ROT!
Bahia de Caráquez, Ecuador, 22 October 2006
Theoretically I should have my rig pretty much back together again. I have had all galvanised shrouds, both uppers and lowers, newly re-slushed and have even re-installed the four lower shrouds. They shackle to the brand-new galvanised spreader baseplates that I had made of strong steel. (Kathleen will bring top-grade new hot-dip-galvanised shackles back with her from Germany in the spring to replace the old ones) At least the mast is not waving in the air when we start rolling at the tidal changes and it looks very solid again.
While I was at the masthead the other day, however, I determined that there is wood rot near the top of the mast. Early this morning while the estuary is still calm, Bill comes over from S/V Que Onde. Our plan for the next few hours is to put the re-slushed backstay on again, bolt the two new wooden spreaders to the baseplates and get the rejuvenated port and starboard upper shrouds back on. While I am at the masthead, too, and after I have shackled the backstay to the tang that is welded to the masthead corona, I resolve to have a good look at the extent of the rot.
I pick away the rippled skin of paint, and started digging in behind the long bolt that goes through the mast horizontally to hold the masthead corona (helmet) on. The bolt also acts as the bolt shaft of the main halyard sheave. The bosuns chair I am in is dependent upon that sheave! In a few seconds and just using my fingers, I have peeled back the surface paint and dug out a lot of punky wood making up the mast on the starboard side. I can see the throughbolt and can even poke in there and touch the sheave with a small screwdriver. Just under VHF antenna wire had been led externally up the mast and fastened with those little screw-down plastic electric wire holders, rot has also set in. It extends to below the level of the sheave.
I sit back in the bosuns chair and try to take stock. The ideal approach would be to unstep the mast at a dock somewhere, lay the mast out on sawhorses in a yard somewhere, get that corona/helmet off (it requires unwiring the masthead navigational light, disconnecting the VHF radio antenna and removing the wind indicator.). That would even be an ideal time to have a new galvanised steel masthead corona fabricated as well; the one at present is made of the same softer water-pipe metal that had failed us as spreader base plates.
But, the closest yard for such activities is at Salinas, some two hundred miles south. Not only is it expensive there, we also have too little time on our visas to do the trip and get the work done. We are leaving here in six days for Venezuela with only a few days left on our visas for when we return. Unless we wait until end-May to return to Ecuador, we will not have much time to do boat work before we have to leave the country. A trip to Santa Lucia Marina and yard in Salinas takes two or three days if we go non-stop down the coast and we would then have to leave the boat there till we returned in the spring, I think that would run about $450 a month. Phew! We are talking several thousand dollars plus the work and haulout and unstopping the mast. And, of course, no time left!
I wonder to myself whether instead the rot damage can be repaired in situ, either with the helmet still in place or even removing it. I cannot remove the throughbolt because it holds the main halyard sheave in place and I need that to get to the top in the bosuns chair. So, I would have to leave the helmet in place and work around underneath it. But maybe that would be good enough.
I discuss the predicament with a few savvy boaters around Puerto Amistad. Like me, they think that, if I can dig out all the rot I can actually get at and give the healthy wood around the wound a good soaking with penetrating epoxy (‘Git Rot’ or ‘Crack Creeper’ are brand names, or even just West System two-part resin without any filler), that should take care of the rot in the remaining rot timbers and provide a good base for filling in the hole. For that task I consider using West System epoxy mixed to a peanut butter consistency using their filler or even just sawdust that I can get from Maestro Luiz, the carpentero across the street. I have also heard of mixing strips of cloth or fibreglass into the paste to give it even more strength and also requiring less expensive epoxy. That hole filler would be stronger even than the wood itself!
I am also investigating using something like ‘Splash Zone’, a two-part epoxy putty that you mix in water and then pack in into the hole. I have big cnas on board for emergency underwater repairs. My internet investigations reveal that it is now considered a bit old fashioned compared with newer products (Kevlar?). But I am in remote Ecuador and I already have a good supply of Splash Zone on board. I need to research this some more. The more critical question is whether it will cure in the air after it has been mixed in a bucket of water.
(I also know of one US cruiser who got two other sailboats of his size or bigger to park on either side of him. They used their main halyards to unstep the mast, which they then laid on a panga and took the mast ashore to work on it. That sounds kind of cool but I think I may take a pass on that and go for the in situ approach. Every day more boaters are leaving here and we are running out of time.)
The final alternative is to dig out all the rot, spray it, say, with Clorox to kill the fungus (dry rot is actually a fungus), and then just leave it to dry out while we are away. Or, I could just use the Git Rot approach and leave the whole wound open till we get back. The problem with that is that we are heading into the rainy season and there will be more rainwater getting into the mast.
Actually, now I am getting keen to get the rot cleaned out of the ‘wound’ in situ, treat it with epoxy resin and then fill the whole with epoxy filler. Just to be sure I may also set two fibreglass girdles around the mast, one just above and one just below the sheave area to give the masthead area more strength. I would really like to get that whole corona off to make sure I get everything. But I would need first to set a padeye up there so I could rig the bosuns chair. (Maybe this would be the best time to revert to my idea of getting ratlines installed so I can climb to spreader level and then install foldout steps for the last third of the way to the masthead and a double set of steps where I need to stand and work at the masthead. Then I am independent of the sheave and the bosuns chair.
So little time!
