Well I don't believe it but its happening right now as I write this. After leaving the relitive safety of the boat yard dock, and happy with the repairs and boat planks taking up, I went to anchor yesterday morning and spent a nice quiet night afloat. That is not going to happen tonight, as Catagory 1 Irene hit us at 1400hrs this afternoon! So what do you do on a Sunday afternoon in torential tropical rain, with wind gusting in the 60knt bracket.
Well I thought about seeing if there was a internet connection out here, and blow me I have a solid free connection.
So Yard Work pic's for you all to see.
Pic 1soon after my arrival in the yard I took off the Bobstay fitting and all the filler old and new out of the stem, then removed quite a bit of damaged wood, ready I thought to fit a new piece here.
I removed all the bolts, hoping to use them to secure the new piece inside, so cleaned this up ready.
Alas this was not to be. Shown in the bottom of this pic is the part were I had removed but not found the reason for the damage yet. So the saw had to come out! And deeper and deeper into the stem I went.
And I was finally left with a large piece of missing Stem, also 3 planks unfastened each side
different view of hole
Inside view of hole and frame ends I have cut back to good wood
The reason for all this work found.
Here is the upper stem scarf joint I removed, left is the broken frame end portside and left is the broken part right across the through bolt of the iron frame support.
Myself carving and shaping the first piece of new oak that would be joined to the lower stem.
Closeup of the bit of oak
First piece lower stem and second piece upper stem now all glued screwed and bolted together.
You can enlarge this to see it close up if your not bored out of your tree yet!
after fitting the interface piece between inner and outer stem laminations, the first three outside pieces were fitted
Half way through fitting the second set of laminations. there were 4 layers altogether, of 3/4" Oak
Inside the frame ends were joined the the new stem pieces and though bolted using bronze bolts, also in this pic you see the bob stay bolts and the stem through bolts
After fitting the planks back and the bobstay fitting, and fairing the laminations, the bow is ready to be calked and painted
All finished Yipee
View of the finished chain locker. I have fitted a lining now to protect the woodwork here.
So on this very windy night I will now post this to the blog, internet is running, wow, best I've had for a long while
enjoy the pics
Roy
