Commander #65 "Lucky Dawg"

...about not much weather. They were expecting things to be a little more critical, hence Weather Channel folks on the beach this morning at Lucky Dawg's home port of Muskegon, MI. Saw this on TWC while at the gym:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/video...ecast-4276#464

Sustained storm force winds at 50kt forecast and building to 10-15 footers until tomorrow evening. http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/LM/848.html

Even since this AM, the waves are getting more impressive - http://surfgrandhaven.com/640cam2.php (4 rotating views) (for perspective, the outer and inner lights are 36 and 56 feet off the pier - and the pier is about 8' off flat water.)

I find all this wind and water power pretty amazing.

Talking about weather -

We had a storm about 3-4 weeks ago, when that tropical system was down by Cuba with a band of moisture streaming all the way up the East Coast. Worst I have *ever* seen it here, in ~7 years of living aboard. Started around 1AM, and in no time at all, we had honest 4-5' swells running through the marina.

My boat was in the slip next to the Walker Bay dinghy, below. The end of that dock *should* be attached to the dolphin behind it, about 8' feet away. Within 15-20 minutes of the storm starting, that had given way and so I had nothing to attach Katie to. If you look close, you can barely see a black hook on the dolphin at the point where the 2 lower pilings meet the taller. There is another black hook on the solo piling, mid-point of the power boat in the background. Those hooks were under the tops of the waves.

The wind was coming straight across the Bay thru that gap you can see in the background, sustained at over 50, gusting I believe to hurricane strength. The airport 8-10 miles inland registered a 64mph gust.

When I was on top of waves, I saw others that were nothing but a wall of whitewater completely filling that gap, and the keel of that old Cris Craft more than I ever care to again. At the bottom of the waves, that view was completely hidden from view by water. Just sitting in the cockpit, I frequently had to hold on with two hands, because the boat was bucking so bad, getting slammed when the dock lines would catch her up (but she never, not once, shipped water over the stern! Even with all that was happening, I was amazed...). It was about then that I realized being onboard would soon become seriously hazardous to my health, and that there was absolutely *nothing*, nothing at all, that I could do about the situation; it was, in a word, overwhelming.

I never ever thought I would say this, certainly not while berthed in a marina but - I abandoned my boat, clutching a small duffel bag of what I could grab fast that would help me earn the money to buy all-new stuff, including a boat. I thought she was gone. When I came back on deck, I found that the dock had literally broken into pieces while I was packing that duffel. Took me 3 attempts to get from my boat to the dock, then had to make it across the pieces pictured below, in the midst of all the above. Craziness. In the end, Katie made it out just fine; the storm laid down really fast in 10-15 minutes after I left her, before everything broke *all the way* loose, and boats were actually banging against and sinking each other...

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Here's the view from standing next to the stern of the Hunter in the above picture.

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I hope I never go thru that again, and that nobody else has to, either!

Ummmm... yikes!!! Kurt, glad to hear you and Katie Marie made it through OK. The crew dogs too, I hope.

Clearing Lucky Dawg's deck for sanding and painting gives me the willies. I just keep reminding myself that it's been done before.

With all of the alligator cracking in my deck paint, it had to be done, but sheesh!

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Ahh LD - good to see you back!

If you have any gel-coat cracks make sure you go in deep after them... or they'll be back before you know it!

Hey Rico,
Thanks for mentioning that. I had been looking at C227's tackling of the cracks. Looks like he did it before sanding. Still figuring out to what depth I need to sand. I need to take off the non-skid, but do I need to sand to the point of all gelcoat being removed or just to a solid, crack free surface? I will be pulling out my Don Casey bibles and doing some searching here, but if you care to weigh in on the subject before I get there, I'm open to any feedback!

p.s. I sent you a PM about your aluminum mast base, but it is sometimes hard to see that indicator of a waiting message - so you may not have noticed. I did get one manufactured for about $350.

