Restoring Jouët Caprice 75

I arrived at the ASM Club de Voile late in the afternoon, and there was a nice 20kmph wind blowing, and so I decided to start by sanding the deck. Actually, for starters, I just wanted to start removing the blue paint over the anti-slip sections of the deck. I will see about the smooth sections later. The reason why I am removing it in order to paint over it, is that the blue was poorly applied, and flakes off easily in places. So, if I were to just paint over it, then my paint job would only be as solid as the undercoat.



The next day, I applied the first filler (polyester resin + microballoons) and sanded it level:



I had to stop there, however, because I ran out of the right grit of sandpaper :(

At any rate, it is advancing now. I must remember to use this phase to just take out the uneven surfaces, and not worry too much about the super fine bits, because the gelcoat that covers it is rather thick and will cover them easily.

The hardest bit was actually spent dremeling the sides, in order to get the curve just right at the bottom. In doing so I started to think of ways to sand, or prep, those smooth areas between the anti-slip ones. Still not sure how I'm going to do it. You can see these in this photo (the beer is for scale hahaha):

Building up the top to look like the Jouët Caprice:

I mentioned this earlier, but as a reminder, I have chosen to make a fixed roof, not like the hinged one that is found on the original Caprice. In this photo you can see it open:



One of the problems I have with this is that in the event of a knockdown, I would prefer a roof that is, well, sealed better. Additionally, a fixed roof will give me additional strength there.

Here is a photo showing the look from the front, with the hatch closed (on Reesie Jouet):



I therefore reproduced the shape out of fiberglass, using Gilles' lead weights one last time:



When done, I added resin+milled fiber+microballons to the edges to smooth it out. All that remains is two more layers of glass over the entire structure to make it solid (using the same technique as what I used on the main roof earlier). Here is where I am at now:



And for fun, this is the same section of the sailboat when I purchased her. Can you recognize anything? :

Fitting hardware:

It seems that a common problem (according to the photos of other Jouët Caprice that I have found online) is that the pulley on top of the roof which brings in the lines from the base of the mast to the cockpit is too close (or later moved) to be too close to the vent, and too low. Because of this, it creates friction from rubbing over the leading edge of the window, and by running across the ring of the vent. This is illustrated well in Nightwatch:



To test this, I measured the distances and heights from where the lines leave the Jouët Caprice mast and where the vent goes, and yes, I would have the same issue:



That would be a great way to wear out my halyards. I adjusted the angle of the pulley so that it created parallell lines to the blocker:



Then, using the same tongue depressors that I use for mixing resin (thanks for these dad), I built up the height of the pulley until the lines no longer touched the roof. I also played with the X-Y position so that it cleared the vent, giving:



The additional 4mm is all that is needed to clear the roof from where the pulley is positioned. I will just build this up like I did for the hatch. Problem solved:

The Rudder:

Time to start attacking the bottom of Lil' Mule II. For starters, I thought about having a look at that rudder. She appears ok at a distance, but knowing the rest of the boat like I do, I was suspicious.

At a distance:



The first alarm bells went off in my head when I noticed that there were 2 external metal plates holding the rudder in place. This is not what the blueprints show:



And you can see a healthy rudder on Reesie Jouet:



So I took out the chisel and scraped around one of the plates. ... which popped off in my hand:



...well, this was sign number 2 that not all is well with the rudder.


This ruined any illusions I may have had of dealing with the rudder later. I was rather hoping that I could just refinish with some glass laminate and then sail it, then change the rudder at a later date, but this, and other clues that not all are well made this a passing thought.

Some other strange things were these wood screws that were throughout the rudder. Wood screws? I could not figure out why anyone would put wood screws in ramdom parts of a rudder (I would find out shortly.

Then there is that trailing edge, which appears to be just (poorly-applied) solid epoxy putty. Humm. Added to this is the leading edge of the rudder, where it meets the pole. It sure looks bad.

So I decided to remove the darn thing.

I started by dremeling out around the edges of these added plates (the reason for their existence I would learn later). However, in doing so, I found that the rudder would still not budge.

I took the screwdriver and probed in from the leading edge and discovered that the original brackes were still in place. I figured therefore that something was holding them in. So I scraped through the layers of putty and found two (only!) bolts that wer holding them fast. I removed them, but was unable to take out the bottom one, as it was stripped somehow. I ended up using the following method to remove the rudder:



In so doing, I was finally able to get a good look at the state of the rudder. It is a total loss. Completely rotted out, and without any solid center (the center bits just crumbled out when I removed it:




Here you can see the construction technique.



And as you can see, the original brackets are still on:



The added ones that were on the exterior, were therefore added because there was nothing in the middle that was holding the rudder in place. Likewise the wood screws were added to try and hold the two outside sheets in place.

I may actually build the new rudder out of fiberglass rather than wood. This is something to consider...