Daysailer I Repair and Restoration

[EvanF]

Three years ago, I bought a Daysailer I (sail number 2373) as my first boat. I had been looking for a boat for years that was just right to convince my parents to help me buy it. After a few years of enjoying the boat as is, I have my first major repair to do. During my last sailing trip while swimming, my friends noticed a hole in the boat that opened into the starboard seat tank that was leaking quite a bit of water. When we got it back on the trailer it became obvious that the hole had been caused by one of the rollers on the trailer. The previous owner had the boat moored for the season on Long Island Sound, so I assume the trailer he gave me wasn't the best for leaving the boat on most of the time (as I do). I will be sanding the terribly messy bottom paint off (or at least what remains of it), patching the hole, and painting the hull, probably with an easy one part polyurethane.



Either way, I now have some work to do to repair the hole, so I figured while I'm at it, I'd do some other restoration work. The first issue I would like to fix is a "modification" made by a previous owner. I think at some point the mast jack was lost, so in order to work around it, he cut up the fiberglass surrounding the old hole for the mast jack to accept his homemade solution. When I bought the boat, he found the mast jack and gave it to me with the boat. Unfortunately, The jack no longer has a single place where it can sit, so It can slide fore and aft 4-6 inches. I was hoping for some suggestions on how to find the correct position for the jack to achieve the proper mast rake, and whether I should leave it the way it is with a mark to denote the proper position, or whether it is worth it to try to fix the damage.



To add to the list of interesting modifications from previous owners, there is a hole in the top of the centerboard trunk that appears to be drilled. It is about a half inch in diameter, but it was plugged (poorly) with some resin that cracked and leaked. I am curious if there is any reason why someone would drill such a hole. I assume the best thing to do is patch it up again (but better this time).



There is also a hole in the fiberglass covering one of the stringers (I think that is what it is called). There was some rotten wood immediately inside it, but it feels solid farther in, and the fiberglass feels solid all the way along the length. Should I patch this hole and not worry too much about it, or should I look a little closer?



When I am done with all the fiberglass work, I will be painting the interior of the boat as well. It was painted previously with some crappy latex paint that is now chipping off everywhere, so I have a lot of sanding to do. I will be leaving the blue gelcoat as is.

I am also considering making my own new centerboard and rudder. I have two large sheets of ~1" thick HDPE plastic that I was thinking of trying to make some proper foils out of. I might even try CNC machining the rudder once I go back to college in the fall and I have access to one, otherwise I will make a jig and use a router as described here: http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index. ... 08175-bog/ Does anyone have any thoughts on whether a plastic foil would be strong enough? I remember reading someone saying here to aim for the centerboard being able to hold one or two people hanging on it to right the boat after capsizing. Is this definitely the maximum load on the board? I guess one way to find out would be to give it a try...

Finally, I removed the plastic edge guard that goes covers the edge of the fiberglass at the edge of the cuddy opening, and I am looking for a replacement. Is http://www.drmarine.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DS241 suitable for this use for this on the DS I?



I have been lurking here since I got my boat three years ago, so I have read a bit of everything, but I am still no expert on the DS I, especially when it comes to repair. Hopefully I didn't ask too many silly questions, but hopefully if I did you can forgive me since this is my first try!

[GreenLake]

Wow, that's a whole lotta holes and other stuff you have there.

When you're done, you'll be good with fiberglass!

Inside paint: alternatives to sanding might be a heat gun or chemical paint stripper. Then again, the paint is flaking so badly it might not take much sanding... use a good dust mask!

CB hole. It's common for people to set up the jib sheet cleats on top of the CB trunk. My goto "gunk" for this kind of repair is 3M High Strength Marine Filler. It's fiber reinforced, so will handle gaps and is plenty strong. It's polyester-based, which makes it less critical in mixing than epoxy-based stuff, and it hardens more quickly, too. Next in line is Marine Tex (an epoxy-based paste) that works well for small, odd repairs. Not reinforced. Either one of these, or both, will probably end up in your tool chest sooner or later - or should.

