Stern knee removed

[Concordia..41]

http://www.sailingwithsarah.com/Pic/Outstblg.jpg

By leading with the most dramatic picture, I don't know how many will want to see the steps that led to this, but for the dedicated group of voyeuristic supporters following our saga:

http://www.sailingwithsarah.com/removingsternknee.htm

Also guys, I know your wives probably all think they're married to the smartest man in the world (most days LOL), but Dave never ceases to amaze me with his ability to assess a problem and construct a solution. This was an additional support he added to the transom area prior to removing the stern knee. No mess, no fuss, just a simple, "I'm going to Home Depot to get a couple of 4" x 4"s." An hour later:

http://www.sailingwithsarah.com/Pic/Transomsupport1.jpg

http://www.sailingwithsarah.com/Pic/Transomsupport2.jpg

[cs]

Margo you need to go out and find you a photo of a Concordia under sail and have it made into poster size. Than take that poster and place it over your workbench. When you start getting down looking at that big hole in your boat just look at the poster.

Chad

[nedL]

Beautiful work Dave & Margo. You guys MUST be getting close to the end of the 'excavation part' (I hope). We are all looking forward to seeing Sarah go back together! smile.gif

[kialoa]

Margo
Nice work. I will be performing the same act on Kialoa shortly,she had rot just forward of her dovetail in the sternpost, someone dug it out and placed a dutchman in with 3m 5200. Should be fun.
Was Sarah's sternpost warped in place or do you think the drying out this summer had something to do with it ?
Rich

[Scott Rosen]

Thanks for the pictures Margo. It looks like you and Dave are doing a thorough and careful job.

[Rich VanValkenburg]

Consider all of this the fun part. smile.gif

Rich

[Concordia..41]

Chad,
Actually I have a photo we took on board Arapaho looking up at full sails. I also have another taken from Arapaho's cockpit heeled over with water sluicing down the side deck. When the dust clears, those pictures will be the first thing put in Sarah's interior so she'll remember how good it can be.

Also, you'll either understand completely or think I'm off the deep end for real, but I took Sarah's builder's plate with us to New England and smuggled it aboard in my bag when we sailed on Praxilla and Arapaho. So a little piece of her had a sail smile.gif

OK, I'll just be sitting here waiting for the guys in the white coats :rolleyes:

[ 10-13-2002, 02:58 AM: Message edited by: Concordia..41 ]

[True Love]

Margo, I don't think you're nuts. You were just sowing the seeds of hope for Sarah. I get it and I like it.

[Dave Fleming]

I gotta say it, sorry Margo and the other Dave but, I am not thrilled with the construction I see in that hull so far.
Just doesn't feel good to me, on the light side and, to these tired eyes, some shortcuts were taken in the build. Fer instance, I thought everyone knew the trick of 'nicking' drifts to help them hold better as a hull ages but, doesn't look like that to me from where I sit on the left coast. :rolleyes:
Thank goodness Dave shows a ton of good work in his rebuild!

[Rich VanValkenburg]

Dave Fleming, can you explain to us what 'nicking' is?

Rich

[Dave Fleming]

Nicking is the way of making sure a drift hooks in place. Think of a fish hook with its barbs and that is what a nicked drift looks like.
Easy enough to do, just take a cold chisel and nick the smooth shaft of the drift so that once driven the barbs or nicks resist withdrawal.
Good for building but hell on repairs as that damn drift will be that harder to remove. smile.gif
Another item is when setting up to bore for drifts or bolts, make a template of your proposed fasteners. So that later when you wish to place a bolt you find that you DON'T already have placed a nice fat drift or other critical fastener right smack in the path!
Am I making sense here?

[ 10-12-2002, 02:28 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[True Love]

Aye, Dave you are. I've had to remove fishhooks from many a paw, and get your drift (pun intended).

I'm curious if the stern knee was oak, Margo? And can anyone explain why the thing would twist so badly? Was it due to inappropriate "fixes" applied to the area which put unnatural, or at least, unintended, torques on the knee? Or was it from drying out on the hard? (Isn't that pretty torqued for drying out?)

[True Love]

Dave F and all,

Please forgive my ignorance, but one thing I noticed in the above photo is that there appears to be two floors associated with each frame - is that the case and if so is this usual? Or is it that some of the frames are sistered and that's what I'm seeing?

[Dave Fleming]

The 'real Sara's Dave' is best qualified to answer the questions directly related to Sara.
I defer to his comments sure to follow.

[Concordia..41]

That's not ignorance, it's a good question. The "triples" that you see in this area = two frames and a floor as it is directly under the engine bed. Each floor has a complete frame and a shorter frame that runs just past the engine bed. Both frames have bronze straps that are through bolted to the planks and run up as high as the engine beds.

Dave

The stern knee was oak. Dave and the shipwright that owns the yard where we are both think it was shrinkage. As to what caused what, it's kindof an "chicken or the egg" thing. The boat was built in '55 so that's 47 years to gradually shrink and twist. The little wedges under the floors were so oil saturated as to be indistinguishable so may have been pretty old or may have just gotten saturated recently (there was a beautiful copper oil pan - bottom looked like swiss cheese when I got the crud scraped out - guess the crud was holding it together). I'd guess the allthread and dutchmen were put in in the last 20 years. They look fairly new and the boat's been in St. Augustine for about 10 years, and we don't know of any major repairs being done here.

We bought her in July of 2000 and that winter one particularly cold day when we couldn't work outside, I tracked down 2 of the 12 former owners using the Internet. Both of them owned her in the early 80's and we charming and happy to discuss her at length. I should dig out that info and reach out to them again plus step up the efforts to find the others. Maybe I can get Donn West on the case. He'd probably find them all in less than an hour. :D

BTW - If I'm not heard from again, it's because I hijacked Dave's post. ;)

- M

[ 10-13-2002, 02:55 AM: Message edited by: Concordia..41 ]

[True Love]

Thanks Dave and Margo. I very much enjoy your posts and want to encourage you both to persevere. You are doing a great job and will have such a beautiful boat when you are finished. I appreciate your photos and look forward to the "next round." - TL

[Dave Fleming]

How about KNEEs real Hackmatack ones?
Hackmatack Knees (http://www.newmansknees.com/)