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.