Mama H Chicago
Mother of sailboats
Very sad day at the Boats by Chandler Boat Yard. While removing the aluminum rail from Fishnet, we discovered that most of her deck was no longer attached to her hull. In addition, someone had used epoxy in one section perhaps trying to seal it, and in the rest of it, a heavy amount of plumbers putty, yes, plumbers putty was used before riveting the aluminum back on. In many instances, the aluminum was drilled all the way through both layers with the rivet…
As we began splitting her open to see how bad the water damage was inside, we heard a crack. The back of the storage compartment split open. :-(.
There was a moment of silence. Then obscenities. Then rum. My helper declared her gone immediately. As a paramedic and a person with an additional 35 years on me over my helper, I explained that I wasn’t prepared to call time of death yet, and we said our apologies to Fishnet and took a moment to reassess options (and I poured more Mount Gay in my glass).
While my helper kid is probably right, that he won’t be able to patch her strongly enough internally where she cracked, I told him that I could not give up on her without consulting you guys here first. If it’s truly a lost cause, I’ll turn Fishnet into a donor boat so that Bluegirl and En V can be complete and have spare parts.
If she is salvageable, we will try whatever is suggested to make her sailable. Either way, I may wrap her up and put her someplace safe, warm and dry, until we can resurrect her…
Here are pics looking aft from inside the storage area (1972 Sunfish), forward from between the split deck and hull, and the for added color, the plumbers putty and epoxy on the aluminum rail.
Thoughts please? Fishnet was my first Sunfish and I’ve actually shed a tear or two thinking that she’s not salvageable, but I’m also a 54 year old mother of three humans who can accept reality if it comes down to it.
As we began splitting her open to see how bad the water damage was inside, we heard a crack. The back of the storage compartment split open. :-(.
There was a moment of silence. Then obscenities. Then rum. My helper declared her gone immediately. As a paramedic and a person with an additional 35 years on me over my helper, I explained that I wasn’t prepared to call time of death yet, and we said our apologies to Fishnet and took a moment to reassess options (and I poured more Mount Gay in my glass).
While my helper kid is probably right, that he won’t be able to patch her strongly enough internally where she cracked, I told him that I could not give up on her without consulting you guys here first. If it’s truly a lost cause, I’ll turn Fishnet into a donor boat so that Bluegirl and En V can be complete and have spare parts.
If she is salvageable, we will try whatever is suggested to make her sailable. Either way, I may wrap her up and put her someplace safe, warm and dry, until we can resurrect her…
Here are pics looking aft from inside the storage area (1972 Sunfish), forward from between the split deck and hull, and the for added color, the plumbers putty and epoxy on the aluminum rail.
Thoughts please? Fishnet was my first Sunfish and I’ve actually shed a tear or two thinking that she’s not salvageable, but I’m also a 54 year old mother of three humans who can accept reality if it comes down to it.