First thing is first, I used my friend's powerwasher to clean things up a bit. This boat had been sitting bottom up outside for several years, and had a large accumulation of lichen and dirt on the hull, as you can see in the pics:
The boat cleaned up quite nicely, and the powerwashing also removed quite a bit of oxidation that was very prominent on the topdeck. I did notice a few scrapes and scratches on the hull that I will want to repair, but my initial impression of the soundness of the hull seems to be correct. (Sorry for the blurry photo, I had to use my camera phone for these)
A very common problem on these boats is the transoms frequently rot out, and this was definitely evident here. This will be the most major repair job I have to do. Last night, I managed to remove all the wood, while leaving the back laminate intact. In this case, it was a good thing that the rotting was so incredibly complete. Most of the wood came off fairly easily once I removed the laminate on the inner wall of the transom, It was still quite wet. My hope with this repair is to seal a new transom made of marine plywood with epoxy and then bondo it in to the hole left by the old one. Then I will have to finish glassing the seams, but I am hoping it won't be too difficult. Here is a pic of the transom with the wood removed (except for a very thin veneer that should come off with a bit of sanding.
Next on the list will be to do a few other minor repairs. The thwart and daggerboard cover need to be replaced, and I have some minor gelcoat repairs to do on the topdeck. The worst is around the mast step, shown in the picture.
