Back from the dead

Another big day. We faired out Betty's hull, spliced on her partially missing rub-strip, and replaced her outer chines. Each was a bigger process that we anticipated, but each we accomplished without tears or swearing to any major extent.

This bizarre picture is the inside of one of the outer chine strips that we removed last weekend. If any piece of a boat was unlikely to be salvageable, it would be the outer chines--the first thing to hit when you hit. But damned if we didn't rescue 1.75 of the original two. This picture shows the inside of one of them--covered with rotted boat sides and paint and debris, glued on with a thick later of silicone. Fortunately a sharp chisel peeled this whole disaster off, and a bit of scraping and sanding brought out some fine, unrotted mahogany.

Anyhow, we faired out the hull with microlight and RR 2040--our new favorite resin. And scarfed on the piece of missing rub rail. Then the rehabilitated chines went on. Here is a shot of the jig that is about to pull on the new piece of chine as soon as it comes out of the steam bender.

And here we are awaiting steam bender, which has just about cooked a new piece of mahogany to perfection. It is nice to wait and watch from out here--far fewer volatile solvents in the air, even if it is approaching zero degrees.

And on it goes--fast, before the steam cools.

And now, no matter where you may bang on this hull with a hammer, the boat sounds solid, strong, and ready to go boating. We are desperate to paint her and roll her--but maybe breathing a bit of fresh air is a better idea for a few hours.