My Edel 665 Homepage
Here’s a picture of the boat as I first saw it. Our first look Note that the underbody looks chalky. That’s the powder left from where the previous owner started grinding out the hundreds of small osmotic blisters. The bottom was never painted so I don’t have to worry about removing any old bottom paint. It's not surprising that there was blistering after 16 years mostly in the water without protection!
There was water several inches deep in the cabin from rain leaking in the unsealed connections for the electronics. There is also some cracking in the gel coat on the topsides. The cushion covers on the interior were dry-rotted. The wood work on the rails was weathered free of any varnish. The companionway hatch was de-laminating. But, most of this was cosmetic, so we bought the boat.
I’m now repairing the blisters and repainting the bottom and topside except the deck.
The work began by finishing grinding out all the major blisters. I considered everything larger than the end of a pencil eraser to be "major", anything smaller got dealt with when I completely sanded the entire bottom with 60 grit paper on a 4" rotary airsander. For safety I wore a Tyvek coverall with hood, safety glasses and a dust mask. This was to prevent the ground fiberglass from getting into the skin or my eyes and lungs.
I then filled the grinds with 3M Blister Filling compound. This is a two part epoxy thickened with chopped glass fiber. Getting the hardening agent mixed in completely and in the correct proportions took a little practice. Some of the work I did here had to be scraped and sanded out then re-done. My advice, if you ever have to do this, mix small batches on disposable mixing trays and be sure to measure and follow instructions very carefully. (sigh)
With that done I had to sand those spots roughly fair, again with the 60 grit paper. Next, I smoothed the hull with 3M fairing compound and sanded it as fair as I could with more 60 grit. All this had taken about 80 man hours including dry times and rest breaks for arms not used to sanding and grinding at these odd angles. This done, it was time to barrier coat to prevent future blistering. For this I used an Interlux two-part epoxy barrier coat. After the first coat I found a few spots that needed touch-up fairing so I faired them and re-painted with the barrier coat, coating heavily on the re-faired areas.
The result was a fairly smooth bottom with only a few flaws. (more on this later) This is a picture of the boat with the bottom fairing complete and two coats of Interlux water barrier to prevent future blistering.
Taking a break from bottom work, I wiped down the hull from the waterline to the deckline with West 202 solvent to de-wax. This was done wiping in only one direction with wet and dry rags, changing them frequently. I then sanded with 80 grit. This was a very hard gelcoat surface! A credit to the quality of the boat. I finished by again wiping with 202 solvent. This removed any dust or other impurities (like fingerprints). Next I painted the hull with Interlux Brightsides grey primer. I chose Brightsides because it is a one-part system and I didn't need to use a respirator to paint it. Also it can be rolled or sprayed, I rolled the primer on in two coats. This picture is with the rest of the hull in primer. Now I'm ready to paint the hull and underbody.
Again I sanded the AW (above waterline) hull with 80 grit to smooth out the lap lines from rolling the paint. After tack-ragging the primer, everything looked great at this point and I was feeling real confident.
Working late that Saturday I was pushed to get the first color coat on and actually had to finish rolling it after sunset. This was a major mistake. I returned the next morning to an orange peeled surface! This took a lot of sanding to smooth out.
I'll pass on some advice I got too late: Never paint after @ 2 pm so that the paint can set before the evening cools and the humidity goes up. At this point one of the yard owners, Richard took pity on me and voluteered to spray the next coat on. This helped smooth things out some but it required more sanding and a third coat sprayed on to achieve a optimum finish (For this I owe a Thanks! to Will, who besides being an owner of the yard is also my brother.). The owners of the yard (Carolina Classics), Richard and Will, really hate to see anything go out of there that isn't done right and were great about giving advice and demonstrating how to get the right results (they still aren't happy with my bottom fairing but hey! this ain't a racer)
There were some other things getting done in between all this. First the cabin got bailed out! The interior got scrubbed and cleaned, my wife even scrubbed the bilge. The cushions were pulled for recovering along with all the exterior teak. I had to pull the rudder and epoxy it where the two layups had begun to separate at the post. Also the cracking in the fordeck gelcoat and the spots where the deck had bumped and chaffed the dock were sanded, ground, filled and the gelcoat touched up.
Dec. 7, 1997
We launched the boat today. The weather was cold (mid 30's F) and the breeze had died by the time we were ready to launch. We had no trouble easing her into the water. After a few tries the engine kicked over and I pulled her to the fuel dock. There my wife, daughter and the friend, who helped me launch Edelweiss, came aboard and we went for a short cruise around the cove before pulling her into the slip. She handled beautifully under power. I can't wait to sail! Here are some pictures...
Preparing to launch.
On the Ramp
My Wife expected me to fall in.
I kept her in suspense...
In the Water!
Me at the helm under power.
July 4th 1998
This spring has seen alot of daysailing and me and my wife overnighting at the slip, but this weekend we slept aboard at anchor for the first time. We had some friends aboard and the boat was a little crowded but overall it went fine. I have added a day/night solar vent set into the forward hatch and a vent in the companionway drop boards to keep her vented when not in use, along with a 6" 12 volt fan to keep air moving in the cabin. This has made Edelweiss livable in the hot temperatures around here. We spent most of the three days at anchor, swimming and playing in the water since there was little wind. The wind finally picked up sunday afternoon as we were headed home and gave us some nice sailing to finish the weekend.
Late in the Summer of 98 I was sailing alone and got caught out on the lake by a thunderstorm. Winds of 19-21 with gusts of 27+. I know this doesn't sound like much to anybody who sails on the ocean but on the lake this produces some real steep short chop. But all that I could handle and I was doing fine until I came out from the lee of a small island. The combination of breaking waves nad the sudden blast of winds overpowered the old tiller and it split, coming off in my hands. I did manage to get the boat to a nearby dock and tied off. but, I was on the windward side of the dock and the boat was pounding into the dock. It destroyed all my fenders and I ended up lashing the popped fenders to the dock as rubguards. It was the best I could do. Well, in the tradition of all good sailors I then took a nap and let the storm blow over. Afterwards I was able to jury rig the tiller and motored back to the marina. The boat got a little scratched(so much for that spif new paint job) and the tiller was a loss. I later found out that the beating had split the rudder where it was forced into the skeg and at the seam.
Well, being busy with school and work I didn't get anything done to the boat over te winter and now that it's spring and I want to go sailing I have to fix the boat first. I have pulled the rudder, ground it down to bare 'glas and have applied glass and epoxy to repair the damage.
07/14/99
We took the boat to Lake Lanier outside Atlanta Ga. for our second annual 4th of July sail this year and had four full days of sailing, swimming and lazing about.
03/21/00
We have had the boat in the water this year since early February and have overnighted once already. Since we joined The Keowee sail club we have had more opportunities to get out on the water. The boat is currently in a temporary slip while we await our permanent assignment.
I've compared the EDEL to the Catalina 22 since it was the most popular boat in the area. Here's thier specs.
The EDEL is 113 lbs. heavier but, that's because it has 182 lbs. more ballast. The beam is similar but the EDEL is 14" shorter on the waterline. The chines on the EDEL seem to be more rounded. What's all this mean? How should I know...I believe I spend more time fixing the boat than I do sailing. :>
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