Sailing CANTAORA

The boat came to me with extensive core rot on the deck, cabin top, cockpit seats and cockpit bulkhead and especially on the poop deck at the stern of the boat. Here, there were multiple penetrations for deckplates, the traveler, cleats etc which had not been sealed properly letting in a lot of moisture. In addition, the camber on the deck top had been flattened down by the traveler, so it collected standing water with inadequate drainage which only added to the deck rot. Basically all the core was gone, and both remaining fiberglass layers had to be cut so  I cou l d easily access the area below the poop deck to build a stern locker to store a portable gas tank. Honestly I am not a fan of two design points on these Cape Dory yachts: 1- the inaccessible bilge and 2- this very large space under the poop deck which is only accessible by a vertical deck plate with a 4" hole fitted behind and over the rudder post, just enough space to fit a hand but not much else. Since the original T

Owners of trailer-sailor boats like the Cape Dory Typhoon generally don't bother with epoxy barrier coating  and instead go with bare bottoms or a coat of ablative antifouling to protect their boat bottoms from excessive marine growth. Since these boats are kept on trailers rather than in the water for extended periods of time, there is probably no need to apply barrier coat paint. However, I do plan on keeping Cantaora moored or docked for long periods in waters particularly prone to promoting growth on boat bottoms so I will be applying epoxy barrier coating as well as several coats of antifouling paint  The bottom on Cantaora was stripped and sanded clean with 80 grit on a palm sander, wiped down with alcohol and, over the course of a few days, was painted with several layers of epoxy barrier coating. The gel coat under the stripped ablative antifoulng was in decent shape, and apart from a previously patched area, and the two cockpit scupper holes I had patched myself, there wer

The old teak toe rail on Cantaora had been sanded down and was far too worn out to be salvageable and had to be replaced, along with the teak taffrail.  I used long strips of PVC exterior window trim obtained from my local hardware store to build up the toe rail. PVC takes to being fiberglassed quite well, as long as you prepare the surface with rough sanding followed by an acetone wipe-down. The trim pieces come in 7 foot long sections and a variety of profiles; I used the ones with a rectangular profile of 3/4" wide and 1/4" thick. Stacking two over each other and epoxying them around the deck sides would add 1/2" of height to around the decktop. (I could have just continued building up the toe rail this way and given-up on a wooden toe rail in favor of a completely molded-in one, but decided the wood look was too classic to give up.)  The PVC strips had the added benefit of being very flexible and easily bendable, so they could be bowed to take the curved shape of the