I am way past due on putting out a summary of rebuilding This End Up. Lots of things conspired to push this out, sails arriving in early October last year and then some minor issues with my right hand last spring delayed getting the boat out so I could get some new video and images. To recap this was a 100% rebuild. Every rivet came out, every assembly was broken down, new rigging, new traveler and new sails were added to this boat. In this process I repaired minor cracks that I found, reinforced areas that I thought needed it and carefully inspected every last bit of the hulls and the aluminum.

One of the reasons that I wanted to do the 100% tear down was that I had become concerned that over the 40 years this boat has been around that corrosion could have compromised key components. For sure I found corrosion, but it had not gotten to be in my opinion significant enough to be of any structural concern. As important were the Monel rivets to aluminum connections I wondered if the corrosion might have enlarged the hole in the aluminum allowing a rivet to pull through under load and in every connection like that I found the holes to still be nominal. I did however upgrade several of these key connections with 1/4" Monel rivets most notably on the mast hound and diamond wire tangs.

All of the aluminum parts were sanded and then coated with a prewash, Awlgrip 545 and then Awlgrip 2000. This finish is great and seems to be really tough. The hulls were sanded to almost to only showing bare glass. Various repairs were done and faired and then coated with the Awlgrip 545 and Interlux Perfection two part polyurethane. This was a labor of love and insanity to get the kind of finish I wanted to see. The Perfection paint is a very high gloss and in the dark blue Mauritius color I chose it shows surface imperfections like crazy. So that was a steep and modestly expensive learning curve. What I am seeing now is that while the Perfection is pretty tough, it is not impenetrable and will show scratches which show up mainly because of this dark color. But I expected that and will pay that price to have a cooler than average looking boat.

The Slo square top sails in the Tangerine color are fantastic looking and really nicely put together. The first thing you notice about them though is that you have to be much more careful handling these sails than the old dacron ones. They crease really easily. To get the square top back in the sail bag you have to remove the top batten because it takes off at an angle that won't let you finish the roll. My boat still only has 3:1 downhaul, which is enough to pull out the wrinkles, but not enough to induce much bend in the mast. These sails seem to work great and I just need to sort out the mast rake better. With the original rake settings I am getting too much weather helm. One thing I need to change badly is I used some Ronstan style plastic clam cleats to hold the line that positions the jib blocks. These things while new are total crap. I have no idea why I decided to try these things, even with the correct line size they slip like crazy under very little load. In that same area I need to sort out another way to pad the wire that holds the jib blocks. The insulating rubber tubing I got is not holding up at all. The stuff we used to use was called whore hose, but I can't seem to find a source for that stiffer insulating hose. I am also not even sure that hose is even needed, I'm thinking that some plastic wire wrap would do the trick of cushioning your knees and keeping the wire and the jib block positioning line together. Putting this wire under the tramp would also be good way to go, but that ship sailed on my boat when I ordered the new tramp that does not provide the hole for the blocks.

With new sails and all the new gear and supplies I think I have spent more on this rebuild than I did buying the boat 41 years ago. For that investment I have a fast very modern boat that my old brain can still figure out how to make go pretty fast. Managing two sails solo is more than enough for me these days.

Here is a video I just put together that shows how the boat looks now and some light air sailing on Lake Waldo, Oregon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cbKjCdeOzQ

This is the first video in the series of actually doing the rebuild. This was a design build kind of project, so some if the ideas I had when I started were not the ones that got implemented in the rebuild.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8i7dEBBFE4

As soon as I get a good new still shot of the boat I will be updating my avatar.

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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I have watched most of your videos and find them inspirational, although I do not see myself doing anything like that.

I am curious, the thing I am most concerned about at this point on my 5.2 are the bow tangs for the bridals. I understand you can pry the textured decks off the top of the hulls to get to them.

How did yours look, did you replace?

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Kenneth Purdy
Hobie 16
Nacra 5.2 (2)
Banshee
First Coast, Florida
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I did not remove the bow tangs. I did inspect the tang from the topside looking for any cracks and didn't see any. Both tangs were tight in the boat even after removing all the sealers from the top. There wasn't any sign of cracking in the fiberglass around the bow tangs, so I called that good.

