Putting the new case in!
Having helped me take the old case out, Will came round again to help put the new one in.
Before we did this there were a couple of other jobs that had been complete. Firstly Dave Chiz helped me (as my hangover made me incapable) get a totally accurate centre line on the boat. This is absolutely imperative if you are going to get the case back in straight!
Secondly I 'cut out the dead wood' from a strange hole that was in the hull, hidden at the back of the starboard buoyancy tank. It looked like the laminates had not bonded properly, so they had shove a load of cascamite into it whilst building. Epoxy cab be used for this buy not cascamite as it is too brittle. I chased back all the rotten wood and again fed in warm epoxy several times. Once that was done I filled with epoxy with fillers in.
Fitting the case was again quite straight forward. We located the back of the case on the centre line and then screwed through form underneath. Once this was secure we aligned the front to the case to ensure it was parallel to the centre line. The top was then clamped in place to ensure that was also on the centre line making the whole case square. The screw holes were drilled, then the whole case removed. Epoxy was mixed and applied then the case was screwed in and re aligned.
these
picture were all taken before it was screwed in.
The following day I applied a very small fillet to the join between the hog and case. The job will be finished completely when the boat is turned over, and warm epoxy fed into the gap between the ply of the case and the hull. Warming it makes the epoxy thinner and allows it to run into any small gaps, sealing it completely.