16th 18th and 19th April
Master boat builder and veteran of three Mk IV conversions Dave Chisholm kindly helped me for the afternoon of the 16th. Initially I was scared of the vast array of power tools he brought with him, being the old wood whittler I am. However with a little persuasion I learned to admire these powerful beauties!
Whilst I honed a new knee for the transom Dave deftly removed the majority of the side tanks in a single piece. We then spent some time measuring from a point on the bow to points on the aft edge of the hull. When we wee completely happy that we had a square edge marked we carefully ground away the hull to a neat square edge. A few cans of Stella later (only after measuring :-)) the first part of the boat had be re attached. The knee was in place and the minor delamination of the back edge was epoxied.
The next task was to make the new transom. For this I laminated two 4mm pieces of marine ply together with one 5mm piece of the sapele ply. The inside piece was cut accurately to shape to sit inside the hull. The other two were cut large to sit flush with the outside back edge. The 9mm protrusion from the back of the boat was 3mm greater than the previous transom, but made up for the material we had to take away to create a strong back edge. Overall effect is the same length.
To laminate up the three pieces had their inside surfaces coated in epoxy, then placed on a large sheet of 22mm ply (any flat surface will do) A sheet of polythene was placed on the 22mm ply first to stop the transom sticking. The three sheets were placed together, then another sheet of polythene on top. Now the key here is weight!!! Lots of it on top of the laminates to compress as much as possible - then leave! Next morning you should have a beatiful new transom!
The following night I fitted it. The bracing strut in the picture is not parallel! The boat had to be pinched quite a way to get it back to the original width. In the end it glued on nicely. Braces back to the garage door kept it in place whilst the epoxy dried.