I did drill out the rivets for the side shrouds and wondered as I was doing that if that was a good idea at all. I was concerned about relocating the rivets and what would happen after I drilled out the last rivet. The tang did stay in place and reinstalling those rivets worked out OK. The main reason for drilling these rivets out was that the heads had been sanded over the years reducing thickness.

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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Ok, thanks for the info, I am just not going to worry about it, the boat is a 1976 and pretty much original, other than the back of the starboard side hull had to be rebuilt after a tree fell on it.

The rivets for the shrouds look fine on mine, I don't think there is any wax on it or it has ever been sanded.

Sailing it this weekend.

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Kenneth Purdy
Hobie 16
Nacra 5.2 (2)
Banshee
First Coast, Florida
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Hi Kenneth - i wanted to let DG answer but i did suffer from a broken bow tang last summer


Here is the thread to the writeup - repair

https://www.thebeachcats.…iewtopic&topic=16179#top

Great project and nice work dmgbear55. Thanks for documenting your work and sharing it with us here. If there were an award for inspiration and persistence you would get mine, BRAVO.

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Hobie 16 (3 formerly)
MacGregor 25 (formerly)
Chrysler Dagger 14 (formerly)
NACRA 5.0 (currently)
High Point, NC
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I had so much fun doing that 5.2 project I bought a 1981 J30 and am doing the same thing, but on a way bigger scale.

MN3 were there any indications that the tang was going to fail, like spider cracks or something, or did it just go catastrophically? I also see resin around the bar on the tang, but not much in the way of actual fiberglass fibers. Was there more structure around this tang than it appears to have had? It also looks like there were rivets or screws retaining the tang, did they tear out too?

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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I should also have added that removing the 5.2 deck lids is easy the first time and well documented. I am pretty sure it will be near impossible the 2nd time because I used a thickened epoxy to bed them back in. So if you do open the lids up make sure to do any and all repairs you might ever want to do. To get back in the next time means cutting access into the lids and then dealing with glassing up and fairing in the deck around the cut.

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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I've replaced one deck on a Nacra. It wasn't a terrible job but I think it could be easier in certain cases. If one only needed to work on a bow tang for example, would it be feasible to make two thin slices ACROSS the deck, say 6 inches apart, and the just remove that portion. Most of the original structure would still be intact and reattaching the much smaller piece would be pretty easy and should be at least as strong. I guess one slice and removing the forward part would work too.

What say y'all?



Edited by tnell on Aug 04, 2017 - 08:39 PM.

By the way, there's 5.2 sitting at a boatyard in Memphis that might be had for a cheap price. It's nasty, but it could clean up. And it has soft spots around the bow tangs for someone to try my theory on.

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Tim
Collierville (Memphis), TN
Supercat 15--sold :(
Hobie monocat--given
Vanguard 15--traded for...
Nacra 4.5--sold
Nacra 5.7
Hobie 14–sold to make room for...
Supercat 17–sold
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I think it would be easier to just take the whole deck off, unless it had been previously removed and well bonded back to the hull. Doing a proper repair after slicing the deck as you suggest means a 12 to 1 grind back on both sides of the cut and then the glasswork to put it back together. Then you are left with some big repair marks that are not going to look too good. Deck removal and reinstallation is very easy compared to that. These decks are a structural component of the hull. Bonding them well just improves the strength.

I also have not heard of a Nacra bow tang failing like MN3's did on the Mystere. It has probably happened, but I don't recall seeing anyone report that kind of failure here. I would be curious to know what the metal tang in a Nacra bow actually looks like to know what is different.

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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We had to replace at least one bow and one sidestay anchor on the 5.2. Metal fatigue. We added backing plates.

Sorry no picts.

