How to Repair a Rotten Sailboat Deck, BEFORE THE WINDLASS RIPS OUT!!! Patrick Childress Sailing #48
This is a dirty job, and someone has to do it…DIY. Patrick Childress sets to work to take out the Lofrans Tigers Windlass that has pulled our anchor up for more than 12 years, and sometimes other objects too. The deck pounder the Windlass was showing signs of weakness, so rather than waiting for a problem, Patrick tackles it himself.
After the Windlass is out, he rips up the deck to find rotten coring, and a wet core. He digs out the coring, prepares the surface for fiberglass and epoxy, and take you step by step through the repair of making the deck solid fiberglass, sanding, fairing, and then on to priming and painting the deck. now the fiberglass deck is stronger than ever, and will take us to many more anchorages!
Thank you AMT Composites for all of your technical advice and for having just the right materials for all of our jobs on this big haulout in South Africa!
Patrick,
What I really appreciate about your videos is that you are fearless about digging in and going large! I am a DIY guy myself but when I saw your blister repair to the hull, I felt like I hadn’t been aggressive enough when i did mine.
Now the foredeck… wow! I watch some of the other boat repair youtube channels but they are always in a shop. You are showing it real! In the boat yard, dumpster diving, working in the sun.
I’m curious about your thoughts on two issues: Gelcoat vs topside paint
and how much chain/rhode you carry.
I have a similar sized boat with an extremely small chain locker. My manual windlass is mounted on top of my bow sprit with a single hawse pipe for chain. I carry two anchors but do not have a complete system in that I don’t have anchor line attached to the end of the chain for more scope and no line set on the backup anchor. I can’t see the line feeding through that hawse pipe on the primary. leaving the line on a spool and then attaching it to the end of the chain when I need it seems like asking for trouble, so I’ve been pondering what to do. 300 feet of chain is heavy and take up a lot of space, even if I am using 5/16 HT. I’ve heard your comments about carrying weight during a crossing, so I know you are taking that into account. So how much do you carry? How much do you normally use on average, and what is the most you’ve put out?
Thanks again for sharing your hard work in the videos. I’m always happy to see your posting notifications.
Take care,
John
First..you should check out this video we did a while ago… https://youtu.be/bRofFfb37eg
Next…if you could leave this comment (copy and paste it) on that video or any other so Patrick could see it that would be great. It’s hard for me to pass this on to Patrick to comment through this blog…it goes automatically to both of us in Youtube. I will try though.
We have 300+ feet of 3/8 inch chain from Maggi that we just put on. We used to have 275 feet of 5/16 but always felt that was too small for our weight,especially considering all the extra weight we have on here. Patrick made some modifications to the chain locker, hence why I recommend that video.
Also in regards to weight..yes..this new Maggi chain is heavier. We have gotten rid of our rusty big old CQR…and will try to replace it with an aluminum something or other I think…to compensate for the heavier chain. It’s a useless anchor though we would like a backup of some sort up there…when we find one to fit, and that is for sale around here somewhere!
Yeah..he really goes for it in his repairs. No fear. No worry. Scary sometimes! It’s not often pretty…but always very effective so I’m ok with that. He has however made some very pretty improvements inside in his spare time, which I very much like!
We normally try to anchor in 40 feet or less, in which case we put out 150-200 feet depending on expected conditions, bottom etc. We were forced to anchor in 100 feet a few times, and we put out about 250 in that case and stayed very alert. There is also the problem of what’s on the bottom…too much out, and we find we get so twisted in rocks on the bottom that we then have no scope anyways. So if there are a lot of rocks/dead coral down there, we often put out less, and set a good anchor alarm. I guess short answer,it’s always a little different. Perhaps when this filters it’s way to Patrick he will be more specific. (Or have a different memory all together of what we do 😉 )
Thanks, Rebecca
The linked video is another great resource. Thank you for that.
I knew you would have a clever way of dealing with the chain weight. That is something that I can do on my boat too.
I also have a CQR anchor which is a very good plow… like a McCormack plow the farmers used in the 1930’s. I have left many furrowed bottoms in a blow. I replaced it with an upsized Mantus anchor. I like the bolt together feature of that anchor. It breaks into two pieces that can be carried below and stowed flat. (plus in two pieces I can carry it by myself).
Your videos have given me ideas, solutions and options in just about every aspect of sailing. It helps that our boats are of similar size and configuration. I recently dove into OpenPlotter and OpenCPN based on your recommendations. I just wanted to let you know that your hard work and videos are very valuable and appreciated by many of us.
Hi Guys,
Where are you……. played around with the web site and still never found where you were???? Hope you are making lots of money out of the adverts. Anyway, glad to know you are still sailing and still dealing with problems……..
John’s tip of the week… All problems can be resolved by buying a new boat!
Mr. John VII is in Viveiro, NW Spain. Laid up for the winter. We are getting ready for another tour in the USA with truck and trailer.
Best wishes to you both. Take care.
Love John and Paula xx
https://whereisbrickhouse.com/see-our-track/
Then click on the first link if you want to see Prior to 2018
Or click on the second link if you want to see after 2018 to current.
We are in Richards Bay, South Africa, working on the boat in the yard here, and going on safaris with our Jeep! Glad to hear you are still having fun!
Really appreciate the compliment, and that you are watching our videos and reading our blog!