Renovating the rear deck
I patiently dismantle the beams (transversal beams that support the deck) in order to reuse them if possible or to use them as a template if not. The water seeped into the 2 port and starboard aft corners, penetrating the transom cheeks and going as far as the beam shelf (a kind of horizontal stringer linking the frames between them).
I admit that at this stage, the deck no longer resembling anything and the rear deck being stripped, I had a great moment of loneliness and doubt, wondering if I was going to be able to put it all back together, because the boat as it was was no longer worth much. A few days/weeks of reflection later, the end-of-year celebrations helping and after some wise advice/reframing from Samir, I was on again.
Rather than continuing to remove healthy but damp parts as I was doing, on Samir's advice, I simply dried the wood using a heat gun... several times so as not to burn it. The reconstruction could start.
In order to recreate a continuituous transom beam, I made scarfs in the transom cheek and the rest of the beam. I created a template taking up the curvature of the painting and glued-laminated boards to obtain the desired thickness.
The beam shelves were rebuilt without difficulty.
I then got down to rebuilding the beams (in the end mostly redone due to parts in poor condition), painted and reattached.
The transom curves have been kept and put back in place. The bolts, often damaged (drillings for other parts) or even broken in 2, were redone: silicon bronze threaded rods cut to length and hammered at one end to obtain heads then embedded from the outside in the planking.
Opposite the beams in place (the transom bolts were placed later). Only missing is the central plank at the rear between the transom beam and the last beam, to support the plywood joining at this point. This plank also reinforces a bolted mooring cock at this location.
Planking/sheer-strake repair
While removing the plywood, I also spotted 2 holes in the starboard sheer-strake, where you enter the cockpit.
The biggest/critical of the 2, about 1 cm in diameter, formed like a housing for a probable worm, 4-5 centimeters long in the thickness of the plank. So there was only about 5mm left on the initial 25mm. I was quite happy that I was able to spot this weakness before I had a hole in the hull!
After repairing the beam shelf, I repaired 3 damaged frames by replacing them on the upper 20-30 cm (jointed and glued with epoxy).
I was then able to prepare the scarfs to receive a new part of the sheer-strake, also scarfed thanks to the "homemade" guide.
Replacement of plywood
The refitting of the plywood was about to start. I used 8 sheets of Okoume 12mm marine plywood, 2500x1220. This product being apparently impossible to find in Belgium, I had to get it supplied from Ratheau in France, whose sales representative Mr Eric Dequatre very kindly took advantage of a personal trip to bring them to Lille where I went to pick them up.
I used 3mm plywood battens to make the templates: I was able to identify the center of the beams, the outer curvature of the hull and the inner curvature of the roof. Reported on plywood, I could cut as accurately as possible and put it in place.
The final screwing in the beams, sheer-strake and beam shelf (the plywood contributes to the rigidity of the deck) was carried out after painting the underside ("ceiling" of the cabins).
In order to perfect the sealing of the plywood, I covered the cuts with epoxy and filled the plywood-plywood and plywood-roof joints with marine glue-mastic.
The deck was then ready to receive the new iroko battens.
Repairing the frames
While renovating the aft cabin, I noticed some cracks in the frames, which fortunately I didn't find in the rest of the boat. Replacing the frames would be tedious (and would involve removing the planks), so I opted to double them up.
After making cardboard templates (4 frames to be doubled), I cut the battens which I then steam-bent and glued together to obtain the desired dimensions.
A few adjustments later, I was able to glue and screw them in place. Depending on the space available around them, some were placed on top of the original frames, others next to them.
