Hatching Of The Wren: my A25 restoration thread

[nebulatech]

I've owned my boat for just under a year now. I'm starting to get her looking shipshape, at least enough to share progress pictures. Without further ado:

The head:

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Still a work in progress. I've plumbed the head to use both fresh water and raw water. The valve directly under the head is the selector valve. Aft is fresh water, forward is raw. The aft cutout provides access to the toilet discharge (via holding tank) and sink drain. The paneling around the head is stained okuome. The counter is sapele, and the sink is ivory solid surface material. New Whale Gusher Galley pump from UK.

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Still to do:
-make trim for the paneling around the head
-reinstall sink water spout
-re-veneer some spots
-build medicine cabinet where the electrical "panel" used to be
-outboard cabinet and seat lid rest
-install overhead grab rail
-make new head door

[Nancy]

That looks great! Love the sink.

[Dieselram94]

What material are you going to make the new head door from?
Looking awesome!

[motthediesel]

Gosh -- that's beautiful! Let's see some more....

[nebulatech]

What material are you going to make the new head door from?
Looking awesome!

Hmmm, the original head door was delaminating, but I kept it as a template. I actually pulled off the front and back panels because I thought I might be able to use them for sliding doors in the galley (no such luck). What was left was a mahogany frame with 4 lateral cross members, making 5 open sections. I was considering just making panels for those sections and repurposing the frame. On closer inspection, the sapele has a lot of blond sapwood in it, and I don't think it will work out. I am not yet 100% decided, but I think I will make a new frame and panel door from sapele. Either way, I'm pretty set on having top and bottom louvers. In preparation for this, I took a break from the boat to build a medicine cabinet for my kids' bathroom (out of local cypress) which has louvers. More work that I thought, but now I have the technique down:

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[nebulatech]

I don't know about your boats, but mine didn't have grabrails in the cabin, so when I replaced the rails on the foredeck, I made a matching set for the inside. Technically doesn't match on starboard. I'm finishing the grabrail for the head right now. I have bungs for the screw holes, but I'm painting the deck soon, so I left them out.

Rails are sealed with epoxy, finished with 3 coats of automotive urethane.

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[nebulatech]

Hand hold in head

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[Dieselram94]

Did you get the new head door made yet? Also what is your source for the sapele?

[DesertAlbin736]

That will be one sweet looking boat when you're done!

[nebulatech]

Did you get the new head door made yet? Also what is your source for the sapele?

I haven't made the door yet. Weather and family health issues have caused some delay in my plans, but the door is down on my list, behind painting the hull and deck and mounting the motor. Currently working on fiberglass repair of the topsides.

My source for sapele is through a local craftsman, who ultimately buys it from https://www.wurthwoodgroup.com/. (a former competitor of mine)

I recently bought a lot of 12/4 (read twelve quarter, 3" thick) sapele for making a new rubrail. This stuff was around $400, but the thick stuff costs more. I don't think Wurth is in your area, but you could just search for hardwood suppliers. You can get 4/4 (1") material which is surfaced and straight line ripped fairly inexpensively. Lumber is sold by the board-foot, which can be tricky to calculate. Basically, if the wood is 1" thick, then you just find the number of square inches and divide by 144. A 6" wide piece that is 8 feet long is 4 board feet. I don't remember what I paid, but I feel like sapele is probably around $6 - $8 per board-foot. I think I can make the door for around $100 - $150 in all hardwood.

[Dieselram94]

I appreciate the information. As you suggested Wurth is not in my area. I need to look in Portland area I think. Up the coast here is a lot less in the way of suppliers for just about everything. Can’t wait to see the door when you get it done!

[nebulatech]

Time for an update. I've been dealing with some family health issues since December, but as our situation improved, I'm moving forward on restoring the Wren. Most recent achievement is repainting the topsides. Since my motor will be an outboard with a custom bracket, I wanted to paint the boat first. I had to do a bit of fiberglass repair, including glassing in the exhaust. I chose to use vinylester resin. In a different thread, there was much discussion over polyester versus epoxy. One comment caught my attention above all others, that polyester resin doesn't form very good secondary bonds.

