My worst fears have come true: the raised lumps on the deck that we discovered while refinishing are caused by the knees, which have separated from the hull and are rotating up and pushing on the deck inboard of the chainplates. Three out of four knees have ~1/8″ to 1/4″ gaps at their bottom ends, and the tabbing towards the bottom is colored white, further indicating delamination from the hull.
We were intending to depart in January; I don’t see how that’s possible now with this job thrown into my lap at the last minute. Karen and I just moved onto the boat, and I’m going to have to rip out the cabinets and do a massive fiberglass grinding and repair.
I removed the slats that hide the port forward lower; I chose to tackle this one first because it doesn’t require removing cabinets to access it.
I used plastic to tape off the entire area. I wore a bunny suit, full facemask, and respirator. I ground the fiberglass tabbing off until reaching clean, solid glass. That part really sucks, the grinding.
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