Repairing the Black Sheep

A couple of weeks ago I was shifting the Black Sheep on its trailer and the top of the stern post snapped off in my hands. Since this is a 4x4, that was a bad sign. It was rotted. I found more rot surrounding the part that holds the rudder on.

I have been busy but I finally got some time to spend on fixing her. Since I have had to fix rot in the stern post twice before I decided that the whole thing needed to be replaced. I had been worrying about how to get the old one out. Power tools will not fit.

 It turned out that this was not a problem. The entire post was rotten, even the parts that had been solid when I fixed rot before. The only solid parts were small parts around screws and the pieces I replaced earlier. Even these were not hard to get out since the wood around them was rotten out. I was able to do it all with hand tools in two days.

I have a long 4x4 in my garage so I decided to use this for the new sternpost. I saved the top that roken off in my hands. I used this to get the correct angle on my power saw then I trimmed the edge. Here it is, ready to be fitted. The sides were perfect. I only needed to put an angle on the end.

I think that one reason the original post rotted was that it did not fit tightly against the bottom of the boat. This allowed water to soak up through the end and into the rest of the post. Having it covered in fiberglass didn't help. That just sealed in the water.

I already put in a drain so that it will not collect water over the Winter.

I spent a lot of time fitting the end of the post so it wouldn't be as exposed as the original. You can see here that it is a pretty good fit.

I am going to let the exposed wood dry for a few days then seal it. I will also seal the end of the new post. Once that it done, I will epoxy it into place and try to use epoxy to fix the holes in the fiberglass. Originally the sides were screwed onto the post and a fiberglass strip put over the ends. I will see if I can get the same effect with a little epoxy over the screw heads.