The Tasks at Hand

In this post, I will lay out the major repair items that need to happen this year.  I'll elaborate on each of these in due course, but for now, I'll just hit the highlights.  I had thought about providing an overall description, but that would have forced me to drone on and on about every little hose and fitting, and I'd rather just stick to what is relevant for now.

For reference, here is a link to data on the Islander 36:
I36 data from SailboatData.com

I used this site while researching different boats last year, and it is a good reference for basic boat data.

And here is the link to the organization that is active out on the west coast, of which I am a recent addition:
http://www.islander36.org/

I have to say that the Islander 36 organization website was, and continues to be, a great reference for my research, and for ideas on how to handle certain jobs.  The maintenance section of the website is a great Islander specific resource for just about anything.

Of course, I also have a fresh copy of Don Casey's "This Old Boat".  For novices who know little about how things work on a boat, this is an excellent tool to get started.  There are some detractors of his methods, but I don't know of a more relevant book for what I am doing.


1.) Deck

The overall condition of the deck is moderate to poor, in my opinion.

The gelcoat is heavily oxidized, and while there is not an epidemic of crazing, there is some light crazing here and there.  There is a patch that is heavily crazed, but it is under the companionway hatch, and I won't have to look at that too often.  I hear that boat builders, back when they were first figuring out how to build fiberglass boats, figured that more gelcoat was better.  The problem is that gelcoat is not very flexible, and will crack if the underlying substrate moves.  If it is too thick, then even a small amount of flex can cause crazing.  I'm going with that theory, as the deck under the most heavy crazing is very solid, and I can hardly feel it move when someone is up there jumping around.

I do have some stress induced crazing around the safety rail stanchions.  There are stainless steel backing plates on these.  I can see that no matter how big the backing plate is, a lot of force can be generated by flexing the stanchion back and forth.  I may have to fabricate some kind of base for the stanchion to rest on, and help disperse the load away from the edge of the stanchion base.

2.) Deck hardware
All deck fittings will be removed and re-bedded.  There is nothing left under it now, and I can see water spray underneath some hardware when washing the deck.

3.) Teak
The teak on the Islander is used for handrails, companionway slides, cabin rub rails and for the toerails at the bow and stern.  The teak used to be varnished, but there is not much left.  The plan, as of today, is to sand and refinish with more varnish.  I have been looking into just leaving it unfinished and letting it go silver/grey, as there is a contingent of folks out there that recommend it.

4.) Delamination
The only delamination that has occurred seems to be limited to the area around the aft shroud chainplates.  This is another design issue in my opinion.  The area of the deck where the chainplates are mounted was reinforced with an additional layer of plywood under the deck.  The chainplate itself is shaped like an inverted T, with the long base penetrating through the hull.  I think part of the issue is the portion of chainplate that resides in the boat, acts much like a coldplate during the daily cycling of cool nights and warm days.  I noticed condensation seemed to wick down toward the colder plate from above.  Another problem is exposed core material to the metal of the chainplate.
I plan to cut a series of holes in the bottom portion of the deck, dig out all the wet plywood, seal the holes and pour epoxy back in from above to fill the void.

5.) Toe Rails
Toe rails are almost devoid of bedding, and so I will be removing and re-bedding these as well.  This is a big enough job that it deserves its own task.

6.) Non Skid
Non-skid is a type that looks like some kind of cheese cloth was used in molding the deck.  The texture is very rough, and repaintings have left voids that water can stand in, and mold can grow.  Long term, I'd like to grind this away, and perhaps go with treadmaster.  For now, I will clean as best I can, and repaint with a rubberized coating, like Durabak.  My research leads me to believe that Durabak will be a good non skid product all by itself, and that painting it on the non-skid will fill in the holes that trap water.

7.) Keel Joint
The keel is cast iron, and the keel/hull joint looks to need some repair.  There was some standing water in the bilge, so I don't think there is a leak, but it looks like there have been regular patches to the joint.  I was going to let this slide another year, but I was taking a closer look the other day, and I think I will have to get on it this year instead.

8.) Compound and Polish
Based on the recommendation of a friend, I spot checked a few areas, and it looks like some rubbing compound and polish will bring back much of the shine on the deck and topsides.  I had thought about painting, and there are some valid reasons to do so.  But it will wait until I'm more sure about whether or not I'm ready for that.

That wraps up the exterior, now onto the interior...

The condition of the interior varies.  The most woodwork is in pretty good shape.  There are some storage cabinets mounted on either side of the salon that have taken some water damage, and will eventually need to be replaced.  The headliner is missing, and while this provides excellent access to the deck hardware above, it lacks certain aesthetics.  This will need to be addressed at some point, but will most likely have to wait till next winter.  I plan to install wood ceilings and headliner then.

9.) Plumbing
The freshwater plumbing is routed through the bilge, which makes sense to a certain degree.  However, after working in the bilge while cleaning, I believe that there it makes better sense to route it around the perimeter of the cabin, where it will be more hidden, and out of the way.  This will leave the bilge to the bilge water, and nothing else.

10.) Electrical
The electrical system has had 36 years of add-ons, repairs, abandoned wires and poorly routed cables.  I believe that it will be faster for me to just strip it out, salvaging only enough for pull cords for the new cables.  The plan will be to identify all engine wiring and label it.  Once the engine is isolated, I will then gut most of the electrical wiring throughout the boat.  Most appears to be the wrong type or size anyway.  I'll add a new breaker panel and battery switches, and run new wire and fixtures.  This should be fairly straightforward, as the missing headliner provides excellent access to the nooks and cranny's where the wire runs will go.

So that pretty much wraps up the major repair tasks at hand.  As of today, I'm actually partially done with some of the above items, but I'm still trying to get the blog current.  Next time, we will start in on some of the individual tasks.