Windstorm: What happens when the wind blows the wrong direction!

A windstorm blew in Sunday afternoon.  It blew all night and all day on Monday.  Wind speeds were up to 45 mph.    OK, that's not that big of a deal, except the winds were from the EAST.  Storm winds are normally from the west around here.  Trees were falling and we were without power for 24 hours.  And the boat tarp got really whipped.  We listened to it all night long.  Today we went out to do some repair work.

Click on the short video for a snippet of what was going on.

 

The wind blew so hard it pushed back the tarps and exposed the bow. 
This is bad because the decks are not sealed and future rains could cause a lot of damage.







The boat looked a little bit like, well, a pig.

  





The tarp was damaged from all the wear and tear of the ropes. 
Here I'm pulling up a new tarp, from the other side of the boat. 
Sometimes the wind would pick it up and I felt like I was holding onto a parachute.



So CAI secured the tarp over the bow so it could not blow back again. 
After he finished he felt inspired to either give us his interpretation of that famous

scene in The Titanic, or he's just pretending to be flying with the seagulls.  You'll have to pick :-)



So we got the new tarp on.  It's only a partial solution.  It's not big enough for the whole boat. CAI ordered a new tarp today and we'll pull that up over the top next week.  Once the deck has a layer of fiberglass this will not be such a concern.

I do have to say that last night, when the wind was blowing so hard, I was fearful the boat would be pushed over.  I'm sure CAI didn't have any doubts about its stability, but my imagination ran wild.  But for now, the winds have calmed down. 

Help Arrives

Hey - Do you need help with your catnap?  I am really good at it!

Cocoa and Maggie, our two kitties, climb up the ladder and check out the boat occasionally, leaving telltale footprints behind. It's rare to get a personal visit.  Tonight, however, Cocoa was pretty intrigued by the new decking and how easy it was to walk around the boat now.  He figured he'd check it all out.  He was pretty enamored with the warm soft spot in the fore deck.  :-)

Getting the Deck Built

A satisfied CAI, after a hard day's work.

Foredeck and aft deck is done!  Correction, just the first layer of the deck is done.  The deck will have 2 layers of plywood (9mm + 12mm) and be covered with 2 layers of 10 oz fiberglass cloth and epoxy.  That will make a strong lightweight watertight deck.



Fairing the beams to get ready to put on the first layer of plywood.

Cleaning up the boat. Been creating a lot of cutoffs.

 

Knee pads and dustmask is normal work gear for me.

The boat feels different with plywood on.  Stiffer.  More solid.

....and the boat doesn't rock anymore.  It even sounds different.

Cutting out the cockpit.

Old traditional cockpits were actually more of a small hole to stand in.  So this small footwell is a good compromise, as you can sit.  It will not be so heavy when it fills with water but still provides a nice place to crawl into in bad weather.   Hatches will be cut out later when the second layer of plywood is glued in.