Core is Cleared!

 June 2, 2017

Friday after work. We must be insane because we met at the house, grabbed a cooler of water and headed to the Yellow Bird to get in a couple of hours of labor. Truly I had intended to go one day after school (did I mention I am a teacher?) but the end of school year craziness has begun so I did not get a chance. Honestly, I was looking forward to it all day.

And yet, after two hours…it appears as if I barely touched the rotten core.  Shawn worked on the stripe on “my” side of the boat and he has it almost completely removed.  Slow going now. But we are steady plugging away.

Saturday

Slow, slow, slow going on the rotten core. Or maybe I am impatient! Before starting, we reconfigured the supports because we wanted to make sure that everything was as stable as possible. We added two more lines of support (one of each side) to the middle supports.

We worked steadily on the removal and are almost finished. We had some conversations about the plywood which is around the perimeter because some of it is actually still in quite good shape. We decided that if it is dry and secure we are going to leave it. Not so for the few areas on the deck where the balsa wood is actually dry and in good shape. It had to come out for the recoring. 

There were several “stubborn” areas which Shawn actually had to remove because I flat-out could not.  Shawn cut the edge of the plywood around the perimeter so that I could pry the wet part off and keep the dry part which is under the perimeter decking that we left on. I like to work barefoot (despite Shawn’s concerns…I just hate shoes) and there were several screws protruding into the flybridge. Shawn wanted to remove them, so he went below to do so. He discovered there is actually another layer between the flybridge deck and the salon ceiling. Apparently the wiring for the overhead lights in the salon runs through this layer… Odd. We are hoping we never have to replace that wiring because we are not sure HOW we would get to it.  At the end of the day, we have JUST the plywood sections to remove tomorrow. And the stripe to finish...

After arriving home, we spent a relaxing couple of hours trying different recipes for the “Yellow Bird” cocktail for which the boat is named.

Sunday

Shawn had to work (at his real job!) this morning so I went to the Yellow Bird to get started. I began the remaining deck removal and it went very quickly. The plywood is scored and there seems to be a bit of a pattern of one wide, then two or three narrow. I used my chisel to begin, then I used the crowbar to remove whole sections of the scored plywood. Easy, peasy but it does take some upper body strength! My arms, shoulders and back ached after a couple of hours. The corner sections still gave me a fit so when Shawn got there mid-day, he again used the cutter the cut the plywood between the perimeter and the deck. (I had been able to use my chisel to “cut” in other areas, but not those dang rounded corners!).

Then I had to remove the rotted wood from under the perimeter fiberglass that we left. I found the awl  worked best but to be honest I used any and everything to reach under and pry, pull, push, and otherwise manipulate the wood that was under it except for the spots where the wood's integrity was not compromised. This I simply left, so we do have some sections where we will not have to replace the wood.

Hmmm…while I was finishing on the flybridge, Shawn began examining the doors from the cockpit to the salon. They had been wildly uneven and he had put a jack under the floor to brace it, but now he decided (?????) to remove the doors. An unexpected turn of events. He actually intended to only remove the teak trim to take home for us to sand and oil, but….I am actually (okay…maybe just a little bit) happy he decided to remove them because the wood under the door frame was rotten so we (Shawn) will be replacing that before we put the doors back in. AND we will paint the doors frames 

as well since they are off!

When we got home, I received my reward for lots of work done of a boat ride in our Carolina Skiff just to feel the sun on my face and the salty sea air and water sprays as we puttered around for an hour just enjoying the beautiful day. It has been a weekend of sunny cloudless skies, no humidity and 80 degree temperatures! And I was on a boat! (in a boatyard for most of it!). I felt rejuvenated when we got back to our dock.

So Shawn sanded the teak trim and swim platform and I applied the teak oil. Our version of an assembly line.

So at the end of the day…the flybridge deck core is removed…the doors are removed…the teak is removed…can we start putting her back together yet???