2007

De-Featuring and first Projects

For Frank and me 2007 was the (true) kick-off for the restoration of Rolling Stone. However, as we would learn very quickly, we started with too many projects simultaneously without finishing them in the planned schedule. As a consequence the boat spent far too many years ashore. First step was de-featuring. Rolling Stone was quite overloaded with stuff we won’t really need in the future or things, which were simply useless or not working properly. We started with the replacement of the aluminium deck beams („deck islands“) and reconditioning of the foredeck around them. Where the chain plates poked through the deck the plywood was quite moist and had suffered to some degree. Water leakage was the result. Also we paid attention to the deck underneath the inner genoa track on port side. We sanded the whole area and coat it with a mixture of high performance sealant (PROTECTA), glass fibre mat and epoxy resin. Of course we made some experimental bondings to see, if PROTECTA was compatible with our epoxy system and the test results were really very satisfying. By the way, we never mounted the inner genoa track again.