The huge pile of supplies is dwindling as work progresses. We are basically out of purple heart for anymore floors. We have enough mahogany laminates for about 10 long frames and 10 short ones. We are out of silicon-bronze bolts for installing the last 4 intermediate frames we just finished laminating. We ran out of bronze rod for attaching floors, mast steps and keel fairings. The supplies we had ordered were just about enough to complete the floors and frames back to the cockpit. That was our plan, because we were uncertain about what we would do about the tailfeather/horn-timber. We have now decided to bite the bullet and replace the tailfeather.

So, it was time to order supplies. More bolts, more bronze rod and lots of purple heart. The biggest chunk of wood is for the tailfeather. The priority for work this week was to get everything done we could while the supplies were being shipped. That meant clearing away the stern area, making patterns of all the aft frame heels, as well as the tailfeather. Supports were also constructed to prevent any movement of the hull when the frame heels were cut away from the tailfeather.

There were several dreaded tasks to do. The first was removing the propeller housing which passes through both the rudder-post timber and the tailfeather. When I removed the propeller shaft last August, I tried to knock out the housing. Lots of "two person pounding" with my friend Don and a 16 pound sledge hammer got the housing to move about 1/2 inch forward out of frame 41. This time, we rigged up John's heavy duty come-along on the inside of Mahdee to help pull while we pounded. Finding something to hold the "other end" of the come-along was not easy. The engine stringers ripped out of the floors, the steel bar bent, old frames shattered and I was a little concerned about personal injury with all the tension in the pulley-doubled force mode of the come-along. Finally, John and I found the solution in a 10' length of chain around the base of floor 34, and reinforcing blocks between all the aft floors to keep them from being pulled over. I manned the 10' pipe in the come-along, and John and the yard carpenter pounded on the housing. Little-by-little, the housing moved. The come-along managed to pull hard enough to leave behind some of the housing. But, in the end, we got it all out!

The second dreaded task was what to do about the rudder shaft. Once we decided to replace the tailfeather, it was clear that we could just cut the side out of the tailfeather and slide the assembly down. Lifting and carrying the massive, solid bronze rudder shaft, however, was a three person job.

The third dreaded task was removing the bolts which fasten the tailfeather to the keel. Two of the bolts were especially worrisome. They pass around the propeller housing and come out in the propeller aperture. The wood is very sculpted and drilling new holes would take lots of alignment jigs and a minor miracle (the yard shipwright said something about an "act of god"). Six more bolts go through the entire keel/deadwood (over 4', or in Brenda's words, "ridiculously long"). Again, drilling new holes would be very difficult so as not to punch out the side of the keel. Sam at Crocker's Yard told us that these bolts would probably be impossible to remove and to plan on installing the new tailfeather with spiral-cut drifts.

John and I managed to remove 4 of the 6 long bolts, and 1 of the two bolts around the propeller shaft (those bolts go through curved holes. Yes, curved.) I also moved the other propeller shaft bolt, so I am confident we will get it out after the tailfeather is removed (when there will be less curvature remaining in the hole). We may also be able to remove the other two stubborn bolts. The process involved lots of pounding, mostly by John, and periodic cutting of the bolts as they hit the ground. The aft one had to be cut every 4 inches of movement due to external constraints.

The fourth dreaded task was cutting the remaining bolts and drifts holding the tailfeather. A floor jack opened the joint enough for a 12" Sawzall blade. Clean cuts were made to all the remaining fasteners. The tailfeather is now ready to be lifted out. For that, we will wait until Monday when we will have more "fresh and rested" people on hand. Monday is also the scheduled delivery date for the new timber -- all 1100 pounds of it. So its time for me to get rested up.

David