The original builder did a lot of things really well, and a few things not so well on Aurora. The wood work and rigging is mostly first rate. What wasn’t first rate I broke sailing the rough weather of San Francisco Bay. The design of the forward hatch deadlights, however, left something to be desired. The seal around the port lights was basically some glass/epoxy and 5200 sealant. It didn’t last and began to saturate whenever there was a heavy rain.

Last fall I’d had enough, built a temporary hatch cover and took the thing home. Since then I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix the problem. I finally concluded that I’d have to rebuild it mostly from scratch. All I’m keeping is the mahogany frame. The decking and lights need a complete rebuild.

Of course, when you don’t know how something is put together, its pretty likely you’ll mess it up taking it apart. I did to some extent, but I think its salvageable. Today I went to Port Townsend and got new marine plywood for the decking and stopped by the foundry to have some proper bronze deadlight rings cast. Should take 4 weeks. Meanwhile, I’ll be building up the hatch in layers in preparation. From here I can see the rest of what needs doing.