Tuesday 23 Nov, re-launch 2021, HHN day 55: Bedding the new windlass onto the deck gets a bit complicated.
Having found salt water induced issues in the windlass motor last night, we decided to simply swap and install the spare windlass which we have on board. Last evening, I removed the old motor from below deck, and this morning the above deck part of the old windlass needs to come off. It was last sealed on deck in March 2017 when we did the big refit which involved removing all deck and gunwale fittings to sand the decks. And it was bedded back down using Sikaflex. Previously, HR used Butyl, which since I have come to realise lasts a lot longer than Sikaflex and makes it very easy to remove fittings later on. So here I am, with the windlass very firmly glued to the deck by Sikaflex and not budging. It takes me about 45 minutes to carefully slide a cutter blade around all the sides of the base before I finally managed to get one edge up from deck. After that it comes off OK.
And now I can see where the water got into one of the through-deck bolts. It is the deck caulking that has failed, on a caulking line which directly crosses the leaky bolt hole. The problem with simply sealing the windlass to the deck is that the windlass edges are not very wide, hence the sealant area onto the deck is thin and easy for water to escape around. What we need, somehow, is a wider sealed area to the deck so that nothing can leak around the sealant, like it has done in this case.
After sanding down the area to get it all clean, I realise the deck and caulking under the windlass is not in great shape and very likely we will get a leak again ☹. So, it is time for a cuppa-tea and a good thinking session. I decide to get some G10 fiberboard, cut it to the shape of the windlass base, epoxy it to the deck (to get that greater area seal to the deck that I am seeking) then simply seal the windlass to the plain flat top of the fiberboard using the rubber gasket provided by Lewmar. I ask Ray if he has a small piece of G10. He doesn’t, but he does have a very nice piece of ½” teak that very size. Teak? Hmmm, that would be nice, thank you! It could even be made into a feature.
So within 30 minutes I’m making bolt holes in the sheet of beautiful solid teak (thanks to Ray’s speedy delivery) and cutting out the windlass base shape with my Makita jigsaw. I make it ½” oversize so that we can end up actually seeing the teak, and to give it a bigger area to be epoxied to the deck. On that note, the ever-knowledgeable Ray suggests I seal the teak and the deck with penetrating epoxy before applying the gluing epoxy. Without sealing the wood first, the glue may not adhere well to the raw teak, with all its oiliness, and we may well get leaks again.
Now, as luck would have it, I was recently contacted by a very nice lady (Kristy Lucas) from Total Boat. They do a range of marine glues, paints etc. and she wanted to send me a few samples. I looked at their website and suggested a few that took my fancy. Quite a few in fact! (never look a gift-horse in the mouth – so they say!). And, surprisingly, she sent me, free of charge, all the products I had showed interested in. Bilge paint, epoxy, sealants, etc etc …. up to and including penetrating epoxy! They all arrived last week and here I am already using them 😊. Thank you, Kristy and Total Boat!
Applying the penetrating epoxy is like applying varnish. It really makes the teak “pop” into that brilliance only a tropical hardwood can give. It’s going to look pretty nice up on the bow, under the new windlass. When I paint the deck area though, I stop painting about ¾” from where the teak will extend to. This is because the raw teak of the deck will, and is, sucking in the epoxy and I don’t want that “staining” showing around the windlass when the job is complete. That would be ugly, and we don’t do ugly!
Tonight is going to get down to several degrees below freezing. So we cover the painted area on the deck with a cardboard box and make sure the heating is blasting in the bow cabins below. Ray has warned me that if the temperature of the paint drops below 65degF, the drying process may stop, and not restart again. I always wondered why using epoxy in cold temperatures never seems to get a good cure. Now I know!
In the evening Oana is still stowing. It is quite a project for her, as usual before any departure. At one point she beckons me below to see the array of nuts and nibbles we have. “There”, she says, “according to historical data in my records that’s how many nuts and sundries you get through in 6 months”. The settee and table are swamped in all kind of nuts! Do I really eat that many? No wonder Oana calls me Nutty!
And in the heat of the bow cabin, I get the new windlass motor ready to install. I cannot install it in yet, because the above deck part, including the drive shaft, need to be fitted first. And that has to wait for the epoxy to dry. That maybe a few days. Meaning we will possibly miss the next weather window. But there is nothing we can do. We have to have the ability to anchor, so this job needs to be completed properly. Frankly, like all jobs do, under Captain Nutty’s stewardship!