With the weather finally improving a little bit and the fact that I have so much exterior fiberglass repair still to do Susan and I decided to bring in the professionals to do some fiberglass repair for us. I have numerous areas in need of fiberglass repair and with my schedule I knew it would take me all summer to get done so we called Wayne Monk who has a business called Dockside Fiberglass Repair. His number in case you need it is 207-229-7338 and he is based in Old Orchard Beach Maine just a little south of Portland.
My first priority  was getting the seam between the house and the deck fiberglassed because the original construction was just caulked and this led to a lot of the moisture related problems with the boat. I also had a punky spot in the forward deck that needed attention and when Wayne and his helper Leo did a little grinding to get back to solid wood they discovered that the wood at the intersection of the deck and the hull was rotten. When I had examined it from the forward storage compartment underneath the deck it appeared solid to me but there was a layer a fiberglass that was laid up against these pieces and it hid the rot.
I cut out a section of the deck and this is what I found.



You could stick a screwdriver into the wood and just pull it apart like slow cooked barbecue.



Now I have to discover how far back the rot goes so I kept cutting out deck until I got back to solid wood. That brought me all the way to the beginning of the house. Thankfully the rot stopped on both sides in the same spot.
This picture below shows the exposed framing that I had scarfed new pieces onto from underneath way back in the earlier stages of the rebuild. But now I am going to have to install new wood all around.



Here's a closeup of the port side bow area with the new support pieces installed and a few new deck stringers.



And here's a shot with a few more stringers in place. I decided to do away with the deck hatch but I did leave a framed opening that I could easily cut out if I decide I do want to put a hatch back in there. I have access to this compartment through the bulkhead underneath the seat so it's still functional. I will build a locker for anchor chain and rope later on in the project.



Here's the deck with its new layer of plywood. Ready for fiberglass.



I had removed a window below the seat and I had asked Wayne to fill in the area and make it smooth and in order to save time and money he put a layer of plywood over the whole face and is in the process of glassing it here.



This picture shows Wayne and Leo laying out the fiberglass mat on the deck.



And here Wayne is rolling out the resin.





In the next photo Leo is rolling out the air bubbles with a grooved roller made especially for that purpose.



And finally here is a picture of the back of the house where I removed a full length window and instead will have just a door in the center and Wayne and Leo are applying the fiberglass mat to the plywood.



It's really nice to have some professionals come in and do this part of the job. It will allow me to focus on the interior and not worry about all the areas that were unprotected. To finish the job they will apply a skim cote of filler and sand that smooth so I can apply an exterior finish and a deck finish. I still haven't decided how I am going to finish those surfaces so I'll leave that for another entry later on down the road.

By the way, for those of you that have followed the blog and are wondering about the status of my heart problem since the surgery back about 6 weeks ago, all I can say is, "It's a freaking miracle"! I have my life back. I haven't had an episode of AFIB in weeks and my energy is returning and I feel great.

Dr. Cutler & Sesselberg if you are reading all I can say is "Thank you, thank you, thank you". I am so lucky to have such talent up here in Maine. You guys really have given me my life back.

It's a beautiful thing,
Wado