The major rebuild I have been threatening for years is now under way. We spent the first dollar last week. This week we will be placing orders and arranging staging of materials.Stealing ideas freely from all of you and introducing a few of our own, we think the end result will be something special. Succeed or fail, practical thing of beauty or awkward curiosity, we are documenting and publishing every detail as we go. We have already done three videos covering the preliminaries. The actual work will begin next month.Wish us luck.Chuck and LauraS/V Lealea, V1860
The Big Job
- Thread starter vega1860
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Hi Chuck - Really looking forward to the story of the rebirth of Lea lea.I enjoyed your log of the journey from Alaska to Washigton state.RegardsMike On Tuesday, 8 December 2015, 19:51, "chuck@... [AlbinVega]" AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com wrote:
I'm doing my interior now. I was totally shocked when I got a price quote on sapele plywood shipped to Soldotna AK. I went with local marine birch instead. Had to color match it to the existing wood. Pragmatic choice of function vs form. The amount of rotted wood caused by the refer condensation drain hose (failure) is something to be aware of. Also, lots of mold and mildew in all the hidden nooks and crannies. All my wood will be varnished inside and out to prevent future growth. I have made a few modifications but not many. I had all kinds of ideas at first but opted to go with what was already there. All that up the ladder ,down the ladder, for a few measurements and forgotten items dissuaded me from my creativity. Plus, the project has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would. The cold weather slows things down. I try to get 8 hours a day work on it. I am really interested in what you use for insulation on the hull walls. The close cell foam that was in my vessel was pretty moldy underneath. I would like something mold resistant if there is such a thing. Any tips on synthetic standing rigging would be helpful since it may be in my future. Best of luck......Tim
For the inside of the hull I recently used vinyl floor covering, soft cushioned stuff that’s designed for kitchens.I attached it with double sided tape and spray on adhesive – less permanent than a contact adhesive, but does the job, and certainly better than the original foam backed crud that was on my Series I AlisdairV752 From: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com] Sent: 09 December 2015 20:39To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.comSubject: [AlbinVega] Re: The Big Job I\'m doing my interior now. I was totally shocked when I got a price quote on sapele plywood shipped to Soldotna AK. I went with local marine birch instead. Had to color match it to the existing wood. Pragmatic choice of function vs form. The amount of rotted wood caused by the refer condensation drain hose (failure) is something to be aware of. Also, lots of mold and mildew in all the hidden nooks and crannies. All my wood will be varnished inside and out to prevent future growth. I have made a few modifications but not many. I had all kinds of ideas at first but opted to go with what was already there. All that up the ladder ,down the ladder, for a few measurements and forgotten items dissuaded me from my creativity. Plus, the project has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would. The cold weather slows things down. I try to get 8 hours a day work on it. I am really interested in what you use for insulation on the hull walls. The close cell foam that was in my vessel was pretty moldy underneath. I would like something mold resistant if there is such a thing. Any tips on synthetic standing rigging would be helpful since it may be in my future. Best of luck......Tim
I'll finally be doing a refit/rebuild of a 1973 Vega that I've had languishing for about 23 years.I even sold the boat twice, but the new owners never came an picked it up.Odd...I was able to purchase a trailer custom made for the Vega 27, something I've been longing for ages...I'll be doing a 60% interior replacement and installing a long shaft outboard.Wish me luck.~ Pete
The cost of bringing materials up here is high, but it beats the cost of taking the boat down South and finding a place to live while we do the work. Also, the conditions are challenging. But we have had much of the interior out before so we know what to expect. The vet Laura works for has a 50 foot aluminum trawler. He has used a product called Insuladd (www.insuladd.com). It is an insulating paint additive that consists of tiny hollow, air filled ceramic microspheres. We are going to try it. We expect the cleaning of the stripped hull interior will be the hardest part of the job. Next would be prepping the outside for paint. We have been talking with Brion Toss about HMPE shrouds and backstay. He is very enthusiastic about the project. Friends of ours who had Brion rig their boat back in 2009 with Dynema shrouds have given us positive feedback too. We will be doing the work on the rig ourselves. That part of the project will be very interesting but not difficult.
Would something like WEST SYSTEM Epoxy - Marine Grade Resins & Hardeners be an alternative to Insuladd? I have no idea if it would be any better or worse for insulation but it is stuff you might have other uses for.Alan
Totally varnish every piece of wood. If not you will get a mildew farm.That coating chuck mentioned with the glass microspheres sounds good. Won't rot, and next time, you can probably coat over it.Sent from my iPad
For sapele plywood, I'd probably vacuum veneer sapele veneer over marine plywood.I usually get veneer from Certainlywood.com and use ultracat glue from joewoodworker.comThe hull lining in my boat is a thin foam covered with perforated vinyl. I've never had a mold problem, but then again the boat has spent it's entire life in New York and Colorado. I also installed a Nicro Day Night Solar Vent, st ran three years continuously before I had to replace the NiMh battery. Tim
All of the plywood will be treated with penetrating epoxy and either varnished or glassed over and painted. Solid pieces will receive at least six coats of satin finish varnish. We have not decided whether to use the penetrating epoxy on the solid wood yet. Andy would prefer not to. Chris (Local fiberglass guy) thinks we should use penetrating resin on all the wood. We will kick it around and do some test pieces before we decide. What are the down sides?Chuck and LauraS/V Lealea V1860
Chuck,I started off just thinning the varnish for the first couple of coats, per vendor, but switched about a third of the way through the project. You can't tell the difference between the pieces that used the thinning process and the penetrating epoxy process. The biggest difference is you have to wait a little longer for the epoxy to fully set before varnishing over it. The epoxy seals the wood much better than the varnish alone. Knowing what I know now, I would have used penetrating epoxy from the beginning.I use Interlux's Schooner Gold varnish for everything. Because I gutted the inside and replaced all of the wood, I went with Mahogany. That way I could use the Joubert Okoume marine plywood and have it complement everything else. It's a little on the expensive side, but it looks great and is stronger and lighter than other marine plywood brands at the same thickness. Plus, they are Lloyd's of London approved.Enjoy the rebuild,Rics/v Blue Max#2692www.ric-maxfield.net
The mildew gets bad whenyou have warm steamy bodies inside and a nice cold hull to condense on. Add a little steam creating propane heater...I was at the annapolis boat show and saw a tiny diesel heater that has a heat exchanger (exaust goes outside). I would look at that, and duct work for that and A/C if i were gutting"coe.richard@... [AlbinVega]" AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com wrote:
I never had a problem with mildew and I lived aboard in South Florida. I think the solution is to maintain the ventilation system that is designed in the boat. Richard
I never had a problem with mildew and I lived aboard in South Florida. I think the solution is to maintain the ventilation system that is designed in the boat. Richard
On Sat, 12 Dec 2015 17:48:21 -0500
"groundhogyh groundhogyh@... [AlbinVega]" AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com wrote:
"groundhogyh groundhogyh@... [AlbinVega]" AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com wrote:
I like the idea of epoxy penetrate on the wood surfaces. It is very durable. I even did this on my airplanes wing spars. But on the Vega I decided not to use epoxy and just go with 4 coats of spar varnish inside and out. I figured that epoxy would add quite a lot of additional expense and extra time in curing and sanding.Winter is cold here and things take lots of time to dry or cure. Repair ability and touch up was also a factor. I also came to the conclusion that the original interior wood lasted for 43 years without much anything. So, in my rationality, cheapness or laziness I opted for just varnish. Looks good too. Cheers.......Tim in Soldotna AK