Alberg 30 Refit: Mast Support Beam & An Unexpected Tent Shelter Repair

Happy Easter to all!

I've been delinquent in posting perhaps, but there has been plenty of work going on. The weather has been a factor lately too. February/March are typically the worst months for weather and that held true this year. Although it has been unusually warmer, the mild days have been sporadic and not really consistent enough to start any epoxy or fiberglass work.

We had a severe line of thunderstorms that came through toward the end of February and caused quite a bit of damage to my boat shelter. I feel fortunate that this is all that happened because no more than 30 miles to the west several people were killed by tornadoes from those same storms.

After assembling the tent I knew that it would have to be secured by straps or it would be blown away. I intentionally did not design it as a permanent structure so I could avoid problems with the city code inspector. For over a year and through several storms it has worked quite well...until recently. This failed strap is what I believe caused my tent damage. At its worst, the storm winds kicked up to near-hurricane speeds for for a brief 10-15 min window. It was during this period that the strap broke.

This picture was taken the next day, after I had already moved the tent off the house. During the storm, once the strap broke the tent became airborne...or at least tried to. In an effort to move to the next town over, the tent bent and twisted the front half of the structure supports and buttressed up against the side of the house. It caused some minor damage to my gutters which was not too big a deal. The damage was minimal and could be repaired.  I will note that even with the failed strap, our Sal was kept dry for the most part. It took me a few days to get the bent pieces replaced and I am happy to report the tent is back up and stronger than before.

The boat refit is coming along slowly. I have been gathering pieces and making a plan but execution of said plan has been a bit lacking. Work and side projects have been taking up a ton of time as I have been running the ferry both days of every weekend to generate money for more boat parts. A valid excuse when one is refitting a boat on a budget. As the weather warms up I will have both the funds and the time to pick up speed...at least that's the plan.

Lately I've been working on the deck beam and now have it ready to go back together.

Here is the deck beam on my "Liner" Alberg 30 all sanded and awaiting additional support. 

I will lay new layers of 1708 biaxial cloth in these low spots before bolting in beam reinforcement.

Looking to the port side of the beam; not as many low spots but still a few.

Here is the new plate that will be the back bone of the reinforcement and repair.

I am using this router table to help shape the piece of 3/8 G10 board.

A nice 1/4 rounded edge, this stuff works just like wood.

New piece clamped into place for a test fit.

After plate is mounted I will add a 3" wide beam aft of it. This beam will support the aft part of the mast step.

The beam will be made of 8 pieces of 1/8" thick G10 laminated together to form the new beam. That gap seen is caused by the deflection in the cabin top from original damage. I was advised to leave the deflection and just build the new support off of it. The gap will be filled with 406 thickened epoxy.

Same gap to port

Once all of it is epoxied in place I will make gussets from the face of the original beam to the new bottom of the laminated beam.

If you are unclear about the repair stay tuned, I hope to have it done in the next few weeks and I will post pics of process and product as it comes together. Once the repairs belowdecks are complete I will begin the topsides of the mast step. Once I get  the mast step back together I will pick up on deck re-coring. Much work to do but looking forward to it.

Thank you for following!

Alberg 30 Refit: Re-coring Port Side deck (cont.)

The warm weather has continued here in the eastern part of the United States, which has enabled me to continue my boat work. I am really trying to get this side deck closed up before Mother Nature decides to bring winter in full force. I worked over the last few weeks preparing the exposed area of the port side deck. 

I picked up where I left off and cut the new Core-cell core. This stuff is super easy to work with. I laid all the core in place and marked it for the G10 board.

All the G10 board cut and ready, and in its final resting spot sandwiched between the inner and outer deck. I also beveled the edges of the old skin to provide a nicely prepped surface for the new fiberglass to grab onto to make a good strong joint and bond.

First mate and I had a few days off over Christmas. Outside temperatures soared close to 80! We took advantage and decided to lay in the new core. 

To prep the area for new core and G10 board we cleaned the entire area twice with acetone. Once cleaned we mixed straight West System resin with the 206 West Systems slow hardener. This mixture would give us ample working time with the warm temperatures. After we wetted out the entire area with the resin mixture we let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. During this time we starting mixing the West Systems resin with 206 and 406 Adhesive Filler. As with the lazarette area, we used this mixture to spread under the new core, bedding it into the existing deck.

Here is a piece of the new core all wet with epoxy waiting to be laid down.

After we had a all the core in and all voids filled with the thickened epoxy we applied the sandbags to weight it all down. This prevents the core from lifting and makes sure it stays conformed to the deck's contour.

The next morning, thanks to another day off, I got right to work sanding the cured epoxy and new core in preparation for new top layers of fiberglass. I did not get any pictures of the finished core but it took a good hour to prep it. After it was all prepped I began laying out and cutting the fiberglass.

I marked all the fiberglass pieces with a sharpie markers to help with the placement.

The second layer all cut and marked.

Close up of the new fiberglass laid over the previously damaged stanchion area (see previous posts for before pics of the damage).

A little trimming and tweaking was needed.

After wetting out the area completely I laid on the first two pieces of new side-deck top skin fiberglass.

All wet out with West Systems epoxy, showing the G10 and core.

Much better than what was there before and I would venture to say even better than new!

