February 2018 Happy Birthday, AmzerZo. We are honored to be the ones giving AmzerZo her 20th birthday present. The make-over continues. February 1, 2018 
More sanding.
Clear decks are a safety priority for us. We'll think three times about anything we re-install. 
 The guys at Metal Marine are meticulous about sanding down to a clean slate anywhere stainless steel comes into contact with aluminum.  The moment of truth. Removal of the fairing revealed a deep dent. There were no cracks in the aluminum, but we made a decision to cut open the top of the swim platform (a watertight crash box) to check it out from the inside. Finding no welds on the swim platform meant this had not been done previously.  Elsewhere, the sanding continued.   The rudder is also coming along. The new plates have been welded onto the structural points. Next, they'll close it up along the edges.  February 2, 2018
A wine glass very much half full.
Inside the crash box, we found some
bent stringers. The bottom of a small
structural plate was also bent.
A testament to AmzerZo's strenth and build quality, the aluminum plating itself, although dented, was fine. No cracks. It was clear that no one else had been in there since she was built. The aluminum looked beautiful--shiny and new--and like the rest of the bilge, no corrosion. Having sent him the passage from Renee and Yvonne's book describing the incident in Thailand, Benoit from Metal Marine even commented on how strongly AmzerZo was built, and he knows what he's talking about. He had a plan to get her plating back into place, and weld on new stringers and a new structural plate. So although the repairs would cost us some extra cash, we were elated over the condition of the aluminum, and once again very thankful that we were in the right hands. 
Looking good. You can still see the red dye they used to test AmzerZo's welds during the construction process.  February 5, 2018  Let the dent removal begin! Another ingenious plan that will save us a few bucks while not sacrificing strength. Instead of cutting out the whole plate, Metal Marine drilled several holes in the bottom of the crash box, screwed in a hook, and applied tension while someone banged on a wood block placed on the inside. We held our breaths every time they released tension on the hook, until finally, many tries later, it didn't pop back in. Thumbs up to everyone!  This is what it looked like on the inside. Reinforcing backing plates where the hooks were inserted. The plating was popped back into place, but the new structural pieces will ensure it stays that way. Those two pipes are for our swim ladder. They'll be removed and Metal Marine will make us a new one that we don't have to store in the dinghy underway. 
 We'll have to get a whole new floor welded on. The swim platform had cleats, a roller for launching and hauling the dinghy (which was broken), and various other feature that needed either repair or reconfiguration, so now we're really starting with a clean slate. 
Crazy fairing. This is the chunk of fairing that was smoothing out the big dent. It weighs 40 pounds, easily. We won't be needing that anymore. Now we'll really be doing 200-mile days! 
 Elsewhere, Metal Marine continues sanding and inspection of other underwater areas before the sandblasting begins. They're doing spot checks for other areas of heavy fairing. 
February 9, 2018 More spot checks. So far so good. 
Metal Marine found one more spot of heavy fairing further forward on port. Luckily it turned out to be a minor dent, as this was no longer in the crash box area.  Dent gone, holes closed. The dent gone, Metal Marine welded shut the holes they made to force out the dent. Later they will dye test it to ensure it's watertight. |
