Leak location, house-keeping procedures

Probably not the most welcomed activity but cleaning bilge is a must, especially before winter. Brushes and hose made the job quick but dirty. I removed cabin sole to let the boat dry - no need to sponge the bilge because we are still having +15 degrees during the day, she should dry slowly within few days.
Nice and clean. Remaining broken ribs will need to wait till spring or next winter - they are below floor timber which takes the load anyway.

I wanted to have bilge cleaning done quickly since this coming week I will start linseed oil application. I’ll do it the way Börje was doing with Kaika - take 50-50 linseed oil with turpentine, hang jugs with this solution on both sides of the boat and let it leak into the bilge slowly. Checking and re-filling once a week, until boat drinks as much as possible. Turpentine should take care of all germs in the bilge - in case they want to breed there.

It is a cheap and simple method to keep the wood in a good shape. Börje swears for it - and he knows the job - so I’ll give it a try for coming years.

Having cleaned the bilge I wanted to test if I can locate the stubborn leak on the aft part of the hull. I closed dyviken and filled the bilge with water up to the garboard plank. Then went outside, dried the hull from any spills and waited to see the leak. My bets were garboard seam or rivet plugs. To check engine-bed mounting screws would need filling the boat too high - dangerous for the hull.

After a long while I located the problem.

That’s not good news. I was really hoping it is garboard seam, repairing it would be easy. This leak comes from a joint between keel timber and aft post - they are connected with a massive knee inside the boat. It is there Meritaten takes water - slowly but persistently so that the pump starts once every 2 days.

I really need to get a copy of her construction plans. Or remove garboard plank to take a look.
Well, at least I know where the problem is. The gap between keel plank and aft timber is not normal - at least on new boat. Timber has moved during all years of service, possibly developed checks in some places - and so is the leak. Oil can improve the situation a bit but it will not make a miracle.

While there was still daylight I scraped flakes of paint on the ballast keel (where I installed lead plugs last year) and on the rudder.

Already last spring I noticed that the rudder will need work. That’s good because I wanted to have a good look onto the structure and “wooding” it now will give me best insight.

As a last thing I removed lifelines and stanchions, in preparations for valdeck gluing. I still wait for tools to start this job, might be that I will need to postpone it till spring if temperatures get low quickly. My epoxy needs at least 6 degrees to cure properly, 10 degrees would feel safer.

Time to sit down and do some proper planning. It is easy to think that we have 6 months ahead of us and that the job can be done in time. Experience tells me otherwise. Especially that some steps require proper process temperatures - and me too: working in -15 degrees can be painfully slow.