Anyway, there was nothing for it and I rowed out into the gale and made a start on the starboard locker top, which had delaminated badly.
Anyway, I cracked on removing the old locker top and the piano hinge. Not hard, the plywood had delaminated so badly it pulled off the hinge.
No photos until I completed the job, so here's the new top in place:
Painted Grey to almost match the hull colour. New stainless hinges from eBay, expensive boaty paint and not very accurately cut angles... :-)
But it works.
I drilled the new screw holes with this:
Remember it? My 12v wired power drill. Works a treat off the boat battery, no recharging needed.
The plywood is so thick that I had to space the hinges off the edge of the cockpit, so they look a bit odd from this angle:
But, two hours after getting on board I had a new spiffy locker top. The port side is not as badly delaminated, but I will get around to changing that too later.
Nice!
ReplyDeleteGoing to have to do mine again... and after just two years... crap job by yours truly.. I'm not going to bugger about next time - I'm epoxying them before I paint...
Mine lasted exactly the same amount of time. I used external ply, rather than marine ply. The rudder I made Jim was marine ply and was ubmersed for 2 years and didn't delaminate in that time. So this time I used marine ply on the locker top.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of epoxy and glass sheathing, but I settled for paint to make it match the hull. Decent hinges this time too so should be strong too.
We'll see how long it lasts.