Benford Badger 'Moondancer'

FAQ


Questions from me, and answers from Whitney that may be of interest to others.
Is that pinkish shiny stuff around the deck/hull seam (in the chain locker overhead) some kind of caulking? when was it applied? was it applied to deal with a persistent leak? (See photo)
Epoxy with filler. It was applied during initial construction not as a fix.

When was the interior painted white? The paint job is incomplete in odd places, as if it had been done after stowage was already in use. Is there an undercoat, or was it applied to raw wood?
At various points during the construction which is why it is inconsistant. Critical points such as plywood edges were epoxied the rest was just painted.

More generally, what treatments were used on the various timbers -- beams, framing, cosmetic ply, hull ply, bilges, furniture?
Everything in the bilges and hull structure was well epoxied. All plywood edges were epoxied. Most of the stuff painted white was just painted.

Which bits of the hull interior are epoxied and with what brand/type of epoxy? What is the gray paintlike substance in the bilges? (See photo)
Pretty much all of it was epoxied. Mostly with Raka epoxy, although some of the early work was done with West System. Raka works just the same at about a quarter the price. THe gray paint is Interlux bilge paint over a couple layers of epoxy.

How does the mainmast step work? is the butt of the mast really just resting on the cabin sole (surely not)? what reinforcement is under it? how is it prevented from lateral motion? Is there a locating pin?
The maststeps are both heavily laminated ply copiously epoxied. They both have drain holes at the bottom to prevent standing water. There is a square tenon on the mast base.

What are the 'Frankenstein bolts' doing in the masts just below the overhead? And the string -- is that a pull rope for internal wiring? is the inside of the mast foam filled? baffled? how is the wiring harness secured inside the mast? (See photo)
The Frankenstein bolts (good term) are safety bolts to retain the masts in the event of a knockdown. Without them the only thing keeping the masts in is the partner wedges and gravity. The string just keeps it from rattling. I hate things which rattle on boats. The foam just helps keep the wedges from working loose.

The mast is painted with epoxy paint. The partners are sealed with self-sealing silicone mast boot tape and that is covered with a sunbrella boot. They never leaked before, but that is, of course no guarantee.


When was she last bottompainted, btw?
About a year after we launched. I use ACP50 which theoretically doesn't lose potency in dry storage. There are about 4 coats on her now. The bottom coat is red and the rest are blue so if you see red it is time to repaint. By the way the sheathing of the hull is coated in West System copper filled epoxy which should give the little guys a severe toothache even if you never redo the bottom paint, but it won't do much to stop soft growth. The aluminum saildrive is needless to say isolated from the copper paint and painted with its own tin based paint.

On other boats with keel stepped masts I have seen massive reinforcement at the partners. MD's masts seem to punch right up through the deck without any partners -- no extra beams reinforce the mast transit through the deck. How does this work?
Benford's partners are made of laminated plywood. I recall it is about 3 inches of solid ply. It joins to the knees and deckbeams. If you look closely the overhead is slightly lower around the mast which is due to the extra thickness.

Is the foremast sheathed in GRP inside the chain locker? if so, what was the objective? (See photo)
It is sheathed in dynel, a polypropelene cloth, set in epoxy, as is the whole exterior of the hull. It is superior to glass as it has a modulus closer to that of wood so it doesn't delaminate as readily as glass. It also absorbs more impact that glass. The only disadvantage is that is isn't as stiff as glass so they don't build boats out of it, but for sheathing a wooden boat you don't need extra stiffness. It was used on the mast as you surmised to keep the anchor chain from chewing up the bury. It seemed a good trade off to create a possible problem while eliminating a definate one.

At what point do the masts become solid? I assume the entire above-deck section is hollow.
They are hollow for most of their length. The top foot or so and the bottom from a point about 4 feet above deck are solid. Actually the wall thickness tapers over a foot or so from hollow to totally solid so there isn't a stress concentration where the plug ends.

