4-21-17
Well it is almost sailing season here in southern Indiana but we are not quite ready to hit the water yet. We have a few weeks to go yet before we can take the Memory Maker back to her slip on Lake Monroe and work is still progressing on Miss Friday.
I have continued to sand down the hull to get most of the paint off and I am down to the wood in a lot of areas.
I sanded down to the wood here first to see what I was working with. It looks like the only areas to have any fiberglass on them are the seams. It almost looks like the rest of the boat was just sealed with paint.
I continued to sand on her with my palm sander and 60 grit whenever I had time to get covered in sanding dust. By last Saturday I was almost done.
I had seen an area on her stern when we picked her up that appeared to be cracked so I wanted to make sure I checked that area out and repaired it. Once I got the paint sanded off that area I could see we had bigger issues.
This much polyester body filler is never a good thing to see. It all had to come out and be repaired correctly if I was going to do this. So I gave up the sander and broke out the angle grinder with a fiber wheel because it was so darn thick. It took a while but I was finally able to get down to the wood under the repair.
If she could only talk I would love to know what caused this damage. I just can't imagine it happen through normal use. I asked Adrian but he had no idea nor did he remember her ever being yellow either. That was her original color as the hull sides and stern where yellow with an off white bottom. Later she was painted off white all over.
Who ever repaired her damage got rather creative as they used a piece of what I call chicken wire mesh as a back up for the fiberglass cloth and filler they used. I could not figure out what we would be causing the sparks as I was grinding the filler out with the fiber wheel.
Once I got all the filler removed I could easily see where the sparks were coming from. I am in the process of getting the area all cleaned out and cutting a patch to go in that hole and will epoxy it into place once it is all ready.
We plan on adding deck hatches to all 4 of the sealed areas both for access to storage space but also so I can epoxy the inside of those areas as well. It really looks like it is just raw wood inside the sealed area. Granted it has lasted 50 years like this but I would really like to see her last 50 more.
I am hoping to get the patch glued in place tomorrow since it looks the weather will not be conducive to outside activity. That will give me time to work on her a bit before we go off to a disco party. Long story.
I did fire up the motor for the Memory Maker last night and got her ready to go for another season. I know I should probably change the oil but it doesn't have 10 hours on it, it is as clean as it was the day I put it in, and is just as full. I am not doing it. She fired right up on the second pull. Thank God for Avgas. As long as I have access to aviation fuel I will never worry about fuel related issues with my small engines.
Hopefully the next up date will show a repaired hole in Miss Friday's stern and we will be closer to actually sailing her.
Come join us as we chronicle our adventures refurbishing our sailboat, teaching ourselves to sail, kayaking, paddle boarding, camping, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, and just enjoying life to it's fullest!!!
Friday, April 21, 2017
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Meet Mirror 1675
4-5-2017
Mirror 1675, or Miss Friday as we have come to know her, is a very special little sailboat. Not only is she a 53 year old handmade wood sailboat but she was built in England in 1965 by the grandfather of a good friend of ours. She was handed down through the family to his parents who sailed her often in their younger days. Sadly his father passed away and his mother chose to downsize houses which meant Miss Friday would no longer have a spot to hang in the garage. That's where we entered the picture. Once we heard the story of the little sailboat we had to see her. As the story goes Adrian's grandfather who built her did not have to work on Friday's in England. Once he got her built she became his "Friday Mistress" as he was sailing her every Friday when the weather permitted. So his Friday Mistress turned into Miss Friday and the name stuck.
Adrian loaded her up and brought her to his house where Cindy and I could meet the little girl. We found her sitting in the grass by his garage in pieces. I had done a little research on the model and knew just enough to be dangerous but in about 10 mins I had her all rigged and ready to hit the water!
She is just the neatest little sailboat! Not bad for 53 year old sails! It is so simplistic that it cracked me up how some of it worked. Between that and the fact that I am a sucker for a good story I had to have her! Adrian said his mum really wanted to see her go to someone who was going to fix her up and sail her again. I assured him that was our intention because to just look at her she was ready to sail away if she only had water and wind. We agreed on a price and then returned the next day with our flat bed trailer to take her to her new home. Lets see, that makes watercraft number #9 for us. Must be like shoes, you can never have enough.
I could see a few areas of concern that needed to be addressed before we tried her out but I was hopeful we could at least sail her once to see how she did before we really dove into the restoration process. After making a few repairs I thought she was ready to give it a go so we loaded her back up on the trailer behind Juicy the Jeep and off we went to Starve Hollow state park. Again, it only took a few minutes to get her rigged and ready. Life jackets on, just in case. Time to splash her in the water.
Cindy and I carried her down the boat ramp and set her in the water. Before we could even get our first foot in her she started taking on water, at a rather brisk rate I might add. It became apparent in just mere seconds we were not going to be able to sail her and if we did not hurry up and get her out of the water quickly we might have to drag her out with Juicy! Well Buggers!
Back home we went, a bit bummed we did not get to sail her but excited at the prospect that we could eventually sail just mere minutes from our house instead of having to drive an hour to sail the Memory Maker at Lake Monroe. Don't worry. Were keeping the Memory maker, for now at least.
With other projects to do first, Miss Friday sat patiently in the garage with the Memory Maker all winter waiting on me to get time to fix her. Well After finishing our bedroom built ins I finally made the time to get started on her. The first thing to do was to get her flipped over so I could start stripping away all the layers of paint from the last 50 years. Luckily she is very light, maybe 90 lbs, and I was able to get her set up on saw horses by myself as Cindy is still recovering from her ACL surgery.
