Beginning my 1987 Fisherman 20 Restoration

[Myfathersson]

Progress continues, although today was less progress than I wanted. I'll get to that.

First - This was the best tool for removing all the foam. This Fiskars shovel is all steel and STOUT. I originally bought this last spring to lay the low voltage cable for my landscape lighting. It has fantastic prying capacity. I went from taking baseball and softball size chunks out with the ice chipper and floor scraper, to taking out pumpkin sized chunks. Wish I had remembered this puppy sooner!



Since I determined all the stringers needed to be replaced I had to shore up the hull to prevent deformation. First it came off the trailer and supported by concrete blocks and cribbing, then I braced under the strakes which fall directly under most of the stringers.





It's simply a pair of 12' 2x4 sistered together with 2x4 uprights cut to length to rest atop a handful of 2x6 PT I had left in my lumber stock. The beam did have a split for an angle change - I matched the hull's form as closely as I could.



With the hull braced it was into the bunny suit to begin cutting the crap out.





The transom is a little wetter here than it was when the skin came off - I had just hosed down the area when I took this photo:



Here the hull is all cleaned. I am leaving the forward bulkhead and 2 short stringers for the moment. I haven't made a complete call on those yet - they are sound although...moist. I will probably remove but for the moment I wanted to keep a little form to the hull.



Transom skin peeled off relatively easy:



The port side stringer shell and all the bulkheads with their mushy rotten fly attracting cores:



I should have tested my respirator seal - I balked at shaving my beard. As a result today I have been coughing and sneezing like mad. Ordered a full face respirator and shaved off my beard. Today sucked and I didn't get much done aside from flaking the rest of the plywood off the transom down to where I will have to grind the remainder.



But I did get all my plywood. 5 sheets of 3/4" MDO Plywood and 3 sheets of 1/2" MDO Plywood - a $500 trip to Menards. But I am impressed with the quality of this stuff. They had Marine on the shelf for another $10 a sheet but it looked rather wavy so I stuck with my original plan to use the MDO.



Tomorrow I'll putz around with some low impact stuff like color matching my gelcoat and putting together a list of all the hardware I need to start thinking about ordering. Respirator is coming by 9pm tomorrow along with a new batch of Tyvek suits - love how they always tear out in the crotch...the absolute last place I want to have the FG itch manifest...