Tanzer 16 seat repair continues --making the patch

Tanzer 16 seat repair continues --making the patch  -- October 29, 2015  With the bad material removed, it's time to start putting the seat back together.  The first item was to glue some of the detached small blocks back into the bottom of the seat where it meets the vertical wall of the seat.

The small blocks that fell out were slathered up with a
thickened mixture of resin and clamped to the underside
of the seat.  When the glue set up, the seat was already
stronger.

A piece of thin, 1/8-inch plywood was cut--4 inches longer and 2 inches wider than the the hole.  It needed to be thin so it could be drawn up to the hole by shop-built clamps.

Two layers of cloth were laminated to the plywood.  One was cut straight, the other was cut on the bias--which probably didn't make any difference, but it couldn't hurt.  After the epoxy resin set up, some 1/4-inch bolts were inserted and tightened up.  These will hold the clamps.

Thickened epoxy was added to the edges of the patch.  After inserting it into the hole, the plywood strips went on the bolts.  They were tightened up and the patch was pulled up tight against the bottom of the seat.  With the clamps removed the patch was quite secure.

The bolts dropped down into the seat where they will
probably rust  Wish I used stainless.

Small blocks of plywood went on top of the patch held in place by thickened epoxy.  The level of the patch is now below the finished level or the seat.  This will leave room for the matt glass top of the patch to bring the whole think back up the level of the top.

Since the boat is still out in the "Covered Bridge" it needed a little heat to help the epoxy set up.  A small space heater set on low worked nicely.  The cardboard is just to contain the heat.

Next:  Building up the top with matt.

Tanzer 16 Seat Repair -- a bad idea poorly executed

Tanzer 16 Seat Repair  -- a bad idea poorly executed -- October 24, 2015.  Back in the spring of this year an fiber optic camera revealed the cause of sound and excessive oil-can movement in the seat.  It had a crack.  It seemed like someone must have dropped something heavy and hard in that spot--but actually it was the combination of a less-than-swell design that was executed badly.  Maybe the workers had smoked a lot of weed at lunch--it was after all Arlington Washington in the 70's.  But this crack started back at the plant with the construction of seats.

They built the seats and forward air chamber  as one piece.  The mold was laying top down.  They sprayed on gelcoat.  Then they put in a layer of chopper glass--a thin layer--a thin layer without enough resin to thoroughly wet the surface.  Then they laid a number of small blocks of plywood on top of the wet resin.  The resin was supposed to be the glue that held the small blocks in place.  Then they put more chopper glass on the backs of the small blocks.  You can see all this when you cut out a section of the seat.

An oscillating saw cut a small hole in the seat.  As the damage revealed
 itself, the hole was enlarged to remove all the cracked pieces.  The builders
dumped in a load of small foam blocks for flotation.

With section of seat removed, you can clearly see the construction details and why it failed.  Mickey mouse as it was, this design would have worked if the builders used enough glass and enough resin between the gel coat and plywood blocks.

Here you see the three blocks that were never glued to the
top layer of chopper gun.  At the first stress they just let
go and pulled the surrounding blocks with them.

The total damage was about twice as big as the hole in the seat.  

The small blocks were probably used so that the plywood reinforcing material would conform to the curve of the seat without  a lot of fussy fabrication.  Nowadays it would probably be laid up with some fancy foam for reinforcing.  If they had built the seats for strength, they probably would have skipped the plywood and hand laid-up two layers of roving on top of the first layer of gelcoat and chopper glass. But that would have added substantial cost and weight to the boat.  Goodness knows the boat is heavy enough already.  At the very least they should have staggered the placement of the blocks so the seams didn't line up so neatly.

Next--putting it back together.

Tanzer 16 -- New Tiller (the second one)

Tanzer 16 -- New Tiller (the second one)  --  October 22, 2015  --  The boat came to us 2 1/2 years ago with a cracked tiller, and I made a new one that was pretty much an exact copy of the old, cracked piece of teak.  That design left something to be desired.  It rubbed on the after deck, and it was difficult to attach a hiking stick.  So instead of sticking to the hull repair and painting like I should have, a new tiller came out of the shop.  It pretty much matches the original design  in the Tanzer plans, but it's three inches longer--hopefully forcing me to put more of my weight forward on upwind legs.

Luckily our local Home Depot now carries mahogany.  After spending weeks looking through the Habitat Restore, no mahogany came in so I plunked down fifty bucks for a board.

Started with an oversize template on cardboard and cut
the matching pieces out with a band saw.

Then they were glued back to back so the slight warp
would cancel itself out.  Once they were glued with 10
clamps I used the table saw jointer, hand plane etc to
achieve a taper and fit into the rudder socket.

Old and new side-by-side.  Now for some sanding and
marine varnish.

I have cut out the broken part of the seat.  In the next post we will look at the construction details and the manufacturing screw-up that led to the seat crack.

