October 6, 2018
I am progressing nicely on the removal of the hardware and brightwork, and wanted to get this phase of the refit completed by the weekend. My goal for the day was to begin removal of the toe rails...but was quickly diverted to removal of the portlights as the starter course.
I began with the forward most portlight on the port side. The opening port was secured with 8 machine screws - appeared to be #10s. The backing nuts were acorns, with washers. I made good progress around the frame, using a flathead screw driver from the exterior side and a socket wrench from the interior.
Alas, there is always one trouble maker in the group. I had to finally resort to an angle grinder and a cut-off wheel to break the acorn nut on the interior...and then push the machine screw out.
I was successful in removing the portlight, and set aside the fasteners in the sequence and position that I removed them. There are instances where fasteners are matched specifically to the location o the portlight, and I did not want to have to play that matching game during the re-installation process. I also do not yet know if I will be using the same machine screws for re-installation...but just in case.
There was a massive amount of butyl-type compound on the interior and exterior cabin sides, and will be removed as I continue in the refit process.
I repeated the steps for the starboard side, with much less of an opposition to deal with. I reinserted the fasteners in the same position as they had been removed - for safe-keeping at the very least.
I made turned to the aft portlights, or amidships ports - the middle set of windows for the lay person :) These are the same opening ports as the forward-most set. I completed those and set them to the side as I had done with the previous, forward-most set.
I removed the aft deadlights - the aft non-opening ports - and set them aside. I secured the fasteners in the ports for safe-keeping, but will most likely replace these fasteners with new ones.
With all of the ports removed, I then got to the day's original goal - toe rails. I began on the port side with backing out a couple 1/4" machine screws prior to coming into contact with the jib track. I worked my way aft removing the jib track fasteners - some of them were machine screws with backing nuts and some were wood screws.
The jib track was an oversized track for this boat. In fact, the jib track on this Allied 24 was apparently taken from a Pearson Triton - a boat with 4 to 5 feet of LOA over the Allied 24.
Regardless of the jib track origin or type, I took measures of the overall length (94"), and...
...the aft position from the taff rail (stern)...that being ~70".
The picture below shows the fasteners removed from the port jib track installation: several machine screws and wood screws.
It was a nice milestone to get the port toe rail off the boat - a defining characteristic of the sheer line and overall appearance.
With the port toe rail removed, I swung around to the taff rail. The first issue I ran into was knowing where the bungs where located so as to get to the fasteners securing the rail to the boat. I outfitted my RO sander with a 40-grit disc and quickly quit into the flaking and opaque varnish, revealing the bungs.
One-by-one, I removed the bungs and then the fasteners by securing the backing nuts with a pair of vice grips and turning the exposed flathead screws by hand. With the removal of the taff rail I called it for the day...enjoying the last ten minutes of the Gator victory over LSU. Go Gators!
Total Time Today: 5.25 hrs
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