Demolition finished

Spring is coming and I feel time pressure to finish started renovations.

To catch up with the schedule I came back to working in the evenings, after day work. Few hours here and there really make a difference - family life is not suffering when I disappear for a while and work is moving forward.

For the last few days I was struggling with removal of cockpit floor remainings. For a while I was planning to leave unaffected wood in place and patch the rotten part with new wood but then I decided that it really makes no sense. It is easier and quicker to build something new than to patch-repair, especially that I have enough oak and plywood to do this job.

So I went on and removed everything. It turned out, as usually, to be a good thing: brass screws holding everything together were already washed out from zinc hence brittle, with no holding power. That would not affect the structure much since, to my despair, everything was additionally glued with Sika.

Oh, how I hate this stuff!
It is not marine sealer. It is MARINE ADHESIVE! It surely has its place but NOT in structures which will inevitably be repaired at some point! And cockpit floor is definitely a thing which is being prone to wear thus needs to be replaced once in a while.

It’s not the first time I’m ranting about it. What I will use instead is Farm, International product. This is what we use in Europe since Dolphinite is not available here, unlike in States. This thing is basically rubber in liquid or cream state. It solidifies in contact with air but only on surface so it stays liquid if applied thick. This way it does its role in sealing cavities but it does not glue things together so removal of components is easy. That’s the beauty of traditionally built boats - they can last indefinitely because one can replace only these components which are worn out. Unlike fibreglass hulls which suck water like sponges and are basically one part.

Tonight I’ve finished removal of all remaining floor structures. What is left is to clean up Sika goop and some oak remainings. After sanding everything I will build new oak framing to accept new cockpit floor. This time all structure members will be sealed with epoxy so this should keep them dry and rot-free during my lifetime.

To ease up my work on this demolition I’ve modified angle grinder a bit. I followed Louis Sauzedde idea and after some tweaking with the tool (some copper washers etc) I was able to attache table saw blade to it. I’m not that cocky as Louis to remove the fence (I want to keep all 10 of my fingers).

This tool now is very powerful. I’m yet to master controlling it as it goes through whatever is thrown at it like through butter.

Good stuff!