First visit to Terrapin - a boat under construction

In May 2022, I paid my first visit to Terrapin. Work was going on feverishly most days, in the already hot spring sun. Mostly sanding and painting and a lot of filling of holes with epoxy. I asked the guy doing the work his opinion about the boat. He rather mysteriously said "She is good, but don't stress her too much" I was not sure what he meant, but was going to find out soon enough.

The interior saloon area looking to port. Some new shelves had been made making the berth a bit wider.

However in the front cabin there was an obvious sign of discoloured wood, ie. rot!

Saloon area port side, boxes of tools etc. and the tender rolled up on the floor

Terrapin where she had been lying for the last 3 years. The Covid situation had set back work and launching for these years...

The essentially brand new engine!

The next week we paid a visit with Sophia, setting foot for the first time on our boat together!

Trying out the cockpit for comfort. The boat is already looking twice as beautiful with this lovely looking lady just sitting there reading... (Interestingly Luna Anarcha and Sophia were born the same year. A good year.)

Looking inside at the mess and imagining being at an anchor somewhere in the Ionian...

The original builders plate with the specs and dates. (oops!)

 

 

 

 

During our next visits in between courses and working trips I noticed that some insects seemed to be hovering around a bit too much, a sign that they may have nests somewhere. The insects looked like little wasps. I managed to kill one, photographed it and googled its description. 

This is what is known as a Hoverfly. It is a fly that has evolved to look like a small wasp and flies like one too, hovering about. What shows that it is a fly and not a wasp is that it has two wings not four and also it has no sting!

Hoverflies like to lay their eggs in rotten wood... not good.

Thankfully no carpenter bees where found. They are much bigger, and black also known locally as flying olives! 

I watched to see where the hoverflies went and started to discover rotten parts around the cockpit.

This is the aft port corner of the cockpit. I started digging out rotten soft wood. It was so rotten it was like gravel.

Paint was just peeling off. This was the paint that had just been applied... Behind it, dark discoloured, wet wood.

The cockpit corner after digging out the rotten parts..

Front cockpit floor corner.. more rotten bits.

I am not posting more for now, but we have found more.

The situation is this. The boat is made of plywood and wood. The guy doing the repairs was not really a carpenter but a fibreglass repairman. So his repairs have been not done properly. Where he found rot he dug it out and filled it with epoxy. 

Unfortunately rot is a fungus and always goes beyond the immediately visible, soft wood. The spores that create it travel up along the woods "sinews" and "eat" the celulite which is what makes it hard. Hence the softness of rotten wood.

The proper way to repair it is this. Remove the rotten wood beyond the obvious visible point by at least 2 inches (5cm) Replace with fresh new wood or ply. I would and will also spray the entire area with a fungicide called Boracoll .This will give us at least ten years of rot proof wood. Then the whole repair can be covered with epoxy and sheathed with glass, making for a very structurally strong repair. 

I already have the glass mat and need to get a really big can of epoxy. 

Then all we need is time...extra hands... and coffee. If we have proper good coffee, everything will be fine.

And we will have a structurally strong rot proof boat to go sailing in.

 We are going to make this happen! with love, and coffee!