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Brought her home today...
The yacht transfer company delivered my commander to me today. We got her put on the trailer which included a few small issues that we needed to solve and she is in my back yard tonight. Next I need to construct the new boat house so I have a place to work on her.
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FINALLY...Destiny is moved into her new boathouse
I've decided to call commander 147 "Destiny". In 1977 I decided to move to Florida from Wisconsin. One of my goals for the move was to get involved with sailing and learn to sail. Not very long after I got down here I bought a 16' daysailer and I taught myself how to sail. I feel like everything from that time until now has been prepairing me for this time and this boat. So "Destiny" seems to fit.
Tonight I finally got the new boat house to the point where I could move her in and start in earnest on her repairs and upgrades. Here are a few photos showing the construction of her new home when she is not in the water. In the first picture you can see where the previous boat house was (just to the right of to Destiny) that I dissasembled and salvaged all of the parts for in the construction of the new boat house.
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Reason for C147's weeping keel revealed...
As we discussed in the keel voids thread C147 has had a weeping keel. It now appears that the reason is due to a bad bottom job previously by the boatyard up in Vermont where she was kept for the last 15 years.
We previously thought it was due to water in the foam inside the keel freezing and thawing and crazing the gelcoat to the point where it was no longer a barrier for water. And while I still believe that is part of the problem I think a bigger part is what looks like an over zealous sandblasting job on the keel. Significant amounts of the gelcoat have been blasted away and then a filler was spread over it to try and correct it. This allowed water inside that has totally saturated the foam inside. Take a look at the picture and you can see as I sand down through the filler what I'm finding underneath it. Note also the water seeping out through the keel in the area where I have not yet removed all the foam inside (the dark spots on the pink filler).
My plan currently is to finish sanding the outside of the keel and finish removing all the water saturated foam inside. This will allow everything to dry out while I work on other projects. There are probably many differant ways to repair this hull an I'm sure I do not know them all. I am interested in gathering information to make a decision on the best way to proceed.
Any advice or recommendations are welcome.
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A rare peek inside the keel of a commander...
I'm making progress pulling all of the water logged foam out of the keel. You can see it is still plenty wet in there. That foam does not give up the water easy either. The water stays in the foam and does not drain out.
In the first picture you can see the aft end of the lead ballast starting to peek out of the foam.
The second picture is aft of the first and I circled where the rudder shoe is. Seems they liked to throw trash inside the keel before they they poured in the foam. I dug out small chunks of wood and you can see a piece of broken fiberglass in both pictures.
The third picture is looking even further back.
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My boat is a bit differant from the design drawing...
The lead ballast does not go as far back in my commander as the design drawing from the old brochure.
Your thoughts are very similar to mine...
As a matter of fact two days ago I was looking through Ebb's gallery to look again at the keel area work he did. I want to add a brace or bulkhead or what ever the correct term for it would be just in front of the rudder shoe since this is a lifting point and it needs to be strong. I thought I would pack some thickened epoxy with glass fibers down in the bottom of the keel to bury the area where the rudder shoe attaches and make sure it can never leak there. Then add the brace. I also think I will slope the glass that encloses the keel down into this area so everything drains down to this low point. Then I will run the suction hose for the bildge pump down there.
I like your idea of the light to locate possible leaks. I will have to try that. I can see light through the keel in the areas where they blasted through the gelcoat already.
You're right it is not pleasant work. I work a couple hours each night and come out soaking wet with sweat. The temperature here in Florida has been running over 80 degrees at 8:00PM and over 90 degrees at 5:00PM. Hard work for a guy that spends his days in an office on the phone but well worth it in the end.
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For those of you that are not a crazy as me...
If you are not crazy enough to take on digging out the wet foam in the keel you will not see what I found so I though I would show you.
I thought you would like to see how easy water can come into your hull from the strap on the rudder. The first picture shows the two screwdrivers I stuck through the bolt holes for the strap in the middle of the rudder.
The second picture is the shafts of those screwdrivers inside the hull. There is no reinforcement inside the hull at that area and the only thing stopping water from leaking into the boat is whatever sealant you have there. It might be a good idea to drill those holes larger, pack them full of thickend epoxy and then redrill them the correct size so you have something other than sealant keeping water out.
For me I'm going to built up an area in there with fiberglass to strengthen and seal it so it will never leak there again.