Bahia de Caráquez, Ecuador, 22 October 2006
Theoretically I should have my rig pretty much back together again. I have had all galvanised shrouds, both uppers and lowers, newly re-slushed and have even re-installed the four lower shrouds. They shackle to the brand-new galvanised spreader baseplates that I had made of strong steel. (Kathleen will bring top-grade new hot-dip-galvanised shackles back with her from Germany in the spring to replace the old ones) At least the mast is not waving in the air when we start rolling at the tidal changes and it looks very solid again.
While I was at the masthead the other day, however, I determined that there is wood rot near the top of the mast. Early this morning while the estuary is still calm, Bill comes over from S/V Que Onde. Our plan for the next few hours is to put the re-slushed backstay on again, bolt the two new wooden spreaders to the baseplates and get the rejuvenated port and starboard upper shrouds back on. While I am at the masthead, too, and after I have shackled the backstay to the tang that is welded to the masthead corona, I resolve to have a good look at the extent of the rot.
I pick away the rippled skin of paint, and started digging in behind the long bolt that goes through the mast horizontally to hold the masthead corona (helmet) on. The bolt also acts as the bolt shaft of the main halyard sheave. The bosuns chair I am in is dependent upon that sheave! In a few seconds and just using my fingers, I have peeled back the surface paint and dug out a lot of punky wood making up the mast on the starboard side. I can see the throughbolt and can even poke in there and touch the sheave with a small screwdriver. Just under VHF antenna wire had been led externally up the mast and fastened with those little screw-down plastic electric wire holders, rot has also set in. It extends to below the level of the sheave.
I sit back in the bosuns chair and try to take stock. The ideal approach would be to unstep the mast at a dock somewhere, lay the mast out on sawhorses in a yard somewhere, get that corona/helmet off (it requires unwiring the masthead navigational light, disconnecting the VHF radio antenna and removing the wind indicator.). That would even be an ideal time to have a new galvanised steel masthead corona fabricated as well; the one at present is made of the same softer water-pipe metal that had failed us as spreader base plates.
But, the closest yard for such activities is at Salinas, some two hundred miles south. Not only is it expensive there, we also have too little time on our visas to do the trip and get the work done. We are leaving here in six days for Venezuela with only a few days left on our visas for when we return. Unless we wait until end-May to return to Ecuador, we will not have much time to do boat work before we have to leave the country. A trip to Santa Lucia Marina and yard in Salinas takes two or three days if we go non-stop down the coast and we would then have to leave the boat there till we returned in the spring, I think that would run about $450 a month. Phew! We are talking several thousand dollars plus the work and haulout and unstopping the mast. And, of course, no time left!
I wonder to myself whether instead the rot damage can be repaired in situ, either with the helmet still in place or even removing it. I cannot remove the throughbolt because it holds the main halyard sheave in place and I need that to get to the top in the bosuns chair. So, I would have to leave the helmet in place and work around underneath it. But maybe that would be good enough.
I discuss the predicament with a few savvy boaters around Puerto Amistad. Like me, they think that, if I can dig out all the rot I can actually get at and give the healthy wood around the wound a good soaking with penetrating epoxy (‘Git Rot’ or ‘Crack Creeper’ are brand names, or even just West System two-part resin without any filler), that should take care of the rot in the remaining rot timbers and provide a good base for filling in the hole. For that task I consider using West System epoxy mixed to a peanut butter consistency using their filler or even just sawdust that I can get from Maestro Luiz, the carpentero across the street. I have also heard of mixing strips of cloth or fibreglass into the paste to give it even more strength and also requiring less expensive epoxy. That hole filler would be stronger even than the wood itself!
I am also investigating using something like ‘Splash Zone’, a two-part epoxy putty that you mix in water and then pack in into the hole. I have big cnas on board for emergency underwater repairs. My internet investigations reveal that it is now considered a bit old fashioned compared with newer products (Kevlar?). But I am in remote Ecuador and I already have a good supply of Splash Zone on board. I need to research this some more. The more critical question is whether it will cure in the air after it has been mixed in a bucket of water.
(I also know of one US cruiser who got two other sailboats of his size or bigger to park on either side of him. They used their main halyards to unstep the mast, which they then laid on a panga and took the mast ashore to work on it. That sounds kind of cool but I think I may take a pass on that and go for the in situ approach. Every day more boaters are leaving here and we are running out of time.)
The final alternative is to dig out all the rot, spray it, say, with Clorox to kill the fungus (dry rot is actually a fungus), and then just leave it to dry out while we are away. Or, I could just use the Git Rot approach and leave the whole wound open till we get back. The problem with that is that we are heading into the rainy season and there will be more rainwater getting into the mast.
Actually, now I am getting keen to get the rot cleaned out of the ‘wound’ in situ, treat it with epoxy resin and then fill the whole with epoxy filler. Just to be sure I may also set two fibreglass girdles around the mast, one just above and one just below the sheave area to give the masthead area more strength. I would really like to get that whole corona off to make sure I get everything. But I would need first to set a padeye up there so I could rig the bosuns chair. (Maybe this would be the best time to revert to my idea of getting ratlines installed so I can climb to spreader level and then install foldout steps for the last third of the way to the masthead and a double set of steps where I need to stand and work at the masthead. Then I am independent of the sheave and the bosuns chair.
So little time!
posted by rjb @ Sunday, October 22, 2006
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