Pictures of the (de)construction are now on the Photos Page

On the photos page you can see what I described in my last post.

Bigger than we thought (great when fishing, not so great when starting a repair project)

Like with most projects we have undertaken, you start with hopes of a reasonably easy fix. It never turns out that way. We started cutting into the soft spot on the deck.. The wood underneath the fiberglass was really wet. People, maintain your sailboat. Seal around your hatches!

We did some back and forth about whether to keep going and repair Nellie or scrap her and sell her pieces and parts.

We decided to repair her, one bit at a time.

After lots of thinking, a little swearing and a run to get the right thickness plywood, we

(when I say we, I mean Adam) removed a section of the wet wood. Sanded and put down epoxy. We then set new blocks of marine plywood with epoxy and let dry overnight.

This morning, we ordered our expanding foam epoxy to get in all the crevices. Today we worked on doing the same removal of wet wood and epoxy to the other side.

It's a lot of up and down the ladder. Our legs are feeling it... but the weather has been great and it's been nice to be outside and active. Photos to be uploaded soon.

She's out of the water.

Today they hoisted Nellie out of the water. The bottom was in good shape. Good news for us! They will pressure wash, sand and paint her.

Check out the video.

Meanwhile, yesterday we did all of our shopping for supplies: Epoxy, hardener, acetone, paint brushes, rollers, scrapers, fiberglass, Tyvek suit, & respirator. All the fun stuff for the composite repair of the deck and cockpit floor. The weather this coming weekend looks great! Let the fun begin!