San Juan 21 Class Association

Well we finally got a couple of mild winter days recently so I decided to start cleaning #2560 out and sizing up this project. I read a blog by a guy Tom Scheafer who was doing exactly what I'm going to do (http://sanjuan21restore.blogspot.com/). Get the boat seaworthy first then make it pretty later. I found a Honda bf5 to put on the back of it. The Keel looks like it will work after getting under it and checking it out. I will sort out the trailers later(I have two of these boats). First (After pressure washing) I will need to get the transom fixed as someone drilled drain holes in it.... yeah. It looks like I will be cutting into it and re-glassing at least the bottom portion of the transom. The deck has no soft spots (I'm about 265 so I test well!) but someone pulled the little wiring plate off the top of the deck so it is moist...once again . I really hope I don't need to redo the balsa like Krysia Ry and others. That does not look like fun.
I will be rebedding the hardware with all the latest epoxy methods. Then I will need to make bulkheads which leads me to my first question. I am not going to glass them in but I need to know what kind of 'gasket' is being used between the bulkhead and the hull wall (see pic orange arrow). I know that we do not want hard spots on the hull. Also in the pic (this is not my boat) there seems to be a type of 4x4 post installed (yellow arrow) whaddya think? Overkill?
Then I will need to start the wiring, thank you Kiriti for the awesome write up I will be going back to that post regularly.

I used truck canopy gasket.
Bill

Just go with an aluminum plate bracket and never think about it again. Search for ideas here.

Hello again, has anyone had any good results with the products called Git Rot or CPES by Rotdoctor? I'm thinking that when I re-bed the deck hardware I might use one of these products to help with structural rigidity in the deck core. I would actually drill my holes, use one of these products first and then use the epoxy/plug method. I know that if the balsa core is totally mashed potatoes then I will have to recore the whole thing, I am really dreading that. It's too bad that the transom is only three eights inch thick between the skins because I repaired a transom a few years ago on a powerboat with a product called Seacast. I still use this power boat today, the transom is strong as a block wall and it will never get wet or rot, the stuff is awesome.

Well after spending hours behind a pressure washer wand today one really contemplates what exactly he has gotten himself into... Me and my son dismantled hull #1673 this week, I hate to totally kill an SJ but I have a retired Coast Guard friend who wants to put it out on his very nice sprawl of property and use it and the mast as a flagpole. It would take a lot to restore her as she has got major gel coat cracking on the deck and the balsa so far was black mushy stuff. Cleaning hull #2560 is coming along but she's got some issues too. I'm finding mostly brown sawdust coming out of the holes after removing some of the deck hardware pieces. Not black mush like on the other hull. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one! Which brings me to my quandary, the upper rudder gudgeons. They were cut off with a reciprocating saw which, I'm sure, at first someone tried to spin them out. Unlike the lower gudgeons they are encased in fiberglass. Has anyone else taken these out? I'm guessing that one would have to somehow grind them out from the inside through the VERY SMALL lazarette hatch. Any tips or tricks would be wonderful. Also does anyone have any ideas on my previous post about Gitrot or CPES? Thank you very much in advance.

Gman377 wrote:Which brings me to my quandary, the upper rudder gudgeons. They were cut off with a reciprocating saw which, I'm sure, at first someone tried to spin them out.

Unlike the lower gudgeons they are encased in fiberglass. Has anyone else taken these out? I'm guessing that one would have to somehow grind them out from the inside through the VERY SMALL lazarette hatch. Any tips or tricks would be wonderful. Also does anyone have any ideas on my previous post about Gitrot or CPES? Thank you very much in advance.

Yeah, the nuts on the inside are encased in fiberglass, you have to chisel\grind it out to get a wrench on the nut. If the nut head is already cut off yours, just grind the inside with a grinder while wearing a mask\gloves and then push them through with a punch or screwdriver. I don't recall the transom being "threaded".

I'm sure those products work fine, but i've never needed to use them, just regular off the shelf epoxy products.

