the Oriental trip, but now it is back on.
I have heard that after three weeks of in-water fun I’ll be back in the shed for the more routine annual repairs and varnish. I need it and I deserve it!
See you in Oriental.
