How to Repair a Pearson 34 Sailboat: THRU HULLS, SKEG, AND UNDERWATER DAMAGE

It is Sunday of Thanksgiving Week, we decided to get started with the hull repairs on our #sailboat We have already removed the thru hulls, rudder, propeller and were surprised by the amount of #damage done by low level #current to the bronze components under water. Low level current actually ate up the tin on the bronze components making them brittle and unreliable. It also corroded and damaged our thru hulls to the point that we were not able to service them and had to resort to grinding the mushroom heads from the outside in order to remove the thru hulls for replacement. In the process of removing the thru hulls we took a little bit too much #fiberglass , so we have to repair the outside of the thru hull in order to install new Marelon components. This time we are going to use an independent thru hull and separate bulb valve. That way if the valve fails in the future we can service it without taking the boat out of the water. We also look at the strut that supports the shaft and the cutlass bearing. We will be removing and replacing both of these. Lastly we patch out thruhulls and moved to repairing blisters on the hull. Our hull has a lot of little blisters form the size of the tip of a pencil to the size of a dime. This is the result of the materials used back in 1985 on some of these hulls. The good news is that all of them are superficial and we do not have any issues with delamination. In talking to various experts and yards, we could not get consensus on the best way to tackle this project. Some folks suggested peeling the hull. This process using a special grinder to remove all of the gelcoat and in some instances the first layer of fiberglass from the hull. This can get very costly as in addition to removing the material, you have to build the hull back up which is time consuming and expensive. Other experts were dead against pealing for some of the reasons explained above. For Reverie we decided not to peel and to tackle the repair of the blisters. As you know we had the hull sandblasted and the blisters opened at that time. We received two recommendations: - Use Interlux Watertite Epoxy Filler - Use thickened Epoxy (West System Epoxy with filler) So we decided to do a test on various sections of the hull to see which one turns out better. Sailboat #restorations require patience and the ability to work each problem individually. Watch our next episode to see how it turn out. Video Sections 00:44 - Thruhulls 01:35 - Marelon Thruhulls 02:13 - Rudder Post Thruhull 02:48 - Skeg & Rudder 03:01 - Shaft Strut 03:24 - See what Low Level Current does to your metal parts underwater 03:38 - Cutlass bearing 04:11 - Thruhull repair 05:10 - Repaired Thruhulls 06:28 - Interior Walkthrough 09:50 - Blister Repair Test - Watertite vs West System Epoxy - who will win? Equipment I used for these jobs - West System Epoxy Resin 105 - https://amzn.to/2JWh7TS - West System 206 Slow Hardener - https://amzn.to/36KLeH2 - West System Reusable Mixing Sticks - https://amzn.to/33No1Cb - Chop Strand Mat 50” X 360” 1.5 Oz - https://amzn.to/2JNszRU Video Equipment Used - Iphone XMAX - https://amzn.to/37D3IZk - Video Editing: Camtasia 2020 - https://techsmith.z6rjha.net/j0LQZ - Background music licensed through Camtasia Assets. Sources for help If you live in the Tampa Bay Area and need help with your project you could contact: - Tim Smith - Sarasota Marine Services - 727-417-6835