One of the problems I had was water coming into the boat.When I remove the floor boards I find that there had been a repair made to the joint between the centreboard case and the hull.
It is coming away easily, too easily... so I assume that is where the water is coming in.
I start to remove the old repair... and underneath it I find...
... another repair!So I chisel that away as it too is coming off...
And underneath it I find...
... another repair.
So I take off all the old repairs and then make a new fibreglass joint between the hull and centerboard case. It appears that they never roughened the surface, indeed the original repair had been over the paint on the hull, so it was not surprising that it had not taken.
This time I also wrap some wood in cling-film and wedge that against the joint so that as it hardens the new joint will be pressed against the original hull and centreboard... an idea suggested by Neil.
One of the problems with the water coming in was that it was difficult to get rid of it. The Andersen self bailers had no maintenance for some years and the rubber washers were solid.So they came out and I sent for repair kits. I was worried about this. Should I try a repair or replace the bailers totally. I opted for the cheaper repair kit.
When they arrived I found replacing the seals easy, but replacing the copper rivets difficult. I didn't have the correct tool so had to hammer them with a G-clamp holding the two parts in place. The nuts and bolts holding the bailers to the hull would hold them anyhow, but I did get the rivets to work eventually.
I had told Sue (my wife) it would only take a couple of weeks... how wrong I was. The boat ended up in our drive way for nearly 3 months. Eventually however she is finished and ready to return to the club for sailing this year.
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