South African "Catalina" 22

[greg_m]

A friend invited me out for a twilight cruise on his new to him O'Day 40 built in late 1980's... what a really nice yacht. Makes the little C22 look a little puny. However when I compare the costs to purchase / cost to own / cost to maintain I think my boat is worth every cent and effort to get it back on the water!

 

[DayDreamer41]

That is a calculation all boat owners consider and weigh out or at least should before purchasing, we know that once purchased it's too late...

 

[rpludwig]

nice sweet boat.......that's why we charter those, can't afford to own, justify or maintain 'em!

 

[greg_m]

nice sweet boat.......that's why we charter those, can't afford to own, justify or maintain 'em!

Charter industry non-existant here in SA. If it was, it would be way outside the price range of locals... tourist prices paying with Euro's or Dollars!

 

[greg_m]

Ok, so since my last entry into this log I have managed to lay down a single layer of CSM/polyester resin from the bow along the fore deck and running down the side decks as well as the coach roof. This is because the old gel coat was so rotten and cracked that I sanded it back as much as possible. Only going to lay down fiber glass onto the flat "horizontal" surfaces where the gel coat was the worst to stabilise the surface and make a good surface to paint. Coach roof sides and cockpit coaming sides are still ok. Had a few afternoons afternoons after work where the wind was slight so could get a lot done.

It is quite a laborious job and actually is fairly time consuming. I worked in sections and only made up small batches of resin so as not to have the resin go off on me while halfway through a batch. I have also sanded down the cured surfaces.

Although I tried to apply the cloth and resing evenly it has worked out that the new layer of fiberglass is very uneven on a micro level and needs fairing. I am wondering at the extent of the fairing required as most of the surface will be having non-skid applied to it. The sanded CSM is actually quite non-skid as it is and to my eye is not unpleasant looking in texture.

So... should I try smooth off the whole surface or just the "margins" around the non-skid areas?

 

[greg_m]

Another job I did while waiting more more cloth and resin supplies was to cut the old windows to size to suit the new style rubber seals I will be using. The old windows will become the template for shaping the new windows. This is the port side so far.

 

[agprice22]

I would just fair the margins unless you spot significant voids in the epoxy. The epoxy paint, non-skid, and more epoxy over that will really fill. You could also start with a high build primer to get the raw fiberglass ready for epoxy paint.

 

[AaronD]

...quite a laborious job and actually is fairly time consuming...

I think that's the understatement of the decade, applied to this entire thread! I remain amazed at your devotion, Greg. Nice work.

 

[greg_m]

The sanding continues...nuff sed!

Here the very laborious job of hand sanding the curves into the edges between deck and toe rail and deck and coachroof. Trying all sort of forms including PVC electrical pipe and blocks of shaped wood.

 

[greg_m]

I had to lay one more CSM layer down over the area where the bow fitting for the anchor roller/forestay fixture "chainplate" fits. This is quite a milestone because its making plans to start putting deck fittings back on!!! Woohooo...

Sanded deck down down to fit base as best, will probably need to added a bit of fairing compound to get a perfect fit. Drilled pilot holes, drilled out the pilot holes to 12mm, blocked the holes from under deck with some blue masking tape pieces and backfilled with thickened epoxy. I was actually quite surprised by the thickness of the original deck fiberglass laminate in this area... about as thick as the holes were wide... 12mm or 1/2 inch thick! Bored out the holes to remove everything down to the inside fiberglass laminate I applied long ago from the inside when the boat was still upside down! I started late and finished in the dark.

Next items are the shroud deck fittings alongside the coachroof.

 

[greg_m]

It's April already! Where has the first 1/4 gone??

Work on the deck progresses slowly. In these photo's I am taking measurements of the locations for the shrouds chainplate mounting points. The original holes are just barely visible so thought I better do this before applying any more filling materials or top coatings. Forward, center and aft shroud mounting points both port side and starboard side. I also marked the extent of the low spots to be filled.

After measurements were taken I then prepped and filled in the areas with thickened peanut butter mix where the rotten gel coat and underlying fiber glass laminate was removed at these chainplate locations as well as the forward deck mounting points for the pulpit rail.

 

[greg_m]

All work and no play...

Wednesday evenings are usually used for the "twilight" series of races pre-winter in our neck of the woods. This time of year happens to be the most pleasant in that temps are still warm enough to go out not dressed in layers and the South Easter is not howling mostly. So the most favourable sailing weather.

Unfortunately the wind disappeared altogether so we decided to enjoy the scene and have dinner at the yacht club instead!

I NEVER get tired of just sitting and watching that view...

 

[rpludwig]

sweet view, but that tape measure would take me some gettin' used to!

 

[greg_m]

but that tape measure would take me some gettin' used to!

