Chrysler Sailors Forum

I finally finished digging out the last portion of the cabin sole, under the mast compression post. The teak compression post was resting on the thick piece of wood which in turn rested on the soggy 3/4" plywood floor. The bulkhead was taking the loading from the mast and it must have been difficult to keep the rigging tight.
I will make a SS shoe to rest on the keel area and support the compression post. I will not use the same flooring method that Chrysler used in building the boat, I don't want any chance of this happening again.

Sounds to me like a good upgrade.

Thanks
Alan

Sauerleigh

I bit of clarification if you please, is the floor layout of your 1978 c26 different from my 1980 c26. As you can see... sorry not much lighting at the time, the base of my compression post is resting on formed fiberglass at the edge of the head compartment. Is the wood you speak of underneath this... or are our floor plans a bit different? I will replace this compression post at some point as this overhaul progresses.



Terrence
Wilmington N.C.
Chrysler 26 1980
Pandora (for now)

There is a block of wood under the fiberglass floor liner, that block rests on the plywood floor. Chrysler covered the plywood floor with one layer of fiberglass top and bottom, which would worked fine if the floor never saw standing water. The plywood floor about 6" aft of the swing keel trunk is at least open to the air on the underside. Forward from that point the floor would never have a chance to dry out.
Also, the swing keel trunk has 3/4" plywood bonded to the fiberglass sides which run all the way to the bottom and aft beyond the companionway steps. In my boat, this was also saturated.
I would drill a few 1/4"dia. X 1/2" deep test holes, you always plug these with epoxy. One on either side of swing keel trunk, about 2" above the floor and roughly in the middle. I would also drill a hole in the floor between the trunk and the bulkhead, on the centerline about 3/4" deep. If the wood chips come out dry or at least the pale color of fur, you'll be OK. If the wood comes out dark brown or black and wet, you have a problem.
Also, check the headliner at the bulkhead and compression post. Mine had cracked there with the being slightly lower above the compression post.

In Good Old Boat magazine Sep/Oct 2004 edition there was an article by someone who completely redid this area under the post.

Actually he took up the entire sole, found wet foam and lead bars (pre 78-79 may have this as ballast, 78-79 and up seems to be lead pellets in concrete). He removed it all, recast the lead in molds to fit in the lowest part of the keel pocket, redid the trunk sides, and the area under thoe compression post.

I got tired just reading it .

My copy is long missing, but you still can find it as a back issue I think.

Thanks for the information If you have the time, photos of this compression post mod would be most in lighting. When it comes to all things mechanical I'm not the brightest candle in the room. Short of cutting through the fiberglass floor liner, how would you deal with the soggy plywood? Or perhaps you would disregard it placing the SS support shoe over the fiberglass liner? As you can see... I'm floundering here.

EE

I'll look for that Good Old Boat magazine, to gather more information... not that I'll need to do this, but it doesn't heart to be prepared.

Terrence
Wilmington N.C.
Chrysler 26 1980
Pandora (for now)

Here tis
http://goodoldboat.com/reader_services/ ... s.php#2004

"In the technical area we've got ..... and another about a "little cabin sole problem" that led to a much bigger do-it-yourself project: casting lead ballast. "

Was insightful to know what is under that sole !

I have started a photo log on Flickr of the work I'll be doing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/93952888@N ... 885035070/
I removed the compression post and it is toast. I'll replace it with a 2"x2"x.120" wall square steel tube with SS ends. Metals Depot http://www.metalsdepot.com/ has pretty good prices and shipping, I've used them before.
The Dremel Multi-Max that my wife gave me for Christmas has really come in handy. It can cut through fiberglass even with the blades supplied.

In hind sight, I suppose I could have lived with a soggy floor and trunk sides and just taken out the flooring under the compression post. Time wise, what I've done hasn't been too bad, the biggest mess has been from grinding away the Bondo Chrysler used to fair the flooring into the hull. The nasty bilge smell is gone, I like that.

Also, I discovered another bilge area under the floor in the V berth area.
Someone installed a hand pump under the short port side seat which they used to drain this area. The pump works but there is still water in there. I know the forward hatch leaks but I'm not certain about other possible leaks forward of the mast.

I removed the last of the floor, under the ladder. I believe the floor was replaced at some time. I found a few drywall screws in the plywood, under the fiberglass layer. I don't think they had drywall screws in 1978 and with all the other SS screws I've removed I can't see any reason Chrysler would have used them.

Chrysler lined the swing keel trunk with plywood which extends aft into the bilge area and coated it with tar. I will probably remove this, it serves no purpose, the plywood has delaminated and just holds water and smells. The previous owner said he always put antifreeze in the bilge before winter, I had never heard of this, but hope it was done every winter.

I've seen those side pieces referred to as the "keel stiffeners" so they may (or may not) be structural. In the Good Old Boat article the user did replace his as I recall.

Curious,did you have foam and lead bars, or concrete and lead pellets under the sole ?

I have concrete and shot for ballast. The plywood was probably used to stiffen the trunk against the weight of the ballast. If the water saturated plywood ever froze, the ballast is not going to move, but the fiberglass certainly will. I've seen encapsulated rudders slip open from freezing because enough water entered the structure.

That's what I thought you might have for ballast. Which is a good thing since the foam had a habit of getting soaked/ruined in cases like yours.

I only had to replace a bit of wood where the keel stand attaches to the keel stiffener. It was so far gone that the screws had nothing to bite into.

Speaking from experience that bit of sole from the end of the table to near the ladder is fun to make, the shape narrows back to the ladder in a curve and the angle of the hull to sole joint changes as you go !!

I removed the starboard side "keel stiffener" aft of the ballast, it hasn't served it's design purpose for many years.

I fabricated a SS shoe to rest on the keel and support the compression post.
The base is 3X5X1/2". the tube is 2X2X.120 wall with a 1/4" plate welded on top. I added 2 sides as locators for the post, and the post will have opposite sides and through hole to secure the post to the shoe with #10-32 screws. I scored the base to give the epoxy a little surface to bite on. I came up with a overall height of 4 1/4" based on the block I removed and the plywood floor + about .100" of fiberglass.

photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/93952888@N ... 885035070/

Excellent !

its to bad your on the other coast Alan, the 1st boat we saw in someones yard coming back from the marina that our C-26 is was another C-26. just sitting there in a yard looking a little neglected.

I'm hoping to get over to it soon and finding ou8t more about it... no I'm more then happy with ours so it would be just out of curiosity on my part.

I fabricated the SS shoe myself, it took me about an hour. I am fortunate to have a machine shop at my disposal, to a point.

My boat was not been in the water since 08, and had probably never been covered in the off season. The cabin floor felt solid enough when you walked on it and I'm certain it had been in that condition for years, wet.

I cut into the deck yesterday, it was flexing under the port stanchion nearest the cockpit. I didn't like what I found, but I have a fix, which will end up being a new thread.