Before I left we constructed a tent over the whole boat to keep snow and precipitation off her bare decks. The protection from the wind alone can really warm things up.
2/11/05 - OK... to catch up and get this website operating in the way I had intended. I will give a summary with a few pictures, describing what has transpired since February of 2004. I'll give monthly updates from now on... I hope.
Summary of 2004: Through the winter months into the early spring, we spent the days sanding and ripping off old glass where we could. I had intended to just get the boat ready enough to get in the water for the summer of 2004, but once I saw what I had got myself into... I thought I'd just take a year and half and do everything once, the right way. I'm glad I did. I knew there was going to be some areas of dry-rot and so, went right to work on those. The major areas were: the inboard-aft section of the port hull, the inboard side of both bows, and the cockpit coaming and the decks beneath. Other smaller areas were in the bilge of the hulls -- the inboard side. The laminates had dry-rotted, but the hull was sound due to the thick glass and epoxy that had been applied to the keels by John and Alfred Kumalae about 10 years before.
So as spring 2004 progressed, with some of the best weather one could hope for, we continued to peel and peel. Eventually, we had removed all decking from the transoms to the front of the wing, and the decking from the bows back about one foot. The area of the hulls that I cut back was from the bow tip back about 4 feet, from the shear to the water line. I did the same on the aft part of the port hull. The stringers and ribs were all in perfect shape!
Another area that we peeled away was under the wing. It had originally been covered with 6oz. cloth. I had remembered that my fathers boat, 'Ipo Kai', did not have any cloth here. In March, I travelled to California where I met up with Warren Seaman. We spent a couple of days together talking boats and CSK history. He told me that later on at CSK they stopped putting cloth on the bottom of the wing because it would delaminate. So, I will be just giving it a coat of paint, then. Although, I'd suspect epoxy would hold tight compared to the polyester resin they used then.
So once the decks were off, I painted the interior areas that I knew were going to be impossible to reach once closed in and then began decking! At this point I was on my own as my cousin had other work at the time. So here I was on the hottest days of summer lugging these sheets of ply around, measuring and re-measuring, and finally cutting, then trimming and trimming.... very tedious. I cut a template of cardboard, but that only gets you so close. I was cutting wide too. I did not want to ruin a piece of wood by trimming off too much. Around the cabin, I glued a strip of mahogany to glue the deck to. I know I'll be adding a few pounds to the boat when done, but her racing days are long gone. I need her to be tough and comfortable for my family and friends.
At some point, I think May, I purchased a trailer. At 12 foot in the beam, she's just barely legal to take down the local roads without permits. I bought a couple of orange flashers and "WIDE LOAD" signs and I'm in business. The boat weighs about 2000lbs. on the trailer, so no problems with hauling. I kept the boat at the boatyard in Port Jefferson until the fall of 2004. At that time, I moved her to a bit of land my mother owns across the street from my house, making working jaunts more frequent!
