Redecking QueenieSJB

[JimC]

Well the deck that was punctured at Thames is now in the wheelie bin, so I guess I've made a start on getting another one on. I'm going to see if I can get the cockpit area clear of the nasty cream paint (and black paint underneath) and back to varnish at the same time, but the success of that part of the operation will largely depend on how ghastly the considerable areas of carbon and glass repair work underneath look when exposed...

cvup.jpg

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Look at that serious sized spinnaker chute - if only I could have found one like that in the UK in 1989 when I almost completely exhausted my patience making one from scratch...
I'm also going to try and get the foredeck layout back towards the original idiosyncratic setup, but to succeed in that I shall have to trace some photos of what was actually there, because its been gone for between 25 and 30 years, I only ever saw it in 1976, and I cannot work out from the remaining evidence exactly what was going on!
As is my wont all this process well get posted on my QSJB pages http://www.devboats.co.uk/qsjb/index.htm, starting here, http://www.devboats.co.uk/qsjb/redecking1.htm. The target is to finish the job in time for next year's South East events, so its not going to be hurried...

[JimC]

The project creep is worsening... I think the old girl has a bad attack of aerolite failure. Not only do I have glue failure on most of the major deck beams, but the mechanical fasteners that were holding the joins together have gotten loose enough to chew up the wood some. Its looking as if I'm going to have to replace all the beams in the crew deck area...

Oh the joys of old wood boats...

Which leads me onto an interesting conundrum... The side decks for the helm are, I believe, original. The ply has lifted in a corner of the tanks where the transverse beam for the traveller has worked loose.
Do I -
- just glue it back down and hope that nothing else serious is going on inside the side tanks? I have had a lot of trouble with the inevitable side tank/floor join but gave it as good a job as I could last winter

Or -
- bite the bullet, remove and thus destroy the tank tops and check out everything inside, which means that I can do all the decks at the same time with plywood from the same source...

thoughts?

[roger]

Jim can you get a small digital camera inside the tanks at all? It may give you a better picture(pun not intended but quite apt) of whats going on inside.

[JimC]

Jim can you get a small digital camera inside the tanks at all? It may give you a better picture(pun not intended but quite apt) of whats going on inside.

There's only a bung, no hatches, so it would need something more sophistictaed than even the smallest of digital cameras...

[jpa_wfsc]

you need a friendly vet or doctor to lend you an endoscope (wash it first, you don't (want to) know where it might have been). Some engineering companies use them for inspection purposes - if you know anyone in fabrication or similar?

Also, the insides of USB webcams are very, very small - if you have one spare take the plastics away and you might have something you can fit in a bung hole. Also need to get lots of light in, of course.

Good luck!