Home at Last!!!

The boat was delivered Monday. It wasn't easy getting it in my driveway, but thankfully the guy from the yard was a very skilled driver. The first thing I did was suck all the water out of the boat and then set up a heater and fan in the cabin to dry it out over night. As I said in an earlier post, I was concerned about all of the corrosion in the aft bilge area surround the lifting eye and plate. I scraped out as much corroded metal and debris from the area as I could and applied multiple coats of liquid wrench to the aft keel nuts. Next I bought a 1 1/8 deep socket and a large torque wrench. I was able to loosen the nuts with little force. I removed the rusty eye/plate assembly and discovered that there were more bolts under the assembly. They appeared to be tight and in good condition. I then cleaned up the nuts and bolts using a small wire brush attachment on my dremel. I was very happy find two rust free bolts underneath the old bilge paint and corrosion. My original plan was to tighten the bolts with 60-80 lbs or torque but I think I will leave them alone because they appear to be tight.

Next I began to remove the old deck hardware. I was able to pull everything off the cabin and cockpit area. I am going to get some help removing the other deck fittings. In the next couple of days I will enlarge the holes slightly and look for any balsa core rot. The balsa around the old instrument cutouts appeared to be in good condition for the most part so when my MAS epoxy order arrives I will start patching those holes.

Today I spent some more time sanding the bottom paint and I was pleased with my progress. I decided to try a 3m stripper pad attached to my drill. This worked very well for removing the thick antifouling layers. The key is to apply ample pressure and constantly move the pad in a back and forth motion. The result looks splotchy and uneven but I should easily be able to smooth it out with my orbital sander. Based on my progress thus far I probably have 5-8 more hours of sanding to do. This will mean that the total time sanding should be no more than 12 hours.

I recently purchased two books that I have found very informative. The first book by Don Casey is the "Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual." This book is an incredible bargain at 37.77 from Amazon. The book combines six of Casey's previous books into a single hardcover. It covers everything from painting to canvas work and I can already tell it will be a great resource. The second book is "Fiberglass Repair" by David and Zora Aiken. This book provides a more in depth look at fiberglass repairs and also offers some great suggestions for hull and deck reinforcement.

I have been doing a lot of planning and research in the last week. I am going to order 1/4 sheet of smoked Lexan from a local plastics supplier to make a new main hatch, sliding hatches, windows and front hatch. I also have decided to paint the topsides with Dupont Imron. I found a great paint store the carries Imron and I purchased a gallon of their generic high-solids primer. I am not completely decided on the color scheme yet but I am leaning towards a Swedish flag scheme ( Blue with yellow trim).

Day one

Today was the first day I worked on the boat. I wanted sand the keel and get a better sense of the crack between the keel/hull joint. The good news is that the crack appears to be more cosmetic than anything. I talked the the owner of the boat yard about it and he agreed. Also, I was pleasantly surprised how fast the the old bottom paint came off. I used a small bosch random orbital sander with 60 grit paper. As you can see from the pictures there were two layers of blue paint before I hit the lead (grey). I think as long as i remove the dark blue antifouling completely I shouldn't have to completely sand off the light blue to the lead. I tried to be careful about getting into the gel coat on the stub keel section of the hull, but I had to in some places where the gel coat was chipped or cracked. I am a little confused with the trailing edge of the keel because it appears to be be fiberglass.

Thanks to some keen observations from a Skeddadle forum member I was mad aware of the fact that the combing on the cockpit had been modified. It was extended all the way to the transom. Neither one of of could see a logical reason for this modification but when I climbed up to check it out today the situation got even stranger. Apparently someone modified the port side combing but left the starboard side stock. I felt like I was looking a a psychological test picture. "What is missing from the Photo?" So, anyway I plan on removing the port side mod when I begin working on the deck. The mod area was the only place on the boat that showed signs of blistering (go figure). So below are some pictures of the keel partially sanded and a new side shot of the boat. If anyone has anymore suggestions I would love to hear them. Thanks

Goals and Restoration Schedule

As I previously stated, the Merit met my four buying requirements:its fast, trailerable, big enough to sleep 2-4, and relatively inexpensive(for now). Now I have to consider how I will use the boat and how much money/time I want to put into it. I have never raced but I would definitely like to at some point. I would also like to take the boat to the San Juans for a couple of weeks in the summer. So I am going to restore/outfit the boat in a way that allows both of those goals. I have divided the work into four phases: the bottom, the topsides, the deck, and the cabin. My plan is to do the bottom first, followed by the topsides and the deck. I will work on the cabin while I am waiting for paint to dry on the rest of the boat. Here is a rough breakdown of the steps and products I intend to use for each phase.

I. Bottom
Intro: My primary concern with the bottom is the crack between the keel/hull joint. From what I have read this is common problem and often referred to as a "smile". Keel flex seems to be common on late model Merits, but this boat was built in 1980. Upon inspection the first two keel bolts (towards the bow) are sealed in white paint and look to be in good condition(as you can see in the slideshow pics). When I took the pictures there was water in the bilge so I didn't get a really good look. (Note:this water is just rain water as the boat has been sitting uncovered in Oregon for a year). The to bolts furthest aft were even harder to see because of dirt/sediment in the bilge and the eye hook plate on top of them. At first I was a little concerned that these bolts were not tightened down, but not I think this has something to do with the plate/lifting eye. So once the boat is dropped off at my house I will suck the water out of the bilge and get a better look. I really don't want to drop the keel and rebed it and from what I have gathered this procedure would only be worth it if: A. the boat was going offshore or B. the boat was really expensive. So this brings me to the plan. I will outline my plan for the bottom now and try to post the rest soon.

A. step 1-paint removal
1. Remove old bottom paint using gel-coat safe stripper, large two-handed scraper, and random orbital sander.
2. Grind down cracked areas in the keel.
3. Repair keel: I still have some confusion about this step but my plan is to first remove as much debris from the crack
as possible and fill it using sikaflex 291 lot or 3m 5200. I have heard arguments for and against both of these
products. Some say that 5200 is too permanent and inflexible. There argument was that this joint was naturally going
shift a bit and that a product like the sikaflex would allow for this. But I have also heard that the sikaflex wouldn't be
strong enough. Some have also suggested epoxy. So if anyon has any suggestions I would really appreciate it.
4. Fair/repair keel and hull with epoxy. I just ordered the west system epoxy dvd so I should have a better sense of this
process soon. I was also planning to make some NACA 14 templates to help the shaping process.
5. Prime with vc-tar 2
6. Roll topcoats with vc-17m

The boat

I recently acquired this "diamond in the rough" from a local boat yard in Eugene, OR. After doing a lot of research and spending hours on craigslist I was happy to finally find a boat that met my needs. The boat is fast, trailerable, big enough to sleep 2-4 people and most importantly it was cheap. I paid $2500 for the boat, a trailer and sails. The boat needs a lot of work as you will see from the pictures. I was initially hesitant to buy the boat because of some potential problems, but after the sail bags revealed a mylar racing main in good condition and 2 usable dacron sails I decided to go for it. 

This blog is my attempt to chronicle the restoration process and hopefully get some feedback from more experienced sailors (particularly Merit 25 owners).  I will try to include as many pictures and details as possible. If anyone has any recommendations or questions feel free to respond to my blog posts and I will try to get back to you asap.