Tanzer 16 Painting -- the rubrail arrives

Tanzer 16 Painting -- the rubrail arrives  --  October 17, 2015 --  You can buy rubrail on-line direct from Taco.  Or you can buy it at your local West Marine dealer for about the same price.  The advantage with West Marine is that they don't charge for shipping--on line shipping costs money. A lot of money for such a skinny piece of aluminum.  If you want the trim un-cut, in 12-foot sections instead of eight-foot, they charge an extra $150.  Even with UPS-friendly eight-foot sections, the shipping is a significant cost.

It only comes in 12-foot sections.  You will need four of them.

West Marine sent my 12-foot trim in a 22-foot box.  Thankfully I have a truck and some bungee cords--and a little bit of rope--and a short, low speed ride home.  After all, you wouldn't want to bend your $290 dollars worth of trim.  I think that does not include the screws; you will need about 90 of them. (Once I asked Brian Mrachek, T #1460* in Florida what his total refurb cost.  He said he didn't keep track, and he didn't want to know.  If he didn't know how much he spent, his wife would not know either!)

It is a long, skinny, floppy package.

Still working on the seat--more later.  *See Brian's total refurb in the pages section.

Tanzer 16 Painting -- Centerboard removed

Tanzer 16 Painting -- Centerboard removed -- October 10, 2014  It doesn't seem all that big when you are looking at the plans.  They say the centerboard is 48 inches long.

But when you pull it out, it looks like a pretty serious piece of aluminum.

This board won't need a lot of work.  There is a collection of dings on the leading edge.  Some came from the trailer, others, near the bottom, tell me I'm not the first guy to ground it.  Mostly it needs a bit of time with a file and some polishing to remove some signs of a few barnacles that have been removed.  Apparently the boat spent some time stored in the water-- but nothing like my C-Lark that was covered with barnacles.

Tanzer 16--Painting--hardware removed

Tanzer 16--Painting -- hardware removed -- October 12, 2015 -- Before painting, all the hardware has to come off the boat.  Mostly one limber person can do this by themselves, but it takes a helper to reach the fittings deep in the corners.  Tony came by Saturday to help with the spinnaker sheet turning blocks and other little pieces in the far aft corners.  He turned the screws from top side while I crawled into the lazarette with a flashlight and collection of small wrenches.  All that's left to come out is the centerboard. We won't be messing with the chain plates or the stemhead fitting.

It shouldn't be surprising--but it is.  Once you remove the thwart and centerboard cap, you are left with really fragile centerboard trunk.  If we were doing this again, I would leave it till last.  It's been kind of fun to see how the boat was put together.  The hull was laid up.  Then they glassed in the seats and forward air tank.  The deck was attached with pop rivets.  The builders made extensive use of mahogany plywood between layers of glass.  Nowadays I suppose they would use some kind of Airex foam.  My only complaint is that the seats flex a bit too much, and our starboard seat is cracked inside so we will have figure out a repair before we can proceed with painting.

The top of the centerboard trunk is one thin sheet of chopper glass.  Don't
lean on it.

The boat looks a lot bigger with all the deck fittings removed.  Maybe more so on this boat! Because of the gin pole mast raising system, a few extra mooring cleats, and a lot of spinnaker fittings, the deck sprouted like mushrooms on a spring lawn.  To keep track of all that stuff we made pictures of the deck and cockpit.  The fittings went in plastic bags with numbers keyed to the pictures.

You could probably figure out where everything went without the little "map"
but this should make it easier.  

.



















Since we had to take everything out anyway, we are doing a few improvements to deck brace for the king post--rounding the edges, painting, adding nylon sleeves to the holes for halyards.

The whole gin pole mast raising system has worked really well.  Now when
the crew gets to the marina, the mast is up, the boat is rigged and ready to go
into the water.  The next morning, I take the mast down by myself.  It takes
about 45 minutes, but it is easy and the mast is never out of control for even
a second.  Running the halyards down through the deck and back to the
centerboard has made it easy to single hand.

Next steps:  Remove the centerboard, take off the stickers, and start the deck and hull repair. Probably time to start thinking about colors.

Tanzer 16 -- Getting started on repainting -- king post

Tanzer 16 -- Getting started on repainting -- king post  -- September 23, 2015  --  Right after our last race at the end of August, we pulled the boat and began stripping off the hardware.  The plan is to repaint this winter.  A couple of days ago I pulled out the king post (see page:  Gin Pole Mast Raising System.)  For 40+ years people have been drilling holes in the bottom of the mast, and it was getting pretty beat up.  So--just for grins--I decided to fix it up and paint it.  It would have worked just fine, but didn't look so fine.

The holes are for the boom vang and centerboard lanyard.  The penciled circles
show where the new holes will go.

Filled the old holes with JB weld in the putty stick.  Then sanded everything
with 60 grit, then 120.

Then added four coats of Rustoleum Hammerite.  Looks
pretty good.  Too bad most people will never see it.