Planks and Butts

Overheard January 7, 2018

Dayna: Are you sure you want to do this?

Ted: Yes.

Dayna: Once I do this there is no going back. 

Ted: I know. We are ready. 

Dayna: Last chance to stop. 

Ted: DO IT! 

That was an actual conversation Ted and I had last weekend. No, he did not get face tattoo, we removed our first plank from Restless. After a month of reading and buying all the necessary tools, we managed to remove the rotten section of the plank! 

Last year, when we replaced one of the rotten frames, we discovered that the plank beneath the frame had a bit of rot. No one ever wants to find that on their boat. We wanted to take it out right away, but after some wise counsel from my father we decided to tackle one issue at a time. So we spent the summer with the looming task ahead of us. That said, when we were sailing in the breeze we were very happy we prioritized fixing all the frames!    

Between the summer and our fall haul we had forgotten exactly which planks were rotten, so we had to do a bit of prodding and poking. Once we found the two that have to be done this year, we made sure to mark them on the inside and out, knowing that we were not going to be able to get to the boat again in December. Why you may ask... Well, Ted and I are social butterflies and we enjoy a good Christmas party, we also were away during New Years weekend. Woe is us!

When we made it back to the boat last weekend, we knew that if we didn't cut the plank out that weekend we would be pushing our luck in the Spring. This wouldn't be such a big issue, but I am away the entire month of March, so we lose a whole month before we want to launch in May. It may sound strange that Ted doesn't want to do this without me, but, it is hard trying to work towards a goal without the task master (me)! And I understand, that though we normally have other people that help us, sometimes we don't, and believe it or not, even if we might get a little hot headed with one another, we are also one another's cheerleaders, and constantly reassure one another. 

So last weekend was it! My dad had directed us to this amazing book , The Boatwright's Companion; Repairs Below the Water Line by Allen Taube. It goes through repairing nearly everything that we have to do. It even has a section on a good working attitude! For this project, we have read, studied, and photocopied the entire chapter on replacing a plank. It is one thing to read, it is another thing to do. So we needed to psych one another up before we removed the plank. 

Another important part, beside just understanding what you need to do, is having the right tools. And we have tried to do things in the past without the proper tools and hated our lives and spent much more time trying to complete a task. So this, being a very important project, and knowing that already we will be taking more time than a skilled boat builder would need to do what we are going to do, we made sure we did not leave a tool out! 

And to give a bigger appreciation to the tools, I have decided to name them. Which might sound strange... But! It also makes our lives slightly more interested when you ask for a tool by a human name. The new tools that we have bought are as follows! Leonard, the light; Cecil, the saw; Roger, the router; Harry, the heater; Henrietta, the other heater; and Django, the drill.

Leonard the light hard at work 

So there we were, Roger in hand and Leonard lighting the way. We made a template for cutting through the plank and there was nothing left to do but cut a large slit in our boat. Success! That was the easy part... We spent the better part of 3 hours digging out every plug to find the screws and bolts beneath. I was not allowed to remove any of the slot heads. Ted doesn't think I have the patience for it, I think he is wrong. After we got the easy ones, i.e the square heads, we set about screaming at the slot heads until they budged. Some just spun in place, so we had to hole saw around them and attack them with the vice grips. The worst part was when we realized that the reason some of them were not coming out was because they were bolts. We had completely forgotten about the bolts! They had been in there for some long, that we could not get the nuts to move. I had to tell Ted to break all the heads of the bolts and punch them through. There we were alone in  boat shed with me telling Ted, 'Yeah you're going to have to break its head off". I can only imagine that if someone happened upon us they would be terrified!

Our fence for Roger the Router. I should note that Ted and I have to maturity of 12 year olds. and snickered every time we said 'butt block'. 

The final result. No going back. Ted made me cut it. I am not sure if it was because he wasn't confident enough to do it or if he could not bring himself to do this to the boat. 

Once we removed all the fasteners we could find we then set about pulling out all the caulking cotton. I was so cold at this point all I could do was hold Leonard and cheer Ted on. 

Once there was a plank

Now there is not

There it is. We thought we would be able to get it out in one piece. But, there were screws that went from the inside frames out, we were not expecting this. So we ended up with one break in the middle. But we thought we did a pretty good job for our first time.

As I write this we are onto the harder part of the planking. Replacing the plank. Luckily we had some outside help from Ted's good friend Patrick! Stay tuned for more tales and pictures.