Kyle, my understanding is you want to open up the cracks with say an old can opener dragged through the crack to clean out the crud and make the edges abraded to hold the filler. If you try to sand down the crack you'll have a deck as wavy as the lake. I think I got this from Mike Goodwin's repair tips on this site. Check with the site masters though. Carl

Kyle,
No sailing for you for awhile. I'm in the same boat as you though. The Princess is currently in many pieces.
Sorry for the slow reply, I have not been on the site for awhile.
I think a gallon of each is about right. I think I did have to dip into a second gallon of the white Awlgrip (I think less than a quart) to finish the non-skid.
(I just burned up some more of the second gallon with my mast rebuild project. I'll try to get some of that up soon)
The crazing you just need to buzz down and fill, its the stress cracks you need to route out. A Dremel would work fine to route out the cracks, I used a 1/8" pointed carbide bit in a 90 degree air grinder. You need to get all the way trough the gel coat. I can't remember right now but I think I filled with Duraglass.
I'll get you the info on the Vynalester paste Bob used on C299. He put it on thick and worked it into the crazed deck with a thick nap roller, rolling from all directions. It worked really well and seems to be holding up nicely. I don't see anything telegraphing through.
Mike
C227

P.S. ... Don't stress too much, there is no magic to any of this. Just don't cut corners in the prep work and it will turn out great!!

Mike and Carl - thanks for the feedback. I am presently drilling out and filling hardware holes with epoxy and addressing a couple small wet spots where stanchions were (and will never be again...) The deck is in remarkably good shape, it seems. Sanding off non skid is pretty time consuming. That stuff is strong!

Mike, I would be interested to hear about the Vynalester paste from C299 - whenever you're free. I know this is a busy time of year at a marina.

Had a couple detail questions for the refinishing people at Torresen's, so we went up and looked at our new slip for the season - I do presume I will make use of it - I am bow to bow with this boat. Another Commander knockoff - the Quickstep24. Details here and some yachtworld pix here

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Boy did I speak too soon. Something didn't sound right and I drilled an exploratory hole..... HOLY$%^# Soggy deck down the stbd side and patchy sogginess on port. My humidity meter said 15-18% humidity on the hardwood setting. That seemed bone dry compared to ambient humidity. Apparently 15% means soggy. I haven't even started exploratory drilling on the foredeck. (wet inside the marker) I presume I will be sawing away the deck and replacing the core now... Ug. That's really my only avenue, right? :(

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Is the core "brown mush" that you're removing? Is the deck skin delaminated? Does it give when you walk on it?

If 'no' to all of the above, you may be able to get away with drying things out, resealing the holes, and then sealing up all the avenues of water ingress before you paint.

On the other hand, since you're repainting the decks already and have everything removed, this may be a good time to do a recore and have that job behind you. It sounds like you may only have to do a couple of spots anyway, not the whole thing.

Hey Mike,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, definitely juicy brown mush. Re the decks, that's the strange thing. The decks don't seem to give / creak / make a sound and they have a sharp response to them when sounding with the butt of a screwdriver - not to say I am an expert in sounding the decks. Under the stanchions is definitely a "thud" vs a sharper tone elsewhere.
KW

I had the best luck doing just what you're doing, that is, drilling out from the bad spots until you get to good clean core material.

http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...3820#post13820

Sounding the decks for me was always sketchy, unless I was in a big bad spot, then there was no doubt it was a "thud".

With the drill method, you can isolate your repairs and just fix the sections that need it. It's a real pain to try and pull deck skins off that are NOT delaminated! No need to go overboard and cause yourself more work than is necessary.

Well Kyle....

Your certainly not alone with the soggy core. I'm starting to wrap up the interior work (at least in the forward end of the interior) and will be starting my lower deck recore soon also. I can tell you that for the part of the cabin roof that I recored it was far easier work than a lot of the interior work I have done so far. So I'm hoping the rest of the deck recore goes the same.

Please post lots of progress pics so I can get some hints from your job and maybe save myself some headaches.

Good luck with the project.