No not rotten. Just a second case of worms due to the repairs not done properly last time.





















Fortunately the rudder and skeg are made from laminated timber which appears to be meranti or similar. Worms wil not cross laminations so the infestation is fairly isolated.

Looking forward to it Cisco Ozito rules

Great pics Cisco. Will enjoy following your progress.

Just wondering why you would not use marine ply? I rebuilt my Bluebird rudder with ply, and it was excellent. Had to do a bit of lamination with epoxy to get the thickness/shape, but it was easy. Better resistance to worms?

I hope your mate doesn't use choppy on your rudder if you are sealing it with everdure.

boty said..


never use ply in a rudder 50% of the grain going the wrong way always laminate timber depending on type of boat and rudder loads depends on what timber to use we normally favor combinations of crows ash (hardwood very stable glues well ) Australian cedar light weight hardwood stable good durability glues well though i wouldn't be keen on meranti (low durability often brittle ) if timber selectedwell and sheathed with a coupel of layers of 450 bi axial it should be fine
love the lotus yachts

The worm ridden piece I am told was Oregon and I was also told that is one of the worst timbers to have below water level.

Maybe you can tell what the original timber is from these two pics. It looks very much like meranti but the grain seems tighter.








I didn't get a heck of a lot done today due to feeling buggered when I got up, shopping for Epiglue and a visitor distraction. The skeg is 80 mm at it's thickest and I need to make up about 73 mm on the rear for correct width. Meranti comes in 42x93 and 32x93 so I bought a piece of each 1900 mm long and another piece 42x68x700 to replace the bit to be chopped off the front edge.

First job was to cut the two 1900 pieces down to 80 mm wide which was accomplished with two saw horses, a clamp and the Ozito saw with it's adjustable fence. I did not trust the graduations on the fence so I set it using my steel rule which was just as well, otherwise I would have been 1.5 mm out.

Have to agree with Boty it would be a shame to do all that work and sheath it with chop strand.
Double bias or biaxial cloth will do justice to all your hard work

andy59 said..
Have to agree with Boty it would be a shame to do all that work and sheath it with chop strand.
Double bias or biaxial cloth will do justice to all your hard work

Which is what my fibreglass guy said we would be using with epoxy resin.

Today I got the two planks screwed and glued onto the skeg. Now it looks like there is a bow in the skeg. I think it is just the camera angle and that there is a bunch of material to be planed off the planks to fair them to the original.



First plank dry fitted and screwed.



Second plank dry fitted and screwed with the screws offset half way between the screws in the first plank



Both planks screwed and glued with slots for the pintles cut ready to be chiseled out.



Both planks screwed and glued and Naala the lion dog being freaked out by sand flies or March flies.



It looks very much like there is a bow in it. The second plank did have a bit of warp in it so I hope it is not causing a bow in the whole thing. We will know more tomorrow. They say that every boat sails better on one tack than the other.

The prop shaft can't be used as a reference point as it is offset to allow for it's removal and I assume it is on that side to counteract prop walk. It works because this boat tracks straight as an arrow in reverse. I just hope the three rudder pintles are going to line up.

why has it bowed the original skeg

samsturdy said..

Definately looks like a bow Cisco. Needs a straight edge run up it to see how much.

If it is bowed Cis, what will you do about it ???.

Im not sure what there on about Cisco the internet down here makes it look straight as a Dye Maybe there still on Abbots copper wire

Wander66 said..
Perhaps it's part of the Pogo-fication of Second Wind?

I think Cisco's Camera may be on the Rum .
It might be a Gene problem and second wind might be growing a second Rudder

While you're straightening that skeg, you might want to straighten those acroprops as well. Funnily enough they're all bent the same way.



I've heard of fisheye effect before, but never a camera effect that warps the image like that. Strange.

Bit of an update on the progress of Second Wind's "Big Birthday". According to the projected work schedule, she went back in the drink last Thursday. I wish. If I get her wet again this year I will be doing well but I am not counting on it.

I have paid up for outs, ins, set up of travel lift, set up in cradle, water blast, EPA fee and one month hard stand working totaling $2,100.

With that kind of outlay I certainly do not want to have to do more than a quick slipping for anti foul for the next 5 years. That in mind and the cost of $200/week hard stand working, I don't mind paying for whatever time it costs to get everything right.

The major problem has been the worm infestations in the skeg and rudder which is not the first time and the owner who had it fixed last time was too lousy to get the job done right and encase them with fiberglass. It is being done this time so that it will never be a problem again.

This is the pile of rubbish I chopped out.




Those worm holes are 10 mm round.





Block filled with meranti. Not a problem because it will be glassed over. I was told by someone who should know that the original timber is western red cedar. That makes sense because it bled red in the recent rain.





Here it is all faired up with it's first glassing. The leading edge will have 2 or 3 layers of glass and yes it is double bias cloth with epoxy resin.





The rudder the same but one layer all over.




The keel also which I sanded back to bare lead. I bought a new respirator for that job. Everything below the waterline of boats is toxic so if you are working on a boat make sure you have a good respirator (forget the paper masks) and good eye goggles. Even with good goggles I still had to spend 6 hours waiting at the hospital for a doctor to remove a paint particle from the cornea of my eye.








From those two pics and a couple to follow you will see evidence that Second Wind has been involved in ground wars. As Donald Street said "You haven't been sailing if you have never been aground."









Look at the bow. She hasn't just grounded the keel. She has been on the rocks or rammed something big time.

Apart from her internal creature comforts and brilliant ergonomics of moving about on the yacht, another thing I am gaining the love of with this yacht is her under water shape. If you look closely at the following pics you should see just a slight concaveness in the bow before she shapes out to her belly. Then her lines are fairly straight until they taper up to the rudder which is well aft of the keel giving huge steering leverage making the helm as light as can be.










I will power this yacht up and get her on the plane.

You will notice some isolated osmosis spots in the pics. Chiseling them out exposes green fiber glass. Seeing that my glass guy asked "Is this boat built in NZ?" Yes I said and he said that is the good shizz.

While she is out and getting a big birthday, previous faults exposed and method and thoroughness of repair apparent, I figured is a good time to get a proper hull and rig survey done so I rang Drew Sayer of Fore and Aft Surveys www.foreandaftsurveyors.com/ who operates in SE Qld. He knows his stuff and his quote is $450.

So I am talking with him on the phone and say the yacht is a Lotus 9.2 and he says I used to race one of those back in Kiwi back in the day and they are a great yacht. How good is that??

That is all I have for you tonight. I hope some gain some insights into this insanity of yacht ownership and decide to stay away from it and further depress the second hand yacht market.

Boat Cisco Boat
Ha Ha

Good stuff mate

ChopesBro said..
I still can't help myself and truly someone has to say it


Crisco....nice cocks....very nice cocks indeed

you on parole or day leave chopes bro

How long does it take for the worms to do that damage CISCO? Do you think they where there before you brought the boat or arrived recently?

I had a timber 1926 yacht in the Hawkesbury river nsw not a sighn of worms although she was sheathed in epoxy skin. Was there no glass on the rudder/skeg?