The Ballad Exchange

Hi,
Rather than spend time uploading all my pictures again to this new forum (unless there's an easy way), I have included a link to an ongoing Picasa album that's kept up to date as progress happens.
There's also a link to the album in my signature line, and I'll post an occasional update as progress progresses.
Cheers!

These pictures are a highly recommended pleasure to view. Rarely have I seen such a nice restoration, and I am looking forward to pictures of the final result.

I’m writing to say many thanks to Jacobs. Reconstruction pictures put lot of light to my boat construction. Now I can get more courage for myself.

Yeah, it is always nice to have a 'worst case scenario' baseline, like a boat abandoned in the weeds with a foot of standing water inside. Makes all our projects seem superficial by comparison. The blog and photo site are top-notch resources, thank you.

Peter: your Ballad didn't have any wet deck core issues? Or perhaps I just missed that episode of the blog....

(We have a few areas to recore. Most coincide or nearly coincide with places we want solid backing anyway. So I'm not stressing over it.)

Thank you all for your kind comments.
Bob, I must have had some wet core as water was leaking from some areas inside the boat, through the underside of the side decks. A summer in the sunshine and wind probably helped to dry them out a bit, before I over-drilled and epoxy filled every hole in the deck and cabin top.

There may be a bit of wet core here and there, but being cored with Divinycell I don't see any problem. A survey did not reveal any hollow-sounding spots, except for the areas with the wiring conduits, so I'm confident in the integrity of the boat's structure.

We have quite a few areas of wet core -- mostly around the mast, on the foredeck, below the portlights, and worst of all at the chainplates. I drilled two core samples the other day:


cores by Wyoming offgrid, on Flickr

The right-hand core is from just in front of the seahood. It was dry and well-attached to both skins. Moisture content under 6%. The left-hand core is from near the aft port-side chainplate. It was weakly attached to the skins, wet to the touch, and spiked the meter at over 30% MC. Foam+inner skin weighed 18g four days ago; it is down to 9g & 10% MC this evening.

What is interesting (to me) is the degree of structural integrity it still has. Most of the wet balsa I tore out of our San Juan had the consistency (and compressive strength) of porridge. This foam is still very rigid, apparently retaining its compressive strength. While you'd like for it to be glued to the FRP, truth is its only critical function is keeping the inner and outer skins 1" apart from each other. So our plan is to strip the inner liner from part of the side decks, open the main cabin and foredeck liner where appropriate, and just let it air dry for six months. Several places on the foredeck will be getting solid cores, anyhow. That's the only spot of actual bubbled decks we've found, despite lots of freeze/thaw cycles.

I've re-designed my blog, hopefully making it easier to navigate, and to see a lot more posts per page. For example, the entire Ballad Rescue Project is accessible from the front page. Any feedback is welcome.
Thanks!
Peter.

Love the Blog Peter. When are you aiming to have her 'finished' and on the water??

Thanks Mark.
I haven't set a date as I'm reluctant to be working to a deadline. That said, some time this summer is a definate maybe!

Absolutely stunning resto project well done