Hobo: A Rafiki 35: Spring Labors

As we learned two years ago, two coats of barrier coat is not enough. I've been sanding off the bottom paint since last fall. I would say I'm nearly done all the parts that can comfortably be done sitting, standing, or kneeling, without the sander being actually over head. The rest I'm going to try to use a chemical stripper on. I put a small amount on a test area and it plopped onto the ground some time in the middle of the night so I guess my attempt was premature and I have to wait for the temperature to rise a bit.

Seems like over the season we lost the anode off the prop nut. It also dug a hole into the rudder again so I think we might do away with this anode for now. We haven't totally decided on a course of action.

Also last season we had a terrifying day where we were motoring north into heavy winds and pretty decent chop crossing the mouth of the Potomac river, when we discovered that the anchor locker was basically open to the cabin. We took on a tremendous amount of water, but between manually bailing all day and running the bilge pump constantly we made it into port. Turns out the anchor locker is basically shot. The bulkhead was rotten and had a large hole in it, with only a film of wet wood and paint keeping the interior more or less separate. Below the floor of the anchor locker, the lower bulkhead was just a piece of plywood tabbed into place and could be punctured with a fingertip. It was where most of the water was going in. The drains were corroded away and a lot of water was going into the hull also. A full renovation is required.

Here's a sample of the cross piece that used to hold up the floor. It felt like a wet sponge and was easily crushed.

This shot is looking down at the interior hull under what had been the bottom of the anchor locker, the lower bulkhead being the rotten looking stuff on the right.

A different angle.

This is what the inside of the vee berth looks like looking forward, after we cut out the rancid old holding tank (time to go to a composting head). The paint is the only thing holding those bulkheads in place. The current plan is to sister them from the anchor locker side, and then eventually add a layer of starboard or something for cosmetic effect on the interior side.