Attacking the rotten triangle

It's time to get started on the winter list of improvements. The first was to order new lights for the cabin and the head. Those will probably arrive this week and we took some time to plan how they will be mounted and what the wiring plan is to be. We're good at hiding wiring and these new lights will look like they were always there while giving us lots of extra light.

Then we examined the triangles, which were a feature of Silverton boats for many years.

The triangles were simply a styling feature; 3/4-inch plywood capped with a piece of mahogany trim and butted up against another piece of trim on the rear wall of the cabin next to the door. The outside of the triangles is up against part of the fiberglass cabin.

Silverton boats with this design feature almost all experience rot of that plywood panel and we're no different except that the plywood on the starboard side look very solid. No rot at all. The port side was another story.

With the top trim piece on the port side removed, the rot became apparent. We tried prying the entire plywood section out but the top seemed fastened in place. It will take a heat gun to break the bead to that trim piece shown at right. That trim is in good shape and we want to save it.

Then we amused our self digging out the soft plywood.

Once we get the last of the triangle out, we'll glass a piece of 3/4-inch plywood, slip it back into place and paint it. We'll also refinish the trim pieces along the tops on both sides.

Like many of our boat projects, no one will ever notice what we've done.

As we drove out of the marina, we noted the many boats that still had to taken out. We learned earlier in the day that they have 50 more boats for winter storage and a number of them haven't even arrived yet. That's a scary thought considering that we had several inches of snow last night in northwest Connecticut.