First layer with all air bubbles removed ready for next layer. You can see the G10 board I laid into the core for the jib track. This will provide strength and prevent water from leaking into the core.

The entire area with 2 layers of new 1708 biaxial fiberglass applied. I made sure to stagger the seams between layers. 

After letting the area set up for about 30 minutes, I applied a skim coat of the 407 fairing epoxy to help fill in the weave of the fiberglass. I thought this area of the deck was only going to need 2 layers to complete the new top skin. After a bit of sanding I now realize another layer of fiberglass will be needed. I am not sure I will get the additional layer on this winter but at least the area is all sealed up and can be walked on (we excitedly tested that out just this afternoon and were pleased with the results!)

Stay tuned! A surprise is in the works...

Alberg 30 refit: Lots of Holes & Rotten Balsa Core

Saturdays have been designated as "boat work day" by the first mate. She stays quite busy but has decided that on Saturday afternoons we will work on our Sal together.

Here she is poking out of the lazarette. Yoga training comes in quite handy on a sailboat- she fit in there quite nicely and helped get the fittings stripped off the decks.

Not too happy to have a photo taken :)

All the fittings and hardware have been removed from the lazarette area. This is the very aft area of the sailboat and looks very barren without anything attached. Its quite an accomplishment getting all hardware removed. There are no less than 84 holes through the deck in this small area.....84! Unfortunately all these holes through the deck led to water leaking into the core of the deck.

Here are the cheesy backing plates that secured all the rear hardware...most of them were so rotted and brittle they could be broken by hand...Just sad.

And this is what rotted core looks like. All that back mush is rotted balsa core.

I cut a very small area just to get started. Boy did I open a can of worms....this Alberg 30 is gonna be getting a new core...pretty much everywhere.

Closer look at the rot.

I cut a little further back....no surprise there.

This is a look at the underside of the top skin of the deck. What is surprising is how much of a fight it was to get off. While all the the core is wet, some of it is not quite rotten. 

A wider view of the work area

Still cutting and chasing wet core.

Even though this core is rotten, the deck will not just lift off after being cut...it's really hanging tough. It's going to be hard work removing all the bad material.

As the fiberglass top skin is being pried off it is cracking and separating...I am no fiberglass expert but this deck seems as though it was starved for resin...meaning not enough resin was used when the deck was originally constructed. I am not sure though; perhaps this is normal? If you are reading this and have some experience please feel free to leave a comment below.

All of the core on the port (left) side of the lazarette is saturated as well but the deck is very much still adhered. Prying the top layer has proven quite difficult so far.

I am not at all happy with how wet the decks are but as with everything else, I am not surprised. This area of the deck has always flexed quite a bit when I walked on it. I started back here because the area is small and seems to be in the worst shape. 

Stay tuned

Alberg 30 refit: Formulating a plan and gathering supplies

Summer is winding down, I am finishing up a few side projects and soon the very serious refit work will begin. This week I began to formulate a plan of attack for Salacia's topsides. I spoke with a few people throughout the week for some guidance on how and where to begin (thank you James, Neil , Matt and John). I always like to get different perspectives on how to approach things...especially things I am not 100% familiar with (e.g. fiberglass boat deck repair.) 

After speaking with these guys, I have come up with a plan. 

I will first attack the re-coring of our Alberg 30's deck. This will be a very time-consuming job. I will add many improvements to the coring so hopefully this will be a once-in-my-lifetime job. I will add some structural support at the mast base throughout the deck, especially where the deck will see heavy forces applied to it.  

I am hoping to get started on it in the coming weeks.

I have to keep looking at the great pictures of our time sailing Sal to remind me why I am doing this!

Approximately two years ago her decks looked 1000% better than they do today.

This was taken this afternoon. We now have about 90% of her decks stripped of fitting, nuts and bolts. By next week we should be at 99.9% 

Removed the inner jib tracks, and I was amazed at just how easily these came off. I figured they'd put up more of a fight, but I'm thankful they didn't. They were so easily removed that I can now see how water had penetrated the bolts and holes in the deck to saturate her deck core. 

I am sure this is the first time these tracks have been removed in all of Sal's 44 years.

The gathering of supplies:

I have begun to gather the supplies needed to start her refit. I have known for some time that epoxy would be used in every project, especially the decks. Over the last few months I have started to stock up on West Systems epoxy. This epoxy is used throughout the boat building and repair industry. It is so easy to use that even I have been able to figure it out. There are many other brands and I am sure they all work great but I have chosen West Systems because so many people consider it idiot proof and I can buy it at a pretty good discount. I think I have enough to get me started making a mess! 

I gathered up some core material as well. I recently bought six 2ft x 4ft sheets of end grain balsa core. This is what was used originally to core the later-model Alberg 30's decks. It is the same balsa wood material used to make model airplanes. While it seems flimsy in model airplanes, when cut perpendicular to the grain balsa wood is actually quite strong. I was surprised when I first learned this. I had considered some other waterproof types of core material but they were just too expensive. I believe if I am careful and take appropriate measures I can make the deck 100% waterproof.

While I am nervous about cutting open the decks of my Alberg 30, I am very anxious to get started on the next step of the rebuilding process. Looking at her deck and hull completely stripped down has me feeling a bit glum and worried about the scope of the work ahead.

Be sure to stay tuned.