at it again....Laguna Windrose 24 refit thread

[Dave Custer]

My last project was a 46 year-old, 16-foot, Luger Leeward sailboat that I restored.

It was my second sailboat and the first boat I'd attempted to restore. I was happy with the results and have been sailing it on local lakes and even sailed it off of Clearwater beach in St Petersburg Florida and some of the intercoastal waters down there. It is quite a fun little boat.

Yesterday (12/27/2014) I purchased a 24 foot, 1975, Laguna Windrose sailboat.

Here's what I got.....

Good hull still finished pretty well....not sure if I'm going to buff and clear-coat or refinish.

The interior has been more-or less gutted. The original cushions are there and in fair shape. I'll probably keep them for a while at least.....after I clean them thoroughly. The interior needs sanding, painting, and customizing. It's pretty much a clean slate. The original structural members are present and still solid I think. I will be examining them closely.

The exterior has all of the hardware present. Two winches (missing winch handle,) all pulleys, tracks, rope guides, and cleats. I saw one rope guide that needs replacing, but the expensive stuff all looks great.

The mast and boom are present and in good shape. Hardware is present as well. The standing rigging is all there, and is serviceable I think. I will be inspecting that aspect of the boat very carefully.

The boat came with three sails. There is the original main and two jibs....one quite a bit larger than the other. The main has a series of small rips about 8-inches from the luff, and there are some tears on one side of the fabric out by the clew. I'll probably get some sail cloth and patch these areas myself, but a replacement main will be in the longer term "to buy" list.

The boat has a nice tandem axle trailer. The tires hold air and brought the boat four hours back home, but will need replacing for long-haul trips, and a spare needs to be on the longer term "to buy" list.

The old wooden rudder is shot, but all of the hardware is there. Being a metal worker, I am thinking about the idea of going with a nice 100% stainless steel swing rudder. All of the hardware around the wooden rudder is stainless, so all I would need is get a piece of maybe 3/16-inch or 1/4-inch SS plate (available locally at my steel yard,) and put it in, in place of the wood. Just a thought! It wouldn't be as wide so theoretically that would equal less drag!

I'm really tickled with what I got! $400 cash for the whole thing. This is a heck-uv-alot-o boat, and a HUGE step up from my Luger Leeward.

It's going to be a fun project, and very rewarding once I get her out on the water.

Here is info on the boat on sailboat data
WINDROSE 24 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com

Here are a couple preliminary pictures of the exterior.




Thoughts and suggestions welcome!

[brantleychuck]

Heck of a deal. No doubt you will have a blast first time out, bring her back to life !!


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Dave Custer]

I've been trying to get things cleaned up a little bit, see what all needs to be done, and come up with a work order.

I gave the exterior a good scrub down, inspected the standing rigging, washed the sails, and today I've spent a little time scraping loose paint chips on the interior.

I think for now, I am just going to try to clean the interior of loose paint, dust, and trash, and leave it. It needs to dry anyway.

Then I'll move topsides, remove hardware, buff the gel-coat, reseal and reattach the deck hardware.

I'm going to order some sail cloth and repair the main. I priced materials and $50 worth of cloth/thread will allow me to repair the multiple rips/holes in the main, and get her going again. My goal is to get the outside fixed up and water-ready, and then I can work on the interior as time allows.

Here are some photos.

Here's the mast! 28 feet total! 25 feet of sail track.


All of the rigging hardware looks great! I've only found one pulley that needs replacing....that's the out-haul pulley on the boom.


Not sure what these extra holes in the mast were for. Not thrilled about them!


These caps on the boom need to be redrilled, tapped, and reattached.




More hardware in great shape.




This is the pivot bolt hole in the bottom of the mast. Someone has not been kind to it.....probably the same moron who bent up the mount for the mast. (Is that called the mast tabernacle?)
Anyway, I'm mulling over some ideas of ways to reinforce this area. Suggestions?




More photos coming right up!

[Dave Custer]

What the heck is this?


The standing rigging, to my eye, looks good. There are no broken wires, loose fittings, or other signs of wear. There are two areas that do make me wonder. Take a look at the photos and let me know what you think. Once again, there are no broken wires.....

This one is on the back stay....


This one is on the port, spreader shroud.


The cockpit after a wash!


Looking forward!


Got the mast up...




Forward v-berth (pre-paint scraping.)


Cushions and more interior!


This is under the port cockpit seat.


This is under the starboard cockpit seat.


Topsides looking aft...all washed up.


Overview!




I have two of the winches on the boat. I need a winch handle! Anyone have an extra for sale?

[Reefmagnet]

Looks like fun. Takes me back to the first boat I did up - an 18 foot trailer sailor that had more leaks than the Sony Intranet!

