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Delaminating Bilge Board

Started by RogerH, August 14, 2021, 07:12:11 PM

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RogerH

This was ?crunch time? Would I be able to drive the pin out? Drascombes have a groove round either end of the pin a little way from the end, to help retain it athwartships ? if this were the case with the Winkle Brig, I might need to exert a bit more force that possible in such a confined space. As it was, no shoulder on the pin and it came out very easily.

I went back underneath and gingerly began to back off on the jack supporting the board, but it?s quite light at that end ? no need to worry ? and I lowered the board by hand, anticipating I would be able to lower the forward end to the ground and then slide it out underneath the trailer.

This is where things went a little awry!

As the forward end of the board went down, the aft end went up and came into contact with the top of the casing. The trailer crossbeam stopped me from getting the board far enough forward to pivot it further, so it?s not coming out that way!

The solution I can see is to support the front of the boat and remove the crossbeam with the forward rollers from the trailer. The boat will be well supported at the aft end and unable to topple. That way I?ll have a clear space to draw the board out forwards.

T seems a bit drastic to start dismantling the trailer, but I can?t see any other way. However, some of you may have done the same thing and found a better solution ? anyone got a solution to dropping the board out of the boat while on the trailer?

RogerH

Done it! The board is out. Fuller post and pics to follow. Apologies for all the question marks in these posts - fir some reason apostrophes and dashes are not recognised.

If the mods are watching, would you like me to write this up as an article? Once I have gotten the board back in and Jeny hasn?t sunk, of course!

David Bone

Congratulations, well done, I bet you feel better now.

RogerH

Sorry for the delay in the next episode! Busy weekend and week.

So I got the board out. As previously mentioned, I couldn't rotate the board far enough down-wards to draw it out of the slot forwards, since the back end of the board came into contact with the top of the casing before the front end was low enough to pull out uinderneath the trailer crossbeam. The answer was to remove the crossbeam! I was a bit nervous to do this, but looked at and thought - well it's just a couple of steel tubes and a u-bolt.

I suppoerted the front of the boat with jacks, used a sharpie to mark the crossbeam and the frame of the trailer to show where it needed to go back, and got to it.

It came off fairly easily - and the board was easy to slip out forawrds after that. The weight of the boat deforms the trailer slightly and the crossbeam was holding that in place, so once I got the beam off, the trailer moved about 6mm. On replacing the crossbeam afterwards, a bit of persuasion with the rubber mallet while inserting the u-bolt did the trick.

So now I have the board out and the trailer re-constructed, it's time to break out the grinder (and goggles, proper respirator, gloves, long-sleeved garment and masking tape to seal the gloves to the sleeves - yes, I have ground grp before, lol!)

Barend Nieuwendijk

Hi Roger,

Thanks for this well detailed repair story.
Although my WB (122) has the outside pins, your sawing-operation gives a good sight of the inner of the WB.

Greetings Barend

RogerH


RogerH

General question to all - which fibreglass supplier do you use? I need to start thinking about buying some CSM, woven rovings etc. - does anyone have and info on who to use? Thanks :-)

RogerH

#22
I've had a go at the board wih the trusty old grindeer - as I suspected there's a mild steel plate in the lower half.

I need to cut back to where the grp is still bonded to the glass, then grind a chamfer into the edge - about 6:1 should be fine - then build the glass back up. The thickness of the laminate is around 8mm, which might create quite a bit of heat while curing, so I'll do it in at least two stages, waiting for the previous application to be at least part-cured before applying the new layer.

If I do this while the old layer is still plastic, but not tacky, I'll still get a good chemical bond. At least, that's what I remember from my brief time at Prout Catamarans more than 20 years ago!

If there are any grp gurus out there, please feel free to weigh in with advice! Please? Pretty please? It was a long time ago I last did any glasswork!

EDIT: Obviously I'll grind the steel back to bright metal before priming with a coat of epoxy.

John Burton

I use East Coast Fibreglass Supplies. They are very competitive price wise and dispatch very quickly. I have always been very satisfied with the quality of their products, hope this helps.

RogerH

Thanks John. I discovered them yesterday, sadly _after_ the cutoff to receive items by today. Unfortunately what I order today would not get here till Monday - just a bit of bad timing. They do come well recommended from many sources and I will use them without doubt next time!

Just a heads-up then for anyone else planning on using them - there's no weekend deliveries - order before 1pm for next day delivery, Friday will get you a delivery on Monday.

I must admit I hadn't anticipated any difficulty in buying GRP supplies, living on the south coast as I do, but it's proved impossible to find a local supplier where i can just go and buy stuff over the counter - well, it _is_ over 20 years since I last tried! One ex-supplier mentioned COSHH as an issue - which of course is a good thing but I hadn't thought far enough ahead.

I'd hoped to re-glass the board this weekend - I'm now searching for any supplier I can drive to on Saturday morning!

Does any of you know of a supplier in or around Sussex where I can buy over the counter? Worth a try!

RogerH

Again, for info:

https://www.cfsnet.co.uk/index.html

CFS in Redruth were able to arrange a (more expensive) delivery via courier on Saturday - for certain items only (CSM, rollers and brushes were OK, but perhaps resin and large stuff might not qualify). It cost a bit more than I'd hoped but I can get the job done over the weekend - cost benefit analysis and all that!

Note to self - do not assume you can do things at the last minute! Amazon Prime don't do GRP supplies very well...