How do the bilges work? how do they interconnect? how far do they extend horizontally? How is the bottom constructed? How many gallons approx. can the bilges hold? They look very shallow (if you're used to conventional GRP boat with "wineglass" bilge).
The boat is divided into four compartments which are watertight to well above the waterline. The forward most bulkhead aft of the deck anchor locker and forward of the foremast is completely sealed. The chain locker where the foremast resides is sealed except for the access hatch and the pipe which drains the compartment. The bulkhead aft of the engineroom is also completely sealed. This adds safety in the even of a collision as you are most likely to get holed in the bow and you probably wouldn't fare too badly unless the bulkheads failed. The bottom is three layers of MDO plywood well epoxied and dynel sheathed on the outside. The bilges are shallow, only 3 1/2 inches deep. I don't know what their capacity is, but we never let them overflow. The big problem we had was not being able to get the last dribble of water out.

What's the story on the air bag beneath the galley floor? why are the 2x4's that capture it so badly rotted compared to all other framing in the bilges? How are they fastened to surrounding timber? (See photo)
The 2x4's are part of an assembly which came from yachtsaver which is why I stupidly installed it with out thinking about it. They just keep the bag in place and keep stuff in the bilge from abrading it. I don't recall how they are attached to the hull.

Can the fuel tank be removed through the after compartment hatch? Or was it decked over in place?
Decked over, but it is aluminum and the fabricator did a beautiful job.

What was the rationale for the X shaped bamboo gallows? Just to take some strain off the lazyjacks?
We picked up some bamboo on one of our last days before we hauled and it seemed like a good thing to keep the boom in place. It was never a part of the regular rig.

How come the inset for the engine controls in the footwell wall is not painted? Just curious... (See photo)
I think I installed the engine controls before painting the cockpit and was too lazy to take them out again so I masked the whole panel.

Is the teak wormshoe the bottom portion of the keel? how is it attached to the lead portion? is the keel extension to which the rudder base is hinged, the teak or the lead? What is the black glop dripping out of the seam between the two portions of the keel? (See photo)
The teak covers the bottom of the deadwood from the aft end of the lead to the end of the rudder extension. The black is a tar like sealant to keep baddies out of the wood-lead seam. The shoe is 10/4 teak and it covers the whole bottom of the keel from where the lead stops back. So if you go aground it is either on lead or teak.

How long are the keel bolts?
They go about a foot into the lead where they are blind bolted through a mortise in the side of the lead.

What's the rub rail made of? Is it original, i.e. as drawn by Benford? (See photo)
It is a composite decking made of recycled pop bottles and fiberglass (similar to Trex deck). Benford would certainly not approve, but it is absolutely maintainence free and virtually indestructible. After a long hard passage we tied up at a marina and were too exhausted to put out fenders. The rubrail actually wore a flat spot in the pilings, but the rubrail showed no wear itself.

How is the deck/hull join fabricated and sealed? is the rub rail an integral part of it, or tacked on to the exterior after the hull/deck join was complete?
The hull and deck are both 2 layers of marine ply and they were laid up to interleave and then glassed over. The rubrail is sealed with urethane and screwed with bronze.

Is the entire hull double marine ply, or only below waterline? I think the answer is "yes" based on the 2000 survey, but just confirming. How are the 2 layers attached to each other?
The bilge planking is MDO. I was originally going to build the entire hull from MDO, but it was too stiff for the sides so I used BS1088 Meranti ply for the rest. The two layers are epoxied together.

Were bronze screw fasteners used consistently throughout for hull construction? Was West System epoxy used?
Every structural fastener which remains in the hull is bronze. I used a lot of steel fasteners in the glue-up, but they were all removed and epoxied over. Some of the epoxy is West System some is Raka, there is no particular advantage to West except that it is available in stores.

What is the gray gloppy paint on the lower rudder hinges and rub rail? When was it applied and why? (See photo
Zinc rich cold galvanizing compound. The rudder fittings were hot dipped, but they weren't well enough isolated from the copper paint so I put some sacrificial zinc on.

As you can see there's a gasket or something similar coming adrift where the saildrive exits the underbody. What is this gasket (or shim, or ???) and how was it fastened or adhered before it failed? What would be involved in replacing it? (See photo)
It is a fairing piece which was attached with 5200 so as not to put screws into the hull. It is fairly cosmetic and is not the actual saildrive seal.

de@ucolick.org
De Clarke