Compression post repair part deux

[estarzinger]

^^ Yea, your name was among 3 or 4, at least one of whom I hopped might step in and give some more firm advice face to face.

[Cheechako]

Bottom line: nothing easier than wood. easy to cut and scarf to fit etc. Douglas fir will last another 30 years. Alot of old NW fishing boats have hulls made of it. You can build a hollw box beam or just get a quality 4 x 4. Stainless will be nice though, spendy I imagine. Maybe you should just use a wood block instead of aluminum, lighter and more compatible with the SS. OTOH, inside the boat, put some 5200 between the alum block and SS and it'll be fine.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

^^ Yea, your name was among 3 or 4, at least one of whom I hopped might step in and give some more firm advice face to face.

Yea, the OP is a friend of a friend and his boat is just across the canal from me. Our mutual friend has done some work on my refit just for the experience, refused payment. So I got it covered.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Bottom line: nothing easier than wood. easy to cut and scarf to fit etc. Douglas fir will last another 30 years. Alot of old NW fishing boats have hulls made of it. You can build a hollw box beam or just get a quality 4 x 4. Stainless will be nice though, spendy I imagine. Maybe you should just use a wood block instead of aluminum, lighter and more compatible with the SS. OTOH, inside the boat, put some 5200 between the alum block and SS and it'll be fine.

Well done wood is terrific, pleasing and will last for a damn long time.

But if I were trying to build it last 'forever' . . . . I would put G10 into the horizontal beam right under the mast step, nicely tappered/joined (in any of many good acceptable ways but NOT just butt joined) either side into the wood beam. The G10 will not rot or compress or absorb water and glues well (all unlike aluminum). Then I would use a nice stainless pole as the compression post. I might wrap it in leather (or ultrasuede) if in a cold climate where it might sweat. And then I would look at the compression pole step and think about whether it should also be G10 to avoid compression and rot down there.

Originally Posted by minaret

So I got it covered.

Terrific.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

Well done wood is terrific, pleasing and will last for a damn long time.

But if I were trying to build it last 'forever' . . . . I would put G10 into the horizontal beam right under the mast step, nicely tappered/joined (in any of many good acceptable ways but NOT just butt joined) either side into the wood beam. The G10 will not rot or compress or absorb water and glues well (all unlike aluminum). Then I would use a nice stainless pole as the compression post. I might wrap it in leather (or ultrasuede) if in a cold climate where it might sweat. And then I would look at the compression pole step and think about whether it should also be G10 to avoid compression and rot down there.



Terrific.

Problem with G10 or a 4x4 is that the beam is probably curved. Won't know till later, but for a forever fix on this sort of thing I would probably laminate a beam in place. Numerous methods for doing that, much faster and cheaper than G10, and just as good.

[estarzinger]

^^ show us photos, good opportunity to learn.

I was figuring it would not be curved for the say 40 cm right under the mast step, or at least not curved enough that it could not be made flat with just a very little thickened epoxy above the G10. Then scarf that into a curved wooden beam (probably laminated as you suggest, but would depend on how much curve is actually there which i can not tell from the photo) that fills the gap he has cut and scarfes into the ends of the beam that are still in place. (

So: old beam port side, scarfe, new curved wooden beam, scarf, G10 under mast step, scarf, new curved wooden beam, scarf, old beam stb side.

But I will be delighted to see and learn from how you do it. And I agree a single laminated piece will be way faster and cheaper than what I am suggesting, and probably last longer than the owner.

This is all much easier on an aluminum hull

[jared1048]

Really appreciate all the feedback to help guide the process along. Estarzinger, Just realized who you were. I don't have much room for books but I have made room for Cruisers Handbook and love it. Love Hawk too. What a gorgeous boat. Much respect.

Update:

I've found a friend of a friend who works at a high end boat builder (carbon fiber hulls, retractable props, etc) up north in Anacortes and has access to a full machine shop. He came down and I walked him through the plans. Measured everything up and will continue on project in a week as he's on vacation now.

To some of the comments. I do like wood but it doesn't do very well when it gets wet (and it seem every damn thing gets wet on a boat some way or another). Wood does look great though and we are going to be cutting out the original post and placing it as a "cover" over the outside of the 2x2 s.s square tubing for aesthetics. It might be over kill as far as strength but since the mast is down I want a fix that's going to be forever. I don't want to deal with this ever again or have any grain of doubt in it while bashing to weather in some distant place. As much of pain this fix is here I cant imagine doing it in unfamiliar surroundings.

We don't think the curve of the cabin roof starts so close to where the mast step is. We are going to sand a little off the edges just in case though. We are only going about 4 inches on both sides of the beam. Its not cleaned up enough yet to measure for a curve but if it is then we will sand it down until its matched up (which shouldn't be very much if there is so its not much of a concern). We'll put lots of epoxy on the top of the block too and put some pressure on it from below to fill any voids and create an even surface for the beam to press against.

Stay tuned!

[jared1048]

Its finished!

Used 2x2 stainless steel tubing (.25 wall thickness) which was way overkill...should of used 3/16ths. Post weighs about 30lbs!! sheesh

We were worried about the beam being curved but it wasn't. Not in the 12 inches we removed. You can tell when looking outside on the deck the way the mold is. It starts to curve after it.

Aluminum piece was super light. Couple pounds maybe. Fit like a glove.

the "hat" piece that caps off the steel tubing looked to have a slight bend to it. Not sure if that's because of the welding or if it was like that before. Don't know but its not enough for alarm. Just looks a little funny on close inspection.

We also had to move the post about a quarter inch aft to allow enough space for all the wires to fit which I wasn't too happy about but again, only a cosmetic flaw.

The last part of this project is a decorative piece of wood over the beam to hide the new beam material.

Thanks all for the input!


Cheers,
-Jared