Here she is with all the keel strips removed and waiting for the temps to warm up enough that I can start stripping the paint. I had to make some measurements so I knew were the stern hardware went once I am done with the fiberglass and epoxy.
It finally warmed up enough and the fun began.
If you have stripped paint before you know it is far from fun. As I stripped off the layers I could see numerous stress cracks in the hull from age and a few areas of damage that had been repaired with what looks like JB weld. No wonder she made a better watering can than a boat when we put her in the water.
I am down to the original paint on the bottom now but the stripper wont touch it.
Once I get to that point on all the sides and stern I will start sanding with 60 grit and make the needed repairs to get her water tight again. Once that is done then I can cover her with 6 oz fiberglass cloth and start rolling on the epoxy.
Cindy has already picked out the color of blue she wants me to paint the hull so hopefully in a month or so we will be ready to head back to a local lake and give her another try. If your wondering why I am trying to protect the gravel in the garage with the tarp it isn't so much about protecting the gravel as it is being able to clean up all the pieces of paint that I scrap off her. We are finally going to pour the concrete in the garage this year and I can't wait!!! We just hope we can still get the Memory Maker in the garage door once we do as it will be a bit shorter opening with the concrete.
Hopefully the next time you see Miss Friday she will be naked!!!
Mirror 1675, or Miss Friday as we have come to know her, is a very special little sailboat. Not only is she a 53 year old handmade wood sailboat but she was built in England in 1965 by the grandfather of a good friend of ours. She was handed down through the family to his parents who sailed her often in their younger days. Sadly his father passed away and his mother chose to downsize houses which meant Miss Friday would no longer have a spot to hang in the garage. That's where we entered the picture. Once we heard the story of the little sailboat we had to see her. As the story goes Adrian's grandfather who built her did not have to work on Friday's in England. Once he got her built she became his "Friday Mistress" as he was sailing her every Friday when the weather permitted. So his Friday Mistress turned into Miss Friday and the name stuck.
Adrian loaded her up and brought her to his house where Cindy and I could meet the little girl. We found her sitting in the grass by his garage in pieces. I had done a little research on the model and knew just enough to be dangerous but in about 10 mins I had her all rigged and ready to hit the water!
She is just the neatest little sailboat! Not bad for 53 year old sails! It is so simplistic that it cracked me up how some of it worked. Between that and the fact that I am a sucker for a good story I had to have her! Adrian said his mum really wanted to see her go to someone who was going to fix her up and sail her again. I assured him that was our intention because to just look at her she was ready to sail away if she only had water and wind. We agreed on a price and then returned the next day with our flat bed trailer to take her to her new home. Lets see, that makes watercraft number #9 for us. Must be like shoes, you can never have enough.
I could see a few areas of concern that needed to be addressed before we tried her out but I was hopeful we could at least sail her once to see how she did before we really dove into the restoration process. After making a few repairs I thought she was ready to give it a go so we loaded her back up on the trailer behind Juicy the Jeep and off we went to Starve Hollow state park. Again, it only took a few minutes to get her rigged and ready. Life jackets on, just in case. Time to splash her in the water.
Cindy and I carried her down the boat ramp and set her in the water. Before we could even get our first foot in her she started taking on water, at a rather brisk rate I might add. It became apparent in just mere seconds we were not going to be able to sail her and if we did not hurry up and get her out of the water quickly we might have to drag her out with Juicy! Well Buggers!
Back home we went, a bit bummed we did not get to sail her but excited at the prospect that we could eventually sail just mere minutes from our house instead of having to drive an hour to sail the Memory Maker at Lake Monroe. Don't worry. Were keeping the Memory maker, for now at least.
With other projects to do first, Miss Friday sat patiently in the garage with the Memory Maker all winter waiting on me to get time to fix her. Well After finishing our bedroom built ins I finally made the time to get started on her. The first thing to do was to get her flipped over so I could start stripping away all the layers of paint from the last 50 years. Luckily she is very light, maybe 90 lbs, and I was able to get her set up on saw horses by myself as Cindy is still recovering from her ACL surgery.
Here she is with all the keel strips removed and waiting for the temps to warm up enough that I can start stripping the paint. I had to make some measurements so I knew were the stern hardware went once I am done with the fiberglass and epoxy.
It finally warmed up enough and the fun began.
If you have stripped paint before you know it is far from fun. As I stripped off the layers I could see numerous stress cracks in the hull from age and a few areas of damage that had been repaired with what looks like JB weld. No wonder she made a better watering can than a boat when we put her in the water.
I am down to the original paint on the bottom now but the stripper wont touch it.
Once I get to that point on all the sides and stern I will start sanding with 60 grit and make the needed repairs to get her water tight again. Once that is done then I can cover her with 6 oz fiberglass cloth and start rolling on the epoxy.
Cindy has already picked out the color of blue she wants me to paint the hull so hopefully in a month or so we will be ready to head back to a local lake and give her another try. If your wondering why I am trying to protect the gravel in the garage with the tarp it isn't so much about protecting the gravel as it is being able to clean up all the pieces of paint that I scrap off her. We are finally going to pour the concrete in the garage this year and I can't wait!!! We just hope we can still get the Memory Maker in the garage door once we do as it will be a bit shorter opening with the concrete.
Hopefully the next time you see Miss Friday she will be naked!!!
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