No trigger pulling until I'm satisified. I went and looked at Hull #87 yesterday. I would dearly prefer the white gelcoat to the medium/dark blue, since I might avoid an awlgrip job.
That hull, a '78 (Kangaroo), has the 3-staggered-bolt pintle plate, the (hollow) skeg/fairing remains in place (kinda beat up). The plate itself almost looked a little tweaked. Not completely true end-to-end. But I could see up into the bearing space and the 1" pin was just standing there, tack welded in place. It was like there was no bearing. The bearing on the blue boat is obviously intact, pintle plate (4 bolt) looks good, it's just that the 1" pin "floats up.
Both rudders seemed O.K.
I also looked carefully at the centerboard fixture on both boats. On #87, obvious bolts, clean, neat installation and almost looked like it had been redone at some point. On the blue boat, all of the bolts seem to be buried in spooge (bondo), hidden,metal plates sticking out where the swivel bolt goes through, etc.
On #87 I did have the opportunity to observe the SS pipe for the centerboard pennant (mast down). It was standing over the mast step. It had a length of PVC attached at the top to bring the height to within 6" of the overhead in the salon. That would make sense.
A lot of different things on these boats and they were probably built less than a year apart 78-79. I was surprised to see the 3 bolt pintle plate on the '78. Since, if I do this, I will be fitting self steering gear, I sounded both transoms. The '78 seemed thinner. Either one would get 21" biaxial glass and West reinforcement, most likely from inside (God I hate grinding in the lazarette).
On either boat, I would pull all the chainplates. Nobody knows if they were ever replaced on either boat. Still, I remember looking at a Tartan 30 years ago at IBY in St. Thomas - I needed another boat at the time like a hole in the head. But I remember thinking what a winky chainplate setup with a welded angle thing on one of the plates. This is something I'd really like to change with a straight plate (what, the forward lower?). The hull on the blue boat at this knee (forward lower, in the head) has a hard spot dimple that's barely discernable except in the right light. Maybe I'm too picky.
Love these boats, love to do the "laying on of hands" in my yard at home, but I'm trying to be fairly cautious with 40 year old hulls. Hell, my Bristol 35 Alden was only 20 years old when I bought that, and I thought it was an antique.
So I expect to yank the rudder, replace the skeg, drop the board (in another yard where there's a travel lift instead of a trailer), pull the chainplates and all that hoo-rah. And I feel both boats need all of the plastic ports replaced with Newfounds. Both boats have water intrusion, little rot spots around a couple of the ports, and all are cracked hither and tither. There's another $3,000 or so.
As to skeg replacement, Hull #87 is just a hollow fairing/barnacle and clam collector. I looked it all over. With closed cell foam as an undersized mockup, I can probably fabricate an adequate skeg that would be set up to receive the pintle plate and bolts, then fair it to the hull and keel. No rocket science there. I did note that the blue hull has about a 4" gap in the rudder below the pintle plate, whereas the gap in #87 is only about 3/4", leading me to believe the blue one was redone without replacing that plug that was cut out. But it's a very clean repair, so i dont know.
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