After doing some more research into vinylester, I reaffirmed that vinylester has excellent resistance to osmotic blistering, which is why it is used by most premium boat builders. It also forms good secondary bonds, and most important, when the weather is warm, you can sand it in a couple of hours. Vinylester is very similar to epoxy, but still uses a MEKP catalyst, and has a reasonably fast work time. The down side is it clogs sandpaper, so I went through a good bit of both 40 and 80 grit.

One of the big appeals of the A25, compared to other boats of similar vintage, is its reputation for a solid hull. HOWEVER, I found a few blisters and several "pre-blister" chips in the gelcoat on my boat. My boat's boot stripe followed the chine all the way to the bow, but this doesn't represent the waterline on my boat, so I had to sand off the boot stripe and a good bit of bottom paint down to gel coat. I found the blisters on the port side, and I have a pretty good idea that my boat grounded on a sea wall on the port side (info from the PO), so perhaps the two are related. If I hadn't sanded down to gelcoat, I would not have found the blisters. I'm mentioning this because about a year ago, one forum member posted about stripping the bottom paint to gelcoat. In my experience, most people don't go all the way to bare gelcoat unless they are going to barrier coat. In this case, I was able to remedy some blisters and put a thin barrier of vinylester on the affected areas before they got too bad. Again, my boat was severely mistreated in its past, so this may not be an issue for anyone else.

On recommendation from a friend who has restored several boats, I chose to use PPG products for repainting the hull. I used Amercoat 370 Pearl Gray primer (2 part polyester primer) and Pithane Ultra gloss topcoat (2 part linear urethane) tinted to Narragansett Navy (HGSW2361). The Amercoat primer is some rock hard primer. Very hard to sand if you put it on heavy, like I did. One day's turmoil is worth it. (I sanded with 120 grit. I'm used to using 320 grit for primers.) This stuff is used as primer on concrete and steel, as well as the channel markers by our local NOAA branch. The Pithane Ultra is submersion rated, and pretty good stuff. My friend also sprays Awlgrip when his customers require it, but he much prefers the Pithane. He showed me two smaller sailboats (19'-20'), one with Pithane and the other with Awlgrip. The Pithane hull has held up better going on 10 years. Plus its easier to use, and much easier on the pocket. Primer is about $80/gallon, including hardener, and topcoat is about $150/gallon. Standard acetone is used as a reducer and for cleanup. I used 1 gallon primer and 2 gallons topcoat (basically 1 gallon per coat). We'll see how the Wren holds up before I make an official endorsement.

Below are some pictures of the blister damage, and the hull with primer and topcoat.

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[tribologist]

I dont have first hand experience of repairing osmosis damage but I do have first had experience of poorly rolled out glass and voids. Some that I made myself... It certainly looks like regular voids. I don't think that it is possible to get the damage to look like that from osmosis based on any image I can find online but I might be wrong.... My guess is that Folke Svensson or whoever it was rolling that day had forgot to clean his finroller the day before and he was going over the hull with a regular paint roller.

[nebulatech]

I would be happy to be wrong about the blisters as well! I've never repaired blisters before, but I've seen the damage on hulls in various boatyards.

I have also made voids in glass, and when I first started uncovering the damage, I first thought the damage represented voids from the layup. But if my understanding is correct, osmosis creates voids in the resin, displaced by water. My boat's been on the hard for over a year, so no moisture was present in any of the damage. My assumption is that the water evaporated, leaving a cavity.

Above the boot stripe, the only similar damage was along the curve that's about 6 inches down from the deck. I had some voids collapse during sanding. That curve is a tricky place to get glass and resin during layup, plus it's far from the water line, so unlikely to be from osmosis.

Whether the voids below the boot stripe were created from osmosis or not, they appeared when sanding. It would probably just be a matter of time before water got it and made things worse.

You recently sanded your bottom. Did any such damage manifest during your work?

[WillieC]

Thanks for the paint info. Now if I can just remember where I read it when I get around to doing the topsides.