[Public-List] Merry Christmas... but....

[Gordon Laco]

Hello Shipmates, 

So there I was, a few days before Christmas.  The weather hasn’t turned hard yet here in The True North, so I decided to take advantage of being able to go aboard SURPRISE unencumbered by heavy winter clothing and remove the main cabin lazarette panels, so I could take them home and refinish them.  I figured this would be a simple and pleasant job.

The portside one came off easily, as did the starboard side, but when the later one came off I discovered the shelf forming the bottom of the locker was, as a Dutch friend would say ‘rrrrotten’.   Decades of dripping from the stanchion base above that locker had destroyed the plywood shelf quite extensively.



So I merrily removed the three doors from each panel…  used a heat gun to remove the old finish from the panels and doors, sanded the whole shebang, then worked up a couple of coats of semi-gloss varnish (guess who’s varnish I used).   

Today, Boxing Day, it was warm again and I went over to the boat to remove the rrrrrotten shelf.   I brought a selection of screw drivers and wrenches, ready for either screws or bolts.   If any of you heard the sound of cursing coming from 44.7495° N, 79.8922° W  , that was me.    Whitby Boat Works didn’t use either screws nor bolts to fix the shelf in place, they used pop rivets.  Pop rivets.  And I didn’t bring my drill.

The pop rivets go through the 1/2” plywood and down through the flange tabbed to the skin of the hull.   I wasn’t sure that even if I had my drill with me, there was room above each rivet for the tool before it contacted the underside of the deck.  Oh no.  (more cursing).

So in disgust, I pulled on the shelf for no particular reason.  It moved.   I tapped it, and it moved back into place.  I got my two largest flat screw drivers and hammered them in under the shelf fore and aft of one of  the rivets… the head of the rivet disappeared into the plywood.  Yep, rrrrotten through and through but maybe this is good.  

In no time I was able to tear the whole thing out leaving the rivets in place where I’ll easily cut them off before reinstalling the new shelf.   Happy happy.

The only problem after that was keeping the rotten shelf intact enough while I took it back to the workshop that I could still use it as a pattern.   I managed that.   

Onwards.


Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com
705-527-9612