New life for Mizar - Refitting of a 1972 Contest 29

Backing plates

Another long job was to first understand what type of backing plates I should put and then make them.

At first I thought I would repeat the fiberglass cover without the backing plates like the old thoughulls were.

But after long hours and nights wondering and asking the web I have decided to make round backing plates made of marine plywood soaked in epoxy resin so this work should last for many years to come.

Having to instal a different inboard engine I had to take a lot of measures and adapt the rails so that the new (1972) engine could be placed.

I must say even though I took every possible measure and spent endless hours on it it still felt like a total guess. In the end it worked!
The new engine is longer so i needed to move forward the 2 steel rails (luckily someone placed those before me on top of the fiberglass mounts),

I had to get the iron worker to build some steel that would support at 45 degrees the tip of the rails that is no longer touching the fiberglass.

Hatches

The cabin hatches where leaking some water since long time so it was about to get them fixed.

It has been a really hard job since the stainless screws were stuck in the aluminium frame.
Some have to be drilled out some came off after many hours of wd-40 and attempts.

The old sealant was really hardened in some points and therefore retting the water in.
If I have to re-do a similar job in the future I would consider just applying epoxy resin from the outside of the hatch between glass, frame and fiberglass. much quicker and guaranteed result.

Hey! it's July!

Sooooo... it's been a long time since I have last updated this blog and a lot has happened since.

It's July! wasn't the boat going to be ready by June? not really... April and May have been the wettest (rainy) months ever! so no way for the hull to dry.
Now we had a month of heat and things have gone better and we are ready to start the epoxy treatment on the hull.

While in the last 3 months I have spent a lot of time on minor preparation works th main works have been done these last 3 weeks:

-Mast is up
-engine is in
-hull is under treatment

I will now resume the works in the nexts posts

Repainting the deck

This was a long due work to be done. Might be just esthetics but it makes a lot of a difference to me.

It took a lot of time and sweat to sand away the old layers of paint.

After the old paint was gone I have painted 2 layers of epoxy primer

...still drying

After 7 (winter) months out of the water the hull is still not ready for the epoxy treatment.

Humidity inside the fiberglass must be lower than 1% and at the moment there are some points at 3,4%. I hope May (and maybe June) will dry out that 3%.

Various little jobs

As I must wait for the hull to dry and the weather to get better in order to start the epoxy work I am going through all those little things that are to be done even though of secondary importance.

I am trying to help the drying with some plastic cover which I am not sure it will survive long to this season's strong winds but an attempt is worth trying as every morning the humidity keeps the hull wet up until noon when the sun's up and manages to keep it dry only for few hours.

I've been cleaning and greasing/oiling the winches...

Removing the old shaft bearing:

Playing around with electronics... now light and music are ON!

All lights are working on the mast. some of them are already LED the others will be replaced as soon as I know how much money (if any!) will be left;

There was a leak of rain water from the engine room lid... the sealing was "cooked" by the sun so I removed that and put a layer of epoxy resin before putting new UV resistant sealant: