Plywood and power tools...

[khiemtran]

This past weekend, I've been helping to overhaul some Mirror dinghies ready for the summer season...


First, we clean out all the dust and debris. Some of them look terrible when they first come out of storage.



Then we sand them down ready for varnishing.



Then we start fixing the leaks. Here we noticed that the plywood floor was flexing away from the buoyancy tanks at the side, so we've ripped up the fibreglass tape that used to hold it together. The fibreglass is that mesh-like substance you can see at the right side of the picture.



Another section where the floor has come loose. The bottom of the hull is just 4mm of marine ply, so there's not actually that much holding the crew up. Although even if the floor comes away completely, the buoyancy compartments at the side should still stay afloat.



Here's a view inside one of the buoyancy compartments. The key thing to note here is the little wooden block on the base of the compartment on the left. This is important because it will let us drive screws in from the left and from the bottom to hold the plywood together far better than fibreglass and glue. However, to find it from the outside, we need to drill lots of test holes, which will later need to be sealed. Also note that lighter coloured board on the right. That's actually a patch that was glued in place to repair a hole in the outside of the hull. We'll also have to replace that, and screw it in properly.



This boat is over forty years old and has seen a lot of wear. Every time you sand away some wood, it's not coming back...



A new coat of varnish makes it look a bit better, but it doesn't hide her age...



Since this is the winter break, there's something of a production line of Mirrors waiting to be refreshed. Everybody pitches in.



Three boats lined up in the afternoon sun.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful--great to see that an old boat can be made … shipshape :-) Even if, as you say, every little bit you sand away isn't coming back. I should show this to wakanomori--he's not a seaman, but he very much appreciates old things being taken care of--proper maintenance.

Do you do this work on your own, or does the family get involved?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

So far, it's been me on my own (with the other clubmembers), although Liem wants to help out too. He's been busy with fencing lately - more on that later...