Big grinding day

This afternoon I spent about four hours grinding and sanding and grinding and chiseling and grinding away at the main stringer, old deck edges, and flotation foam. I started out with my new pry bar hacking away at the foam removing the last pieces before tackling the fiberglass and old wood of the stringer. The foam in the stern that had been under the fuel tanks wreaked of gasoline and I was very glad to be doing this outside with a respirator. After the foam was up it was time to hack away at the main stringer running the length of the boat. The main area and stern were a piece of cake since it was so open and flat. The bow was a different story all together. Since I had decided not to remove the blue top portion of the hull I had to cut holes in it to get all the way down at the rotten wood. So far this has been the hardest step. Getting the old bow pieces dislodged was not only tight but had been heavily resined in when it was built. There was about a half inch of fillet built up around the stringer that I had to grind and chip at for about an hour to get it all out. After I had the wood out I switched to a sanding disk on the grinder and sanded the whole length flat in preparation for the new stringer I will be laying in next week. In addition to the work on the stringer I also cut the bilge area back to the newer wood that had been installed when the transom was replaced a few years ago by Mike. All in all, it was an extremely successful day

Here are a few pics of the work done today:

This is the pile of foam and other detris early on in the day.

This is an example of what the old deck looked like. And this is one of the better pieces.

Nice and smooth. Like a babies fiberglass butt.

Looking rear at the bilge area, all ready for the new deck


You'll notice that the two side stringers are still in place. I am leaving those in for working structure till I get the main stringer laid. It may not be necessary but better safe than sorry.