Stringer: looks like the stringer itself (wood, balsa?) rotted out and someone crushed the now hollow stringer by stepping on it. The only reason this one needs a core is to prevent just this, crushing. Otherwise, the hollow fiberglass shell is probably supplying most of the strength. Alternatives: you can grind them off (or use a Fein Multimaster or similar oscillating saw, those are fine things to have!) and put a fresh core and cover with fiberglass. Or you could replace the existing shell after removing the rotted wood and give it a layer or two of additional fiberglass - my guess is that you'd get practically the same strength. If hollow, you can leave/drill drain holes at both ends to make sure the cavity doesn't trap any water.

Edge strip: why bother replacing. Mine came without and I never realized something was missing.

Hole in hull: First, the area of damaged laminate is going to be bigger around than it appears now. You need to sand off enough of the old paint to be able to see whether the laminate below is "dark" (translucent) or "white" (milky). The latter is damaged. The bad stuff needs to be cut away and the edges ground to a 1:12 bevel. (If the previous owner used anti-fouling paint, use a moon suit for that work, and a tarp to collect the dust and dispose as hazardous waste).

Next, the tricky part is to match the curve of the hull. One technique is to lay up a backing plate (2-3 layers of fiberglass cloth, laminated as a flat sheet on a bit of plastic or wax paper on your work bench). You want that to be just stiff enough that you can bend it to the inside of the hull using one or two wires. And just large enough that you can shove it through your hole sideways. Use some neat epoxy to glue it to the inside edge of the hull. In all of this, you don't need to wait for full cure, rather it's better if the epoxy is still "green", so just when it's gotten hard. At that point, further epoxy will still make chemical bond.

With the backing plate glued in place, you can cut the wires and continue to lay fiberglass cloth until you've almost restored the original hull thickness. (The backing plate prevents any loss of strength). The idea is, you don't want to have to sand fiberglass to get a fair shape to your hull, but rather use an epoxy based fairing compound that's waterproof but easy to sand. (You can mix your own, using West System, or get it pre-mixed from SystemThree where it's called QuickFair). After that, apply paint. If you don't keep the boat on a mooring, do not bother with anti-fouling paint. If you never anchor, you might get away with a deck paint; they often have 24h-72h immersion limits.

When doing fiberglass with epoxy there are good manuals from West System and System Three that describe the process. There are only minor differences among good epoxies, so you have a choice. SystemThree's SilveTip promises to be free of "amine blush" and I've found it so. Never had issues with getting anything to adhere to its epoxies. For other epoxies you may need to wash off any blush (luckily soap and water is all you need). The biggest key to success in using epoxy is extremely accurate measurements and super careful mixing. Graduated medicine or painter's cups work great for the typical small batches.

And when you are done: rebuild your trailer already so it uses the widest bunks you can fit instead of rollers! (Look in past discussions on this forum for information).

Good luck!

[EvanF]

Thanks for the quick reply and all the information!

Most of the pictures I posted came before work I did all day yesterday, and I did a lot of 60 grit sanding and scraping with a metal paint scraper which worked pretty well. I also have a tyvek suit and a nice full face respirator for working with all the paint and fiberglass dust I will be making. I have read up on the hazards of the bottom paint, and luckily it is so old that there isn't much left on the bottom, so it shouldn't be terrible.

I have something like 10 gallons worth of west system epoxy 105 resin and slow hardener, as well as a few different fillers for fairing that my dad had left over from a job (he works in construction). I have used it on a few things at this point, but I think it is probably getting towards the end of whatever shelf life is written on it. Any idea if this makes it any weaker, or will it be obvious when the resin is spoiled? If it seems like it works well for some of the smaller repairs, I think I will use it on the hull, but if anyone knows about any issues with that, I would love to hear before I go ahead and use it.

I have read through the thread you wrote on the crack you repaired on your boat (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3785). Thanks for sharing all of that great info! I also subscribe to boatworks today on youtube, which has some videos on repair and painting.

There are a few other things I'm working on that I have found plenty of information on around here (inspection ports, gross soggy foam flotation, replacing cleats, rigging, etc.). I didn't feel it was important to clog up an already long post with information about things that people have already answered tons of questions on

I'm still looking for some opinions on the plastic foils, too. I have read about HDPE rudders online, so it seems it has been done. Maybe I will have to use some kind of metal support inside to help with the stiffness...

Anyway, I will be working on the boat around a few online classes this summer, and I will post some updates as I go!

[GreenLake]

Epoxies keep really well. Mix up a batch to test on a few small bits of glass cloth. Should give you a pretty good idea.

