Are You Gonna Fiberglass That?

Its been nothing but work work work, both in the boats and in the job. I'm glad to be working now as to afford all the upcoming big expenditures. Someone once said that BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand. That's about right. Check out the beautiful mohagany wood that goes into the planks.

and white oak for the new frames. 

and marine plywood for the new deck.

I told you we've been busy. We have in fact replaced all rotten wood on the port side, from the fore deck to the aft deck. And that includes removing the nasty carpet that made up what we call the fiberglass sandwich. More about that shortly.

We went back to Me Voy on Easter, and it was a happy reunion, both with the her, and with our boatyard friend, Richard. Or, should I say with the great Captain Richard Griffiths, who had Soundings magazine just write up a story about him and Rosylin, his vessel, a turn of the century British fishing boat, converted into a yacht that Richard has lived on for the past 50 years.

Anyway, during our stay in Me Voy, we spent one evening telling Richard our wooden boat woes. He listened with beaming amusement, and only after Travis ended the tirade by saying "I'd like to kick that guy in the nuts!" (the guy who fiberglassed the entire deck of the boat), did Richard get real serious, and said "Well, well...you can't be too mad at him because at one point in time everyone thought that fiberglass was the solution to all wooden boat problems, and went around asking ,"Are you going to fiberlgass that?"Well turns out its not a good solution at all. This is what you find 10 years later under the laid glass. Ugh.

The wood anfd fiberglass removal went relatively quickly, as the fiberglass peeled off in large sheets. That's me removing the fiberglass, what a nasty job that was!

and once again Chopper was caught sleeping on the job.

So our repairs to Lucy Maru are going well. Our haulout is scheduled for May 28, which means we will be motoring to another marina, get put on a rail, get hauled out, and spend three days replacing screws, bungs, sanding, caulking and painting the bottom of our huge wooden boat. Is that really gonna happen?