Hull Repairs on Simba Dec. 12, 2010 St. Marys Boat Services

Shake, rattle and roll.  That's what Simba is doing.  The wind is very strong today as a cold front preceeded by a NW wind arriving in St. Marys.  Simba normally is a power boat, but sitting out here in the boatyard on "the Hard", she is wrapped within a blue plastic "sail" 30 feet high and 60 feet long supported by the painters' scaffolding.  My flat screen TV, extended a couple of feet from the saloon wall on its adjustable scissor mount, at times moves in sync with the rest of the boat as the blasts hit our sail, literally rocking the boat.  The scaffolding knocks against the hull, plastic pops and wops, and rope ties slap.  It is fortunate I am alone on the boat for when it occasionally shakes, the thought immediately pops up "could we blow over?".  Each time I picture the pairs of three-legged adjustable supports (jack stands) that keep the boat upright.  They are steel and are connected with taught chains that pass under the keel.   They are only made of 1 ½ inch or so pipe, but with their three feet spread wide and welded together in a triangle, are a vast improvement over the wooden posts they used to keep Simba I upright at the marina in Spain.

I finished filling pits in the hull and rudders today with the thick epoxy paste.  I was forced to stop a couple of times when the wind blew glass-blasted glass and paint chips off the scaffolding platforms onto my work.  There is no hiding the fact that Simba had a bad case of acne as I am not about to spread the goop over the entire hull, but by having a welder plug any holes with steel and filling the deeper craters with the very strong epoxy , she should not spring any more leaks.

Post script Dec. 28.  For over thirty years water dripped from the rudder shafts inside the engine room, a common occurrence as water lubricates the bearing there.  On most boats this water runs forward into the bilge.  But because a frame member had to be removed to accommodate each shaft, Simba's builder added an additional brace which blocked the flow of water.  I sometimes sponged up the small amounts of water, but over the years, and shielded from observation by rust scale, corrosion ate away at the steel to the point where the sand blaster punched several small holes.  Welder Jimmie placed new steel plates on the outside of the hull covering several square feet around the shaft ports.  In addition, I will shortly pour paint down between the new plates and the old to prevent any further deterioration of the old steel.