Bonsoir

Bravo for the surgery. Be carefull for the recovery.

Amicalement

Eric

Annie has explained this several times. Her method is taken from the Gudgeon Brother’s manual on West epoxy. It goes something like this.

• 1.      Start with dry-fitting the item with wooden screws.
• 2.      Mark the position of the item carefully.
• 3.      Remove the item and drill up the screw holes to about double diameter.
• 4.      Fill the holes thoroughly with epoxy. If the surface is vertical, I would first brush epoxy resin thoroughly in the holes and then squeeze in thickened epoxy afterwards
• 5.      Put the item back into position and drill holes for the screws again. Actually, Gudgeon Brothers recommend using machine screws as wooden screws, that is without using nuts (if the plywood/wood is thick enough).

Anyway, this prevents water from entering the endgrain of the ply.

In hot and humid conditions, it appears to be the only alternative.
Personally I would remove the two screws on one window on Redwing 2 after a couple of weeks of hardening the glue. Then I would just seal the screw holes with epoxy. If the window doesn’t come loose during the next two weeks, I would do the same to the rest of the windows.

No guarantees...

Arne

Looks nice, Gary.

I would keep a close eye on the windows. Rotten cabin sides on my Pelorus testify that plastic screwed to the outside face of a gently curving ply cabin side, with small thru-bolts at about 12" centres, can fail even when bedded on mastic. It is possible the builder simply did not do a good job, although it did look OK about seven years ago. If there is any sign of water getting into one of them, say in a few years time, you can always rip it off and re-do it I guess. Rain water and humid climate is plywood's worst enemy, but I guess it's just a matter of keeping an eye on things. (Lovely looking sail, I might add).

Just a little update. I've now reached the point where I am putting paint,  as opposed to stripping it off. I'm getting close to flipping the boat to tackle the hull.

Anonymous wrote:

Gary,
I have been shown close-ups of some sails that Paul has made, and they look just fantastic. However, I don’t want this to scare anyone away from trying their hands as amateur sail makers. With a domestic sewing machine without a so-called walking foot, it is not easy to keep an even stitch length, and with the amateur’s lack of practice, the seams may wander a little off the perfect line. Even so, these amateur stitchings will be about just as strong as those made by pros, so please, go ahead.

Attached is the write-up showing how we made a new (48sqm) sail for my friend, Håvard’s Edmond Dantes, back in 2012. At that time, I had only three junk sails behind me, the last one in 2009, and Håvard had never used a sewing machine. The seams are anything but perfect, but the sail still turned out to work fine.

Good luck with you second Redwing!

Arne

Part 1, sewing...
http://goo.gl/rH5cTz

Part 2, rigging and sailing...
https://bit.ly/3rvKyyi

Arne i have nothing against amateur built sails, and as you know i built Redwings sail using your method. Paul offered me a good deal that was too good to pass up. And I am interested in trying out his method of adding camber. 

PS Thanks regarding Redwing ll. :)