Cockpit hole repair
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:54 amThe back of Windchaser's cockpit had this fancy black on white art nouveau but I suspected it was not art at all but a cover up.
Upon further investigation, under the guise of doing a reno, I found two mysterious holes. Maybe not too mysterious, perhaps access holes for the posts.
Something was once screwed over the holes, don't know what. Oh, the smeared grey stuff around the holes is the sticky stuff from the tape. It does not sand off, only blocked up my sanding disk. It was hard to get off, I used my trusty chisel to scrape off the thickest bits then used a solvent, can't recall which one as I tried metho, turps and acetone.
Initially I was going to screw painted ply over the holes to seal them off totally. Then working in the quarter berth below the cockpit floor I realised that some breeze actually flowed through under there with the holes open. Extra ventilation is good.
Eventually I found something I thought would keep out most of the rain but let some air through. Under the edge is a strip of butyl mastic to stop leaks so it should keep water out except a little which may blow under through the slits. I also put a patch of flyscreen over each hole which stuck nicely to the butyl mastic around the edge. I decided to do that since after taking off the covering tape it was a week or so before I got the vents on and spiders loved it. Amazing build up of webs, big fat black spiders in residence. Since I was not making a covered entryway for spiders, I put mesh across.
Another job done, only a million more to go. : )
- hole 1.jpg (134.15 KiB) Viewed 2340 times
Upon further investigation, under the guise of doing a reno, I found two mysterious holes. Maybe not too mysterious, perhaps access holes for the posts.
- hole 2.jpg (332.87 KiB) Viewed 2340 times
Something was once screwed over the holes, don't know what. Oh, the smeared grey stuff around the holes is the sticky stuff from the tape. It does not sand off, only blocked up my sanding disk. It was hard to get off, I used my trusty chisel to scrape off the thickest bits then used a solvent, can't recall which one as I tried metho, turps and acetone.
Initially I was going to screw painted ply over the holes to seal them off totally. Then working in the quarter berth below the cockpit floor I realised that some breeze actually flowed through under there with the holes open. Extra ventilation is good.
Eventually I found something I thought would keep out most of the rain but let some air through. Under the edge is a strip of butyl mastic to stop leaks so it should keep water out except a little which may blow under through the slits. I also put a patch of flyscreen over each hole which stuck nicely to the butyl mastic around the edge. I decided to do that since after taking off the covering tape it was a week or so before I got the vents on and spiders loved it. Amazing build up of webs, big fat black spiders in residence. Since I was not making a covered entryway for spiders, I put mesh across.
- hole 3.jpg (308.63 KiB) Viewed 2340 times
Another job done, only a million more to go. : )