Way easier than fractions of an inch!

 

[greg_m]

Update on the deck work going on:
I decided to only lay new fiber glass matting on all the flat surfaces due to the gel coat being so badly cracked and crazed over the majority of the horizontal surfaces and even rotten in places like where deck fittings were mounted. So far I have spent a huge amount of time and effort to do this and then sand back the rough surfaces and fair in the edges. I also removed my fingerprints several times hand sanding radius corners around the deck "toe rail" edge and coach roof detail and edges.

After much deliberation my plan is to do same as I did with the hull... coat with an epoxy resin before painting. But alas the sanding prep work is not all done

So I got a bit creative with my DA sander. Took off the bottom shroud and used oversized sanding pads that curl up very nicely into the radius corners! So I went around all the corners again that the machine could get to. I also sanded the horizontal surfaces again to get a more even surface along the coach roof, side decks and fore deck. Hours later... sanded, washed down, dried and acetone cleaned. Ready for the epoxy experiment.

 

[greg_m]

Epoxy coating the deck and coach roof... I decided to go with experimenting on the coach roof first as this is the easiest surface to deal with and get to. In these photos I have prepared the coach roof surface for applying the first coat of epoxy resin. Due to the rough texture left behind due to glass cloth mat I decided to apply the resin with a paint brush so as to be able to "massage" the resin down into the valleys. The idea is that the resin will be thin enough to flow into the valleys filling the low spots. I have added white epoxy pigment to the resin as well.

My initial observations and from the last photo close up view you can see the flowing into the low spots concept is working quite well however sanding and subsequent coats will really show the outcome. I'm not to worried about the rough surface in areas where I want to apply non-skip paint so only really going for smooth around the margins!

Time wise it's definitely cooling down now going into Autumn and temperatures are not good for epoxy out in the open. I also get home from work to late to do epoxy work as it will not have cured before the evening dew settles onto the surfaces. So weekends are only options for this part of the job.

 

[greg_m]

Last weekend we had some really nice calm cool but sunny weather. Perfect for tackling the epoxy painting of the fore deck and side decks. Preparations included washing, sanding, washing again, drying off, wiping down with acectone, mixing and applying three coats of epoxy resin mixed with a white pigment in small batches.

Procedure was to mix a batch, apply it with a brush, mix the next batch and apply it with a brush and then come back over previous area with a dry-ish roller to spread coating more evenly. I think I spent the whole day... about six hours of this routine including up and down the ladder, leaning over the deck from the ladder, applying resin with one hand till arm got tired and then changing over to other hand etc. etc. etc.

It's now a week later, but on Sunday I could hardly walk/sit/lay down. I have been to the Chiro, taken various medications and had many massages and muscle medication patches and my left side and neck is still killing me... I have been banned from working on the boat by SWAMBO!

So it sits like this now... needs to be sanded down with something like 220 grit to get smoothed off sufficiently to apply the primer coat for paint.

Itching to get to it but aching enough not to push my luck with SWAMBO!

 

[Grotto]

Great time to introduce the kid to the joy and wonder of sanding their smaller size makes them the perfect choice. Manual sanding block while you read him two years before the mast. Tell him he's "holystoning" the deck

 

[greg_m]

Update on the keel: Sometime ago I had the keel sandblasted It did reveal a lot of pitting corrosion but nothing as serious as what other guys who restored their boat keel looked like. Although I was still very sore in back a shoulder and against SWAMBO's wishes I could not sit around any longer. The weather is cool but sunny and there is basically no wind so perfect for working outdoors.

Last time I tackled the keel I had to acid wash it to get rid of the rust after the sandblasting and laying around not being worked on. I also coated it liberally with a couple of coats of epoxy resin with a white pigment added. The resin actually flowed very nicely into the pitted holes to partially fill them. However rust did occur again since then around the perimeters of the pit holes.

 

[greg_m]

On Saturday I decided tackling the keel was the lesser of the labour jobs to do as I could just sit comfortably on the floor and push a sander around. First sanding job was to remove the rust and clean up the epoxy coating to apply some epoxy based fairing compound. My intention is to just fill in the majority of the pitting holes and fair the surface as best. I'm definitely in no mood to reshape the thing as I'm quite happy that is is actually fairly well profiled in cross section. The leading edge and trailer edges do need more filling and shaping though. The following day being Easter Sunday I felt well enough to tackle shaping the cured fairing compound. I used the random orbital sander with 100 grit paper. This worked well for me. To try and ensure some kind of straight and level surface I used a straight edge along the length of the keel to mark the high spots as I worked and mostly just took off the high areas. It did turn out to show how uneven the original casing is though. In one of the photos you can see the grey marking the steel straight edge did leave as a marker.