Katie Marie's previous owner is a paraplegic, and had bolted a car racing seat to the cockpit seat so that it would aid him with lateral stability when underway. It was a quick job, the holes were only sealed with 42/5200, and as a result, I had water penetration there. I drilled a series of exploratory holes to find the extent of the wetness some time back (the big hole led to the many outlying smaller ones), then kept them covered and let the project rest until such time as the weather permitted me to open the bad area up and let it dry. Here are my test holes:



The current hot spell is giving us a couple days of no-rain-possible, so this morn I started cutting after I got that first cup of joe into my gullet. It was bad, but not as bad as it could have been. I was really surprised by how well the skins were still bonded to the core, even though it was wet. I was also surprised to find that at least parts of our boats are cored with plywood. The upper glass skin is almost 1/4" thick in this area, and cutting it was no easy chore, and neither was getting the skin off. It took 2 BIG screwdrivers as levers, and a hammer to tap them in to break the skin free. The skin came off in 2 pieces; one over the plywood, and the other over balsa. The skin broke along the line of CSM which separated the two areas. Also broken were about 5 Dremel cutting disks, one Dremel 1/4" grinding disk (used as a cutter when the little ones just weren't working), and, worst of all, one blade of my grandpas old pocket knife, which led to the retrieval and subsequent usage of the 2 overlarge screwdrivers...



There's a real mish-mash of materials used in this area, and no shortage of what looks to be inadequately wet-out cloth and CSM. Still, it's incredibly strong.



It's drying now, I hope to get some epoxy and microballoons in there before the chance for rain comes back. Will post more shots as the project continues...