![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
I spent all day cleaning the hull and emptying out the cabin and lockers.
Next step is to start removing plywood in order to clean the inside of the hull.
Thanks for the warningprjacobs wrote:Looking good!
One thing you might check: Just ahead of the forward cabin window are three bolts on either side holding an angle bracket that attaches the upper part of the main bulkhead to the cabin sides. The cabin sides here (between the inner liner and the outer shell) have a block of wood inserted to reinforce the area where the holes are drilled and the bolts put through.
On my Ballad the block of wood had been misplaced too far forward and there was no material at the holes between the hull liner and the outer hull. (The holes for the bolts were just past the edge of the blocks.) This made it impossible to tighten the bolts properly. I confirmed the correct block location from the German Ballad website drawings ... Albin had goofed by 100mm![]()
Give the area a tap with your finger to confirm correct positioning of the reinforcement block. My boat sailed for over 35 years with this fault with no apparent harm, and it was an easy repair, simply drilling a 40mm hole in the inner linner at each hole and epoxying in a 40mm diameter piece of hardwood. This gave the bolts a base to compress on.
Picture of plugs in holes:
Did you by chance come across the unexpected conduit while installing that big hatch in the cabin roof?Bob McGovern wrote:Thanks for the heads-up, Peter. I hadn't checked those bolts yet, but you can see dimpling of the coach sides around them, so they probably missed the blocking on ours, too. There was very poor communication between the hardware people and the deck builders -- or the templates were garbage. Besides the shroud eyebolts missing their core plugs, the front deck cleat & staysail padeye backing was in the wrong place by several inches. I should add, the wire routing diagram in the Ballad Handbook is slightly fictional as well. You'll encounter conduit in unexpected places, ask me how I know.