Vlog 350: Glue Monday
Having removed all the rotten transom wood (see the prior videos in my ‘Twiggy transom’ playlist), I now needed to patch a couple of holes on the inner fibreglass skin. This video documents that process.
No, I could not do it from inside the hull, the bulk of the transom is not accessible due to fixed flotation chambers in the back cabin.
David, can I ask. The new wooden transom panel. Will the bottom of it be sitting in bilge water? It’s difficult to see from the video. If so will that not rot over time unless it it really well water proofed? Cheers.
No, it’s separated from the main bilge by fibreglass so in theory it is not sitting in any bilge water.
David,
One of the things I most appreciate about you is that you’re not afraid to do something new. You don’t let ignorance or awkwardness or anything else daunt you.
That sounds trivial, but it’s not. It seems to me that as adults, we think we should know everything, be smooth at doing everything, and never have any hiccups. We know mentally what we need to do or at least mean to do, but too often things get lost or hijacked between brain and fingers.
When we’re kids, we stumble around all the time, because we’re learning everything all at once. But once we’re adults, we think stumbling around with ineptitude is beneath us, and we’re embarrassed by being rank amateurs and ignoramuses about doing things, especially things we think “ought” to be simple. So we too often we won’t try anything new, out of fear of looking stupid while we’re learning new facts or new skills.
So I really do admire your willingness to just dive right into stuff, even when you have no idea how exactly to do something or how it’s going to work out (or IF it’s going to work out). It’s an important lesson that more of us would do well to learn.
Ok, enough philosophizing.
I had a question on your fenders, which was reinforced when you did the episode on the Skylark. If I had a fiberglass boat I was taking into stone-lined locks or mooring alongside vertical metal walls, I’d want fenders shaped more like basketballs than cigars. The long skinny cylinders just seem to me to be asking to bash semi-fragile fiberglass into solid surfaces that will crush the boat hull like an eggshell.
What am I misunderstanding?
I really do appreciate your two channels, as they have helped me cope and laugh during the last four pretty painful years since I first found you on Prime.
Thanks again, and greetings from Virginia, USA.
Thank you. Fenders are tricky on the canals. You must take them down when using the locks because the chamber is only inches wider than the boats and if you leave fenders down, you run the serious risk of jamming the boat in the lock which could lead to flooding the boat (as the water rises) or the boat crashing down if the water has drained out. Big basketball fenders are more awkward to store aboard though you will see that type on larger fibreglass boats.