The buckled wires in the standing rigging were no doubt caused by by the rigging either catching or being looped as the mast has been raised. Seems a little more bent up than usual in the situation. The ultimate strength is compromised as the strands are now unloaded evenly with some work hardening, but the rig will probably be ok for lighter air sailing until it can be replaced.

The mast mounts to a tabernacle that allows it to pivot for raising. It's very common for the standard mast raising system to be modified by owners - sometimes for the better - sometimes for the worst, to make the raising process easier. It also looks like the bottom of the mast may have been trimmed. This is usually done to remove corrosion where an aluminium mast meets a stainless steel base.

The knurled knob on the mast(?) is some kind of clamp. I'd rough guess it is used to stop the sail slugs falling out of the mast track. If this were the case it would be placed above the wide slot where the slugs are inserted once the sail was raised.

The winches will take a standard handle. 10" or shorter will work best.

As for making the rudder out of stainless steel, I'd reconsider that. A 1/4" stainless steel rudder will be very heavy. This will make it harder to manhandle and the extra weight outboard will affect the performance of the boat. A rudder fabricated from suitable marine plywood and coating will last longer than your ownership of the boat and perform better. The rudder should ideally be shaped into a foil - something that will be difficult to do, obviously, with stainless plate.

[Dave Custer]

So I've been tinkering with my boat. I got all of the deck hardware removed. No surprises there. There is some coring material on the deck areas and in the seating areas. I did not know that, because I've never looked closely at a boat with coring. It seems that everything is a-ok though....no soft spots and that sort of thing.

I got all of the cushions and stuff out of the cabin, to make it easier to work. I've been scraping loose pain out of the interior.

I've got two "new to me" main sails coming. One is from a Columbia 26. The measurements from it are the max of my mast, if I measured correctly. It may need some minor altering but I'm handy with thread and needle and I've got access to a big sewing machine as well, so minor adjustments shouldn't be a problem.

I also got a used Catalina 22 main and jib set. I didn't need the jib, but $175 for the pair, in good condition, was too good to pass up. If the Columbia 26 sail doesn't work, I'll resell it and use the Catalina. Having three jibs lying around has had me thinking of adding a bowsprit.

Pics



What is this wooden rail in this picture called? It needs replacing, but I'm leaning away from wood accents on deck. I was thinking of fabricating some stainless steel pieces.


Cushions cushions, everywhere. Forward hatch.


Forward V-birth....pretty ain't she! LOL


I tried to take tons of photos of the deck hardware, so when it comes reassembly time, I can figure out where everything goes. I learned that lesson the hard way when I fixed up my Luger Leeward.


Here is the mast tabernacle. It is pretty darn bent. I can probably hammer those dings back out. I'm contemplating, fabricating a new one. I'm limited in that I cannot weld stainless steel in my shop. I'm also contemplating buying a tig welder.....been wanting one anyway.


This is an anchor chain guide mount on the starboard side. None of the deck hardware had any backing plated inside the hull......and this is the result. Today I sanded and rebuilt this area with fiberglass. I'll be adding stainless steel backing plates to everything on deck.


All of the forward deck hardware removed. Most of the mounting hardware is in good shape except for having some paint on the inboard side. They'll get a quick soak in acid, and be good as new.


LOOK...my boat is NAKED! LOL Just a hull with no hardware!


I took the two Barlow 15 winches off, completely disassembled them, and soaked them in soap water, purple power, wd-40, and acetone, before I finally got all the grungy grease off of them. I need to do a bit of polishing on the exterior, regrease, and they'll be good as new.
Here is where the winches mounted.


I spent a fair amount of time wet-sanding today, in the areas where the old deck hardware was. I got the areas cleaned and leveled out pretty well. The stuff that's left is recessed to far to sand, without sanding through the surrounding gel-coat. It'll be covered up anyway and sealed, so no worries.


Mast tabernacle location....haven't gotten to this one yet.


I bought me a new sander.....instead of wearing dad's out.


It's cold out....so I have my fiberglass setting with a heat lamp. I got an unopened piece of fiberglass repair cloth and a gallon of resin with the boat. I've still got a gallon of resin and quite a bit of cloth left over from the Luger boat, so plenty to get this boat back going.


I also got the rudder disassembled.

Reefmagnet: My Luger has a 3/16-inch steel plate rudder, that is original with the boat. There is no special grinding at all on it.

If I used a 3/16-inch 304 Stainless Steel plate the total weight would be around 30 pounds or less. Rounding the lead edge would be no problem, and I could even grind a taper in the trailing edge. It would not be a "foil" shape strictly like the formulas say.