Later
C

Well the sailboat gods are smiling down on me so far. I have the transom scarfed then glassed and reinforced from inside. So while I am waiting for it to get warmer to paint it I figured I would start removing the deck hardware and drilling the holes out and here is where some good luck is shining my way so far... Again, so far, I am getting mostly light tan balsa wood coming from the deck holes! I am still keeping my fingers crossed. It looks like the deck hardware was put on using polybutyl tape. Is this original? I have started to do the 'bent nail/allen wrench' trick and epoxy in some of the holes as the temperature dictates. I will be using 3M 4200 to remount the hardware. Okay back to the transom. I ground out the top gudgeon bolts and after looking I think I don't have much wood in this transom. To me it looks like if there is any wood then it could only be like a 9"x9" piece directly behind the 4 motor mount holes. There is a round tube looking cross-member placed diagonally down the transom. So to me it looks like it would have been totally above the water line. It is not like anything I've seen on any of these forums. Is there any wood in this transom?
I'm going to pull the bolts to see. Maybe the sailboat gods will smile upon me again and the wood is good!

P.S. Kuriti you talked me into doing metal bulkheads, after looking, there will be so much more room in the cabin with metal bulkheads .
And thank you Jay for the sail!

Good to see your progress! Good job taking the time to drill and fill. Takes a while, but worth the peace of mind. I had mostly blonde wood, with a few darker spots of dry rot in my deck too. I agree that the 9x9 is probably the only wood in that pic. Not sure about the vertical support as my boat doesn’t have one. Test drill the motor backing plate. If it comes up clean, you win the lottery! If not, I would glass in a larger piece if you have to go to the trouble. Patience, it took me two years to fully complete mine. One year sailing it as I made it safe, then about 8 months in the garage (mostly winter) making it pretty.

Hello everyone, I'm glad to see that we are back online! Thank you forum admins! Well I've been hard at it. After finding a free piece of 10 foot 1/4" hot rolled steel from a pipe fitter yard I've got the metal bulkheads cut, welded and powder coated: This pic is before the white powder coating. They look great now. I was going to use aluminum but I couldn't beat the price. I am glad you guys talked me into metal bulkheads as the cabin will have so much more space.
Now as for the topsides, I was going to get it out on the water first then make it pretty later so after I pulled the deck hardware and 'drilled and filled' all the holes I started thinking to myself why would I pull the hardware off twice.... So while the hardware is all of I went ahead and started on the paint job using Interlux Brightsides and their Pre-Kote and the 333 brushing liquid. I do know, Kuriti, that patience is a virtue! But I told my wife that I'm not working on the house this year I'm going to work on a sailboat! After going through the keel mechanisms and putting in a new keel wench it all looks and works great down there. I did purchase a backup dyneema rope just in case the steel wire breaks on the lake. I will be refinishing below the waterline next year but now I have been priming for topside paint: Now comes the question: The non skid... It is in really good shape and I do not want to sand the whole thing off, I would like to paint over it: I wanted to slightly scuff it so it would have some tooth for the primer and paint so I used a de-waxing agent and an abrasive cleaner and a very stiff bristled deck brush followed by the Interlux 333 then the primer. Whaddya think would it be enough? I was planning on using the abrasive cleaner in between all the coats. I really don't want to re-do the non skid for at least a couple years on this trailer sailor. Any ideas would be appreciated! Thank you all again for the replies.

Great progress! I get not sanding down the non-skid, That was possibly the worst part of my refit. Not sure if it was even necessary, but once I’m down a rabbit hole...

If you decide to add any grit, skip the expensive marine paint stuff and go down to Sherman Williams and get some deck sand additive, I think it was named shark something. Has worked great on mine. I wouldn’t use actual sand since it is as tough as the sand paper you would use later to remove if needed. Keep chugging along!

I just bought paint to re-coat mine. I had some blisters because I was impatient and painted in the dead of winter, plus the wear from 4 years of use makes it time for a fresh coat. It won’t be as pretty a job this time.