We’re restoring #27 in Kingston, ON and have removed and am in the initial phases of rebuilding the eyebrow that trims around the cabin top and cockpit combing. I feel that it’s a key detail of a Nonsuch, so it’s going back on. I’m also a sucker for varnished wood, so I’ve remade it out of sapele to match the new dorade boxes I built - it’s a pretty similar match to the existing teak handles.
My question to the group is this:
Should I rethink how the eyebrows are attached to the boat? The orginals we’re caulked and screwed on. I’ve heard complaints about sanding to revarnish and scuffing the cabin top, so I’m wondering if a washer behind the screw to hold the trim off would make sense? Or something else? I’m a chronic overthinker, so if I’m going down that path, let me know!
If you’re doing quality woodwork, I’m going to horrify you since I redid my previous Nonsuch eyebrow with PlasTeak.
I just want to share a few thoughts off the top of my head, based on what I learned taking the old eyebrow off and installing the new. I won’t try to convince you to use PlasTeak. It’s only for people who don’t enjoy maintaining wood.
You can kinda protect the fiberglass by laying down protective tape. It’s a pain to get that close enough to protect all the fiberglass without touching any of the wood. I’m guessing your thinking is to make this easier.
Are you doing this to have it stand-off a bit when sanding so you can get protective tape under the eyebrow? If so, you might be ok. Or are you planning to take the eyebrow off and re-install for each sanding and varnishing, and don’t want to deal with the caulking? Doing that could still turn into a lot of work.
The washer plan will probably work, with three small potential drawbacks that I can see. They’re not really showstoppers, just things to consider.
First, when you wash the boat, dirt may collect around the washers and later produce drip stains on the cabinside below them.
Second, unless you’re planning to finish the backside, water behind the eyebrow could affect the wood and creep under the varnish.
Third, if the intent is to remove the pieces for sanding and varnishing, that’d require removing the bungs to get at the screws. This might force you to need bigger replacement bungs each time. Those might not match well.
I wonder if putting 1/8" or thicker UV-resistant plastic stripping all the way around underneath the eyebrows might do the same job as the washers. It’d give you some stand-off and make it easier to put down protective tape without covering the wood. That’d allow you to do complete caulking all around to avoid the water issues. Just an idea. It may have other drawbacks.
-- Bob
This is on my to-do list. The eyebrow has lifted off the coaming in a number of places, most visibly near the aft cockpit corners. There has to be a way to allow for expansion and torquing of the deck.
Bob has highlighted some concerns but one more to consider: would it be more susceptible to damage? i.e. in-between screws it would be vulnerable to a glancing blow or stepping on it from above?
Edit: his idea for a plastic stripping would also perhaps allow for more movement of the hull.
Perhaps some kind of snap fastener to allow fairly easy removal for finishing?
I’ll be watching this thread.
Nick, I’d love to see how your boat is coming along. Previous owner took off the dorade vents and replaced them with those Marinco solar vents that are both leaky in violent rains and eventually the fan fails. I want to put dorade vent boxes on again.
Great insight Bob - I agree that the washers will collect dirt and leave streaks. I hadn’t considered that. I also wondered if the eyebrow has more of a function than we realize in keeping water off the cabin sides, and if I left a space between and the water was able to run down it could ruin their intention. I really like the idea of the plastic just under the eyebrow… as you say, about an 1/8-1/4". I’m going to look into that!
I don’t think you’ll be happy with using the washers as spacers. Not just for the reasons mentioned above, but also for a couple of mechanical reasons.
The way they are built, the screws hold the 1" wide piece of wood tight to the cabin sides. It can’t really move much if you sit on it, step on it, etc. If you perch it up on washers, it will be free to wiggle and wobble. Since the screws penetrate the fiberglass, this will result in leaking and possibly even loosening of the screws and wearing of the screw holes.
Second, since the eyebrow is curved, adding spacers will increase the radius of the curve. So the holes will no longer line up. You’d have to fill most of the screw holes and drill new ones - a difficult thing to so, since many of the screws will just be a tiny bit off. Of course, this would not be a problem if you are using new wood. You would have to fill the old holes, but could place the new ones to avoid them. Also, sealants don’t always stick real well to plastics, so you’d have to be careful in your choice of material and in the application.
As Bob suggested, using a plastic shim, cut to match the width of the wood, would solve the first problem. It could add a nice highlight, too, I suppose. But it would still have the second problem. And, like before, this would not be a problem if you are also replacing the wood.
Even with the full width plastic shim, you’ll still need to use blue tape, though you might not need quite as much precision. It seems less work to me to just take a little bit more care when applying the tape and skip the spacing altogether.
Brian’s got a good point, for which I don’t have an immediate suggestion. I did fill in the old screw holes and drill new ones. For some reason, 112 sticks in my mind as the number of holes to fill and replacement holes to drill. I know it was over a hundred.
It’s a do-able job, if you don’t mind doing it. But it wasn’t something I’d like to do often.
A write-up on what I did can be found by opening the www.nonsuch.org website MEMBERS tab, and clicking on MEMBERS’ TIPS & PROJECTS. It’s a different process than woodworking, though, so I doubt it’ll be of interest unless anyone’s thinking of going the synthetic material route.
-- Bob
Gorgeous. I like the clear plexi and clean lines.
We’re going to be around sailing for a week. We’ll definitely come around some time in August.
Those are fantastic dorade boxes Allinson. I’m looking to rebuild mine this winter and these are my go-to pattern now.
Brian N
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River MD
I’d be inclined to varnish all the wood before you install and use butyl to seal the screws. This eliminates all the tape issues. You’ll just have the plugs to seal.
Shims will expand and contract to different degrees and encourage leaks.
We’ve had excellent results with EzTeak , 8 years before recoating and the 8 coats takes about 4 days ideally in cooler weather
Let me know if you need any info! I would change a few things if I did it again.
All right, do tell. What would you change?
I suspect I won’t be dovetailing the boxes together (I have four), but had considered reusing the dark plastic tops. That was just a guess, but as I think on it now, that seems more trouble than it’s worth.
Brian N
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River MD
I epoxied strips inside the box to affix them to the deck - I only used epoxy - I should have used fasteners too.
I would find a large piece of 120/80 grit sandpaper and put it on the deck where the boxes are going to go, and use that and the curve of the deck to get the boxes perfectly fitted. I did the best I could with a sander and filled the gaps with 4200.
If I wasn’t such a sucker for varnished wood, I would have just made them out of something else - like stainless or fibreglass, etc. to make maintenance so much easier.