Zen Zero
New member
Flying to Thessaloniki next week, Ryan Air with only hand baggage and renting a car to get me to the Ionian coast. The other owner is driving down with his wife, daughter, small grandchildren, a box of bits, a new second-hand mainsail, power tools and a vacuum cleaner. I'm going earlier to get a head start because I have to be back in Rome the following Thursday.
Our boat is old and made of plywood, and if anyone wants to buy it, no offer will be ignored. You're also welcome to borrow it, send me a PM. It has the advantage of being already there in paradise!
Here's what we need to do:
Fix hole in hull - put there by the "yard" who took our money for slipping, storing and refloating last winter and, incredibly, this winter too. The slipping technique involved an ancient Unimog and an HGV trailer modified to suit its new role as a launching trolley. Our poor boat was balanced on wooden blocks on this contraption and rolled down a slipway using the Unimog's brakes, unfortunately the trolley went over a bump and the boat fell off its blocks, a sticky-out bit of trolley went through the hull. I turned up early for my 8am appointment and found my boat half in half out the water stinking of polyester and a sheepish yard hand sheepishly admitting to what had happened - the boss was off sorting something else out while the resin dried but when he came back he assured me he would have told me about it even if I hadn't caught them in the act; and that was the best way of fixing holes in hulls that he knew of - he fixes all his own boats that way (he rents them from a beach not far away during the summer). So to cut a long story short I've got this hole in my boat, forward under the bed at the sharp end and below the waterline, patched Greekly with polyester.
My plan is to sand away the lump of splintered wood and polyester with a belt sander, (with a mask on and a vacuum cleaner sucking for all it's worth), and the area around it up to one hole's width all round, back to bare wood, cut a square of 11mm okume ply 3 times the diameter of the hole and glue it over the hole with epoxy resin inside the hull. On the outside I don't plan to do anything more than fair the polyester and glass repair, fill any dents with epoxy filler and paint over it with white yacht paint and then anti-foul.
The co-owner will want to put a patch of glass cloth and epoxy over the plywood patch on the inside and over the repair on the outside, but I am not convinced of the need to do this.
Once the hole in the hull has been repaired, I'd also like to remove the deck hardware from the starboard side (I did the port side the year before last) and make good any rot with off-cuts of ply and epoxy filler before painting and then bolting everything back on again (the toerail coamings will need screwing). I also need to do a bit of repair to the gunwale aft on the port side by the cockpit. It's all stuff that requires bits of plywood, epoxy and clamps.
We're an hour's drive North of Preveza.
Is there anything I'll need that I can't get in Preveza or Lefkas? Anywhere else in those parts where boaty bits can be acquired?
I've already bought Italian epoxy resin and filler because I'm used to working with it, I know it works and I like it; besides this, by way of material I'm going to need white sealant for when I put the deck hardware back, paint, an assortment of nuts bolts and screws, sanding belts, solvent (acetone), rags, ... what else?
All advice will be gratefully received!
Thanks
Our boat is old and made of plywood, and if anyone wants to buy it, no offer will be ignored. You're also welcome to borrow it, send me a PM. It has the advantage of being already there in paradise!
Here's what we need to do:
Fix hole in hull - put there by the "yard" who took our money for slipping, storing and refloating last winter and, incredibly, this winter too. The slipping technique involved an ancient Unimog and an HGV trailer modified to suit its new role as a launching trolley. Our poor boat was balanced on wooden blocks on this contraption and rolled down a slipway using the Unimog's brakes, unfortunately the trolley went over a bump and the boat fell off its blocks, a sticky-out bit of trolley went through the hull. I turned up early for my 8am appointment and found my boat half in half out the water stinking of polyester and a sheepish yard hand sheepishly admitting to what had happened - the boss was off sorting something else out while the resin dried but when he came back he assured me he would have told me about it even if I hadn't caught them in the act; and that was the best way of fixing holes in hulls that he knew of - he fixes all his own boats that way (he rents them from a beach not far away during the summer). So to cut a long story short I've got this hole in my boat, forward under the bed at the sharp end and below the waterline, patched Greekly with polyester.
My plan is to sand away the lump of splintered wood and polyester with a belt sander, (with a mask on and a vacuum cleaner sucking for all it's worth), and the area around it up to one hole's width all round, back to bare wood, cut a square of 11mm okume ply 3 times the diameter of the hole and glue it over the hole with epoxy resin inside the hull. On the outside I don't plan to do anything more than fair the polyester and glass repair, fill any dents with epoxy filler and paint over it with white yacht paint and then anti-foul.
The co-owner will want to put a patch of glass cloth and epoxy over the plywood patch on the inside and over the repair on the outside, but I am not convinced of the need to do this.
Once the hole in the hull has been repaired, I'd also like to remove the deck hardware from the starboard side (I did the port side the year before last) and make good any rot with off-cuts of ply and epoxy filler before painting and then bolting everything back on again (the toerail coamings will need screwing). I also need to do a bit of repair to the gunwale aft on the port side by the cockpit. It's all stuff that requires bits of plywood, epoxy and clamps.
We're an hour's drive North of Preveza.
Is there anything I'll need that I can't get in Preveza or Lefkas? Anywhere else in those parts where boaty bits can be acquired?
I've already bought Italian epoxy resin and filler because I'm used to working with it, I know it works and I like it; besides this, by way of material I'm going to need white sealant for when I put the deck hardware back, paint, an assortment of nuts bolts and screws, sanding belts, solvent (acetone), rags, ... what else?
All advice will be gratefully received!
Thanks
