Demolition
I was lucky to have my Mother-in-law's carport to use to dry out the Ace. I lifted the Ace off the Hood Canal dunking trailer using ropes and set it up on saw horses. A side note: the trailer bunks fell off when the boat was lifted off. I pulled what was left of the not so original interior and carefully took pictures of everything. Not so much to see the progress but more to help put it back together later. With the interior out, I flipped the boat (with the help of ropes and friends) and started stripping the fiber glass off the bottom. "Off the bottom" was the plan; it turned out much of the bottom came with it. In fact, a rather large hole appeared. I continued to strip and pull pieces off the boat. Believe me I had my doubts - just what kind of a nut was I to do this.
I bought several gallons of paint and varnish stripper and went to town on the rest of the outside of the boat. I found some really nice areas, but then I started to run into a little rot on side planking, about four or five inches mid ship and into the chine planking. The little bit of rot went from 4 inches to 4 feet long at this point. At this stage the boat actually looked pretty good...four feet of rot in the side, a new hole in the bottom and a rotted transom that I pushed my little finger though. I knew then I was sick with the Ace fever. My 81-year old Dad started checking progress on a daily basis. I started emailing Ed, Tom and Ned on a regular basis for advice and suggestions and counseling. Tom Regan outlined a rather no nonsense suggested plan of attack that did not include fire.
The starting point.
Bob pulled fiberglass from the bottom and stripped the paint and varnish.
A hole was revealed.
Bob stands with the stripped Ace.
Here is some of the wood removed!
