Clean up begins

Before we can get to the nitti gritti (heheh) of repair and restoration, we gotta see what we got! First thing was to scrub any nasty stuff remaining under the mussels. After the boat had dried out a bit for 2 or 3 days (and I had gone back to work) I spent a few hours with a flat scraper on the outer hull removing barnacle glue, the furry stuff that the mussels use to anchor to the hull, and loose paint. Then I went and started pulling calking out of the plank seams. (notice I use the older spelling "calk" instead of "caulk." A boat I believe is different from a window or bathtub, so I emphasize the difference with the spelling.)

There were several types of calk used in the seams. The most recent stuff was a white latex or silicon calk...hard to say which with all the junk stuck to it. At any rate, it stripped off the hull easily, coming out in long runs. The next type was beige brownish stuff, reminiscent of window sealer. It also came out easily, though stuck to the wood better. In many cases, there was white goop on top of the brown.
Going deeper I found some places (especially near the stem) where a very hard, white sealer was used. Really hard to break apart, I wonder if this is Dolphinite? Or perhaps a 2 part fairing compound. I have yet to remove it all as it is extremely difficult to remove. It may have to be routed or sawn out, as it damages the plank edges as it comes out. The plan is still to re-plank, so edge damage is not taboo...but still...
There are large areas, mostly below the waterline, that are still calked with coal tar and oakum. I thought it was pine tar, but it turned out to be far more noxious than the worst pine tar I have encountered. It seems to be the original calking, and is in the best condition. Only one seam there leaks at all, and only after I had reefed a bunch out. No question, those old techniques work! The only thing is that a large amount of the wood there is utterly destroyed, mostly on the plank edges. Absolutely I will need new garboard planks.
Of course, under all of this is cotton roving. Most of it seems like it was put in pretty well, but one chap decided to pound some in from the inside, and destroyed the plank edges. Or perhaps the plank edges were already trash and the cotton was an emergency repair...or two...or ten...or twelve...

The cotton is quite hard to remove, as the planks are fairly tight, still. I took a butter knife to the grinder to make me a tool for cotton-pulling. Worked pretty well other than the crease I put in my "pushin' hand." I plan to slot a piece of wood to spread out the pain :-)
The cotton is still soaked in a lot of places, but it comes out in pieces after it is dry. The western red cedar that the planks are made of is quite soft, and I am wondering if I can make a slender wooden or plastic calking puller that might leave the planks in better condition.

But why? I'm replacing them, right? Well, I plan to use/reclaim as much of the original stuff as possible...for things like the interior and perhaps a tender. Not only that, but I plan to make templates for the new planks...though I dream about spiling the thing from scratch. Might be beyond my current skills...so I want to preserve the planks as much as possible.

We got inside, too. Ever since the first day I saw her, I have wanted to remove the plywood interior from this Seabird. I cannot describe how much stainless steel crap was holding the interior on. It took both Stacey and myself hours and hours to remove the screws in the V-berth area and the galley. She's empty from the bow to the cockpit bulkhead, now. It seems far more spacious and I wonder how well we can use that. I will probably make the cabin trunk a little larger, with a nice bulgy curve to it...and we plan to make the cockpit deeper and larger when we rebuild.

I bought a few scrapers, and I spent one night sharpening them properly and oiling the places they get wet (as I haven't made any waxy tool stuff lately) and I plan to try them out on the hull...as I start the probe for evil evil ROT.