Interior, Preps and Extras

At the beginning of my repair process, I had still slept and cooked on Alani. That became more and more difficult and finally impossible when the frame and plank repairs were happening. Step by step, I removed Alanis precious original interior, most of which was still intact. The only part that needed repair and changing was the galley/chart table area. Under the chart table, there was an old fridge, that I wanted to get rid off. I do not eat meat and very little dairy products, and a fridge does use a lot of electricity. So out the hatch it went!

Female captain restoring wooden boat Alani
Ripping out the fridge

There were lots of little steps between and around the main jobs, as well.All the many holes for the bronze fasteners, screwing the planks to the frames, had to be closed with little wooden plugs, called bungs. Then, the bungs had to be faired down.

 

Wooden boat repair classic sailboat

Wooden sailboat restoration Guatemala

 

 

All the seams had to be cleaned out, as some of them still caulked in the original way, with cotton and compound, and some had been filled with different resins and thickeners.

Female captain restoring classic wooden boat
“Raking” out the seams

Before the hull could be covered with fibreglass, all the cleaned out seams had to be filled with thickened epoxy, the complete hull needed one layer of epoxy, so the wood wouldn’t suck the epoxy out of the glass later. That layer of thickened epoxy then had to be faired again.

Wooden boat restoration Guatemala
Tom the Genius

Wooden boat restoration Guatemala

Wooden boat restoration Guatemala
Tom drilling out the rudder shaft hole through the new horn timber and stern post. He did so many of the very important steps.
Wooden boat restoration Alani Guatemala
The plastic tarps are gonna be done soon.
Classic wooden sailboat restoration Alani
The dusty guts of my good old girl

Read the next chapter Fiberglassing and Launch