[Dave Custer]

Quick update for the evening.

I bought some Catalina 22 sails. Unfortunately the main sail is slightly smaller than my current main. The owner gave me the measurements of the jib thinking it was the main. (The jib measurements are much larger.) LOL

I went ahead and also bought the main sail from a Columbia 26, which should be the largest sized sail my rig will handle....if all the measurements line up like they should. I bought the Catalina sails cheap and they are in great shape, so I should be able to recover my money and maybe even make a couple extra dollars off the resale.

I got the glass laid up on the small repair towards the front of the boat and sanded it today. I'm very pleased. I've got some fairing compound material coming along with a color match chart, so that I can fill/fair the holes and gouges and then match the tint of white and sky blue on the boat for minor but numerous gel-coat repairs.

I've also been wet sanding the areas where deck hardware attaches. Tonight the water run off from the wet sanding, was freezing while I was sanding. Guess that means it's too cold. LOL

Here is the Catalina main.




Here is the mast tabernacle straightened out.


I bought an 8 HP Tohatsu motor in good shape, locally. Probably put the cart before the horse, but might as well snatch up a good deal when you have the chance aye!

[GordMay]

What is this wooden rail in this picture called?

They’re usually called "grab rails", or "hand holds".

[Dave Custer]

Well work is coming along on my boat slowly. I have to dodge-ball cold temps and rain, so that makes it harder.

I am working on filling and fairing unneeded holes and fixing some minor cracks right now. Nothing too exciting.


Question on painting:
I got out the 1500 grit wet/dry paper and did some light wet sanding and then two stages of fine polishing compound, and very easily began breaching the thickness of the original gel-coat. So, instead of being able to just polish and go, I now will be repainting the boat's exterior.

So I'm looking at using Interlux Brightside.

First question......Interlux Perfection two part paint is twice the money of the single part Brightside.
Is Perfection going to give me twice the finish though? (Rolling and tipping)

The next question is about the non-skid surfaces of my boat. The flat surfaces will obviously be sanded with 220 grit paper, prior to painting.
How do you prepare non-skid surfaces though? If you sand them, you sand through the non-skid. Can you just clean them and then paint, or is there some magic way to rough up the surface, without scratching through the non-skid?
My dad suggested 0000 steel wool? Thoughts on that idea?

Thanks!

[blparrot]

I made an aluminum rudder for my Windrose 24. Took the boat out once and rudder worked well. In time I may trim edges, but for now I'm in the process of learning to sail. I do not know how to send pictures in this setting. If you can get me your e-mail, I can send you a picture of my rudder. Enjoyed reading about your boat, would like to see pictures of it!
Sail On!!
Logan E. Watson

[Dave Custer]

Originally Posted by blparrot

I made an aluminum rudder for my Windrose 24. Took the boat out once and rudder worked well. In time I may trim edges, but for now I'm in the process of learning to sail. I do not know how to send pictures in this setting. If you can get me your e-mail, I can send you a picture of my rudder. Enjoyed reading about your boat, would like to see pictures of it!
Sail On!!
Logan E. Watson

Would love to see pics! blacksmithdave@gmail.com

My boat is a large pile of snow currently, so there isn't much going on.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Dave Custer

So I'm looking at using Interlux Brightside.

First question......Interlux Perfection two part paint is twice the money of the single part Brightside.
Is Perfection going to give me twice the finish though? (Rolling and tipping)

The next question is about the non-skid surfaces of my boat. The flat surfaces will obviously be sanded with 220 grit paper, prior to painting.
How do you prepare non-skid surfaces though? If you sand them, you sand through the non-skid. Can you just clean them and then paint, or is there some magic way to rough up the surface, without scratching through the non-skid?
My dad suggested 0000 steel wool? Thoughts on that idea?

Thanks!

We used a one part International paint called Toplac (maybe a different name in the US) and tip and rolled like you plan. It came out fine.

For the non-skid I used a wire brush in a drill with soapy water. The idea was to get to the "bottom" of the pits, knock off any loose paint and scratch up the surface for a bond coat.

I put professional silica in the first coat on the anti skid areas by adding the silica directly into the paint, then pulled off the masking and painted the first coat of the rest of it. Then I added 2 more coats.

You can also shake the silica on but I chose not to.

[mycatalina33]

It's July 2015 how is your Laguna Windrose project coming.

[Dave Custer]

No progress to report really. Work has taken priority and I just bought my first piece of property and I'm in a serious relationship now too. I'm hoping to get it in a fine enough state of repair to sail it in St Petersburg this winter, but I don't know if that will happen.

[mycatalina33]

I would love to see your aluminum rudder. Email mycatalina33@gmail.com