Pylasteki

Pylasteki is a 1961 Pearson Triton sailboat. She is one of my personal project boats... I am rebuilding her as a blue water cruiser.

Enjoy, if you have any questions or comments, drop me line: rocknrod@gmail.com

Zach

Monday, August 18, 2008

Ewww! Balsawood smells like gym socks!


I bought a plastic boat to get away from rotten wood. Ha!

My starboard bulkhead is rotten from a leaking chainplate. I did some excavation work and here are the results... Started out with a crusty spot about the size of a quarter. Both the outer plys were in great shape, the inside varied from dust behind the fiberglass to thoroughly separated charcoal chunks. The more I dug around, the more rot was found. Finally I hit fiberglass and air on the other size, but only in a space about the size of a penny. Yikes!

She sounded the same hammering around all the bulkheads... Maybe next time I buy a boat I'll break out the drill for some core samples! Nevermind that, just chalk it up as learning. Still would have bought Pylasteki, no choice! I think boats choose their next caretakers, not the other way around... Almost like cats, except in this case... the boat is Alf.





Oh my... What a lovely water tank you have. Well not really, its a leaky fiberglass tank that used to be buried behind three pieces of plywood. Screwed, nailed, and fiberglassed in place. Everything came out in reusable shape, except for a few screws and a batten or two. I like not having to co-ordinate my stepping/head banging motion to enter the for'castle/v-berth/pointy end... (To many styrene fumes this weekend... )

Now I can get to most of the fiberglass tabbing on the bulkhead, but not all. The little shelf on the starboard side came out after much head scratching and contortion. (It is times like these when being short is a plus...) Cut the fiberglass tabbing off the top side and went to pulling. Found that there were a few well placed screws. Hmm... Out came the hand saw (Gotta love a Japanese pull saw...) and soon the shelf was in bite size pieces. Shoulda made a pattern before doing that, but the port side is still there! Hope the hull is symmetrical, enough... (Grin)

In other news, New Balsawood smells like gym socks. On the drive down I kept wondering what the offensive odor was in the car... It wasn't me, this time. However, after some deductive reasoning and sniffing around, I've come to the conclusion that balsawood... smells funny. With four hours and change each way to enjoy the aroma, I'm wondering about this... Why does this wood, smell like a stinky old tennis shoe? It just seems wrong...

In addition to demolitions down below, the stantions are off the cored part of the deck. As well as the jib and genoa tracks. This is an interesting job to do alone, with no vice grips. If you take a thin strip of duct tape and loop it through the box side of a 6 point wrench, you can jam it on the nut, run up on deck and lock the wrench against the hull before it falls off. In theory anyway... (Grin!)

Only had to drill out one screw! With no lifelines I questioned my sanity... sitting on a 13 inch wide side deck, legs hanging over the side, pulling up on a genoa track, pushing down on a drill... Saying, I hope it doesn't pop loose suddenly! In the voice of Billy Crystal... "Your only mostly dead... No swimming for you!" (Princess Bride)

Most of the Jib Track bolts snapped off... The other side was a repeat performance. I was elated... that the sheaves were toast and I never tried to use them.



Curse Pearson for the wood screw into the galley bulkhead! I had spent quite a few moments looking at my rotten galley wondering how water got there. Now I know. The bow rail is still in place, because until i finalize the Dinghy design (Mark 3 at this point...) I can't get off the boat without it, unless I fancy a swim. The rail provides that last hand hold to hop down onto the starboard chock. This is a picture documenting high high tide. The tri-monthly nature of my fiendish boat demolition/refit causes this event to be under the cover of darkness more often than not...


Hey man, moooove that barge, I wanna go sailing! It has been almost a year since my last sail. I am going through withdrawals. Boats are floating around my brain... sketches are coming out my ears. (In a metaphoric sense... they are overflowing...) Crosby Stills and Nash, Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley are emitted from my radio. Nevertheless, She's looking pretty sweet without all the deck ornaments... Wonder when someone will invent invisible lifelines? Or I acquire the ninja skills to carry a a live drop cord aft without fearing for my life...


Even that lens flare/ghost is checking her out... Yes, the bow pulpit is tweaked and it bugs me too. The docking prowess... 3 pilings and a concrete bulkhead wall. Dock lines are never long enough!

Ah yes the Styrene, I've discovered the joys of polyester resin for making molds. (VW bus intake manifold construction...) In a spare moment, between the rest of the demolition I took a moment to pop some molds off the aft deck to delete the hump behind the traveler, and the mount for the stern light. Lots of work to gain room for a water tight hatch to the lazarette... but she ought to be smooth as a babies hind quarters. I'm contemplating pulling a mold off the stern light mount and making two, for bow lights. The stern rail is a continuous curve, that nests perfectly to the toe rails. Perhaps that is a topic for another day... So much to do before the paint job!

Signed... a very tired,

Zach

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