Blue-Jay Sailboat Restoration
This is my blog to track the work I'm doing on a wooden Blue-Jay sailboat. The major restoration was done before I got involved, and I'm now finishing things up so I can sail it this summer!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Rotten wood removed

The photo at right is BEFORE any rotten wood was removed. Most of that top triangularish piece was pretty rotten.
I also removed some of the paint/epoxy that was present in order to make a smooth transition later when I apply more epoxy.
The next step is to apply Rot Fix to the exposed wood -- the wood soaks it up and kills current rot while also helping to prevent future rot. After I've done that, I will do a bit of rough sanding, then I will fill the major areas with SculpWood and the smaller areas with an expoxy/Mahogany sawdust mix. A aluminum trim piece goes on the very front of the boat, so I'll have to get creative with the SculpWood so that the piece fits comfortably. Luckily, SculpWood is great stuff and is easy to form.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
She be flipped!

Getting the boat flipped is important so that the wood on the bottom of the boat can be repaired: remove rotten wood, put in filler, sand, paint, etc. It took the help of 3 other guys at the storage yard to flip the boat. I think the boat could be carried by 2 people, but you need at least 3 to flip it over... and having a 4th made the job really simple. On paper, the boat ways 275lbs, but I'm not sure if that is the boat by itself or if that includes the mast & other rigging. The big silver tarp I bought covers the whole length of the boat which is very convenient. It is secured down to the sawhorses using bungee cords. The boat should stay nice and dry now so that none of this hard work is wasted!
My only issue now is finding a little stool so that I can reach the top of the boat! ;)
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Getting the lowdown
Sharon, the owner of the boat, met with me this evening to give me a quick overview on how to do some of the work that I will be performing on the boat: getting rid of rotten wood, putting in 'Rot Fix' to help prevent future wood rot, filling holes with either SculpWood or epoxy resin, sanding, priming, painting, & varnishing. I now have a bit of a toolkit to pull from in order to get this thing ready to sail!
Most of the cool products we're using to fix up the boat are from System Three, very cool stuff:
Rot Fix, SculpWood 2-part filler, Phase Two Epoxy Resin:



Wednesday, May 10, 2006
General cleanup
The boat has been sitting outside and wasn't covered too well, so there was a bit of water in the boat... by "a bit", I mean a few inches! The inside of the boat was epoxied and painted to the hilt, so in theory, the water didn't hurt much. In any case, I bailed it out using a big sponge, and put on a new huge tarp that I got to keep future water out. I also took most parts out of the boat and put them in storage so they wouldn't get ruined.