[GreenLake]

Foils: my recommendation would be for using wood / plywood. I did a rudder from plywood, you can find the writeup here in the forum. Some people did centerboards from strips of hardwood (selected for durability in water) laminated together and sealed in epoxy and sheathed in fiberglass. You don't need to worry about strength issues, and, esp. for the rudder, it's nice to have it buoyant. (The wooden CB may need some small weights to get it to the design weight of 25lbs).

Just because you happen to have some material isn't always the best reason to use it -- and as soon as you are thinking about metal supports, wood becomes easier.

[EvanF]

Epoxies keep really well. Mix up a batch to test on a few small bits of glass cloth. Should give you a pretty good idea.

Sounds like I will use that then. I have used it on a few projects with no issues, including a small fiberglass repair on an RC glider. Just wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any surprise weakness as a result of using old epoxy

Foils: my recommendation would be for using wood / plywood. I did a rudder from plywood, you can find the writeup here in the forum.

I have seen posts on making wooden foils, and on modifying the existing ones. Browsing the forum is how I found the link to the discussion on making the jig for shaping the foils. Now that I have been thinking about it, I am considering doing all three sets of foils including the plastic ones so I can compare them and see what works best

I was doing some more digging for information on the proper mast rake and rig tension to try to figure out how to locate the mast step. I also looked at the rigging tuning guides from a few different places, but I am still not sure how I will go about finding the "proper"/original position. Is it advisable to move the jack around to adjust the rake, or is it better to use the turnbuckles and adjust the length of the shrouds/forestay with the mast jack in a certain fixed positon? What is a normal measurement from the bow flotation tank to the near end of the mast jack?

I also removed over 50 pounds of waterlogged foam from the tanks this week. I'm excited to see how well the boat performs once all of this is done!

[SaltySails]

Hi Evan,

You mentioned that you already found answers to gross soggy insulation and inspection ports--this is the very advice I'm looking for, but am not so savvy on the site to find it. Can you post the links or catch phrases you used to find this info?

I hope the rest of your restoration is going well!

Much appreciated,
Laura

Thanks for the quick reply and all the information!

Most of the pictures I posted came before work I did all day yesterday, and I did a lot of 60 grit sanding and scraping with a metal paint scraper which worked pretty well. I also have a tyvek suit and a nice full face respirator for working with all the paint and fiberglass dust I will be making. I have read up on the hazards of the bottom paint, and luckily it is so old that there isn't much left on the bottom, so it shouldn't be terrible.

I have something like 10 gallons worth of west system epoxy 105 resin and slow hardener, as well as a few different fillers for fairing that my dad had left over from a job (he works in construction). I have used it on a few things at this point, but I think it is probably getting towards the end of whatever shelf life is written on it. Any idea if this makes it any weaker, or will it be obvious when the resin is spoiled? If it seems like it works well for some of the smaller repairs, I think I will use it on the hull, but if anyone knows about any issues with that, I would love to hear before I go ahead and use it.

I have read through the thread you wrote on the crack you repaired on your boat (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3785). Thanks for sharing all of that great info! I also subscribe to boatworks today on youtube, which has some videos on repair and painting.

There are a few other things I'm working on that I have found plenty of information on around here (inspection ports, gross soggy foam flotation, replacing cleats, rigging, etc.). I didn't feel it was important to clog up an already long post with information about things that people have already answered tons of questions on

I'm still looking for some opinions on the plastic foils, too. I have read about HDPE rudders online, so it seems it has been done. Maybe I will have to use some kind of metal support inside to help with the stiffness...

Anyway, I will be working on the boat around a few online classes this summer, and I will post some updates as I go!

[GreenLake]

Laura,

when I joined the forum a few years back, I simply sat down and spent a couple of slow evenings reading through the old posts. Learned a lot that way. The forum search box (top right on this page) is a bit limiting compared to the power of a modern search engine. However, it does reasonably fine with single word searches. I would look up "foam" rather than "insulation", or also "flotation".

Savvy people know that there's a "How to use this forum" section, and spend some time looking there for advice, including suggestion how to use google to search this site.

[K.C. Walker]

+1 for what Greenlake said about searching old posts. There is so much information stored in this forum. It's well worth the effort.