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Prindle 18
96734
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Quote

MN3 were there any indications that the tang was going to fail, like spider cracks or something, or did it just go catastrophically?

some rust color on the 5200 that sealed up the tang head that was above deck - no cracking

Quote

I also see resin around the bar on the tang, but not much in the way of actual fiberglass fibers. Was there more structure around this tang than it appears to have had? It also looks like there were rivets or screws retaining the tang, did they tear out too?

all deck glue - no glass at all
no rivets - screws and nuts that attach to a stringer that goes accross the deck - they were not damaged in anyway



Edited by MN3 on Aug 07, 2017 - 08:46 AM.

MN3 one last question, were the bow tangs Stainless on your boat?

Nohuhu is your rig up all the time? Fatigue takes a lot of load over a long time to happen, as compared to an overload that might have started the failure and then just slowly advanced over time (this is a modest difference in failure descriptions). I didn't put any backing on my side shroud rivets and now that I realize you can actually reach in to that point in the hull I wish I had done that, maybe on another day.

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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Quote

MN3 one last question, were the bow tangs Stainless on your boat?

Yup

At the club, we all store mast up and on beach wheels. Most folks don't loosen the rigs either, after sailing.

Lots of boats have actually sat there for years and not been sailed, but are moved monthly, for grounds work. You have to wonder when one of those rigs will implode. My habit is to park 35 ft away, just in case.

The N 5.2 was old and ridden hard, so the repairs were not a surprise. We had a shroud adjuster break too, and that was a surprise. We did not see the crack beforehand.

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Prindle 18
96734
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My habit is to park 35 ft away, just in case.

Smart - that's what i do on my beach when people don't tie down in the monsoon season

Thanks MN3 for the bow tang information.

This end up why did you take this "permanent" approach to sealing the deck lids. I understand in this case this was probably the last time you planned on ever doing this.

Is there a less permanent recommendation in case you ever wanted to take the deck lids off again?

Quote

I should also have added that removing the 5.2 deck lids is easy the first time and well documented. I am pretty sure it will be near impossible the 2nd time because I used a thickened epoxy to bed them back in

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Kenneth Purdy
Hobie 16
Nacra 5.2 (2)
Banshee
First Coast, Florida
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Quote

Thanks MN3 for the bow tang information.

no problem

I used west system six10 on my decklids
I will need dynamite to get them off next time (i did need crowbars and sledgehammers this time - for real)

There really are not many good solutions to reattaching deck lids. I used the thickened epoxy because it was easy to manage, already available in my shop and I wanted the lids to be a structural part of the hull. Anything less than a full adhesive means the lid may be sealed down at least temporarily, but cannot be relied upon for structural strength IMHO. If a bow tang were to fail, or some other serious failure occurred, I would simply cut a new access hole, do the required work and then do a structural patch on the hole I created, then fair it all back in. Get out the Perfection again, start swearing and paint over the whole area.

My deck lids are now a structural part of the hulls and they will not leak.

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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When I did mine way back--97?--the "factory" answer from performance was a layer of mat, saturated with polyester resin. It worked well. Probably not as strong as epoxy, but easier to remove a second time.

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Tim
Collierville (Memphis), TN
Supercat 15--sold :(
Hobie monocat--given
Vanguard 15--traded for...
Nacra 4.5--sold
Nacra 5.7
Hobie 14–sold to make room for...
Supercat 17–sold
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Polyester resin bonds pretty well with itself, so I would expect that bond to be pretty strong, if the prep work was done. It was hard to tell on my boat what exactly they used originally, there appeared to be some chop strands in the bond area, so I wondered if they just sprayed the bottom side of the deck and then pressed it into place. Or they used some other method. Bottom line was whatever they did back then was not very strong, or they did it too quickly or who knows what. One of my decks had delaminated enough that it could allow water into the hulls, but it was not obvious that had occurred until I peeled the whole thing off. That these decks peel off so easily is an indicator that the bond was not considered to be structural, or they would have done it some other way IMHO.

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dg
NACRA 5.2 #400
This End Up
Original owner since 1975
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I think the boat did pretty well for 42 years

Quote

Bottom line was whatever they did back then was not very strong, or they did it too quickly or who knows what. ... That these decks peel off so easily is an indicator that the bond was not considered to be structural, or they would have done it some other way IMHO