Spring!

It's been over 6 months since I last did anything with Spark here on this site. This is not to say all has been idle, just very cold. I have completely stripped her of paint and trim and have been busy sanding off varnish, buying new parts, and doing repairs.

Repairs are what brings us to today. After pulling twenty-two 3 1/2" screws out of her bottom, I pulled the solid mahogany centreboard case out of spark. The case was the source of the leaks I had during the week she was in the water down in St. Michaels. Once I pulled some of the screws holding it together, I found the glue had perished and it basically fell into five parts.

It should have fallen into four parts, but time and abuse had taken it's toll on one of the inner parts and a corner of it broke off when I removed it from my GP.

I am not worried about it at all. Not only was it a very small part, but it is below the level of the floorboards, so once glued back into place and varnished, it will be completely unnoticeable.

One of the things that did worry me was the complete lack of sealing on the inside of the case. Whenever spark had been in the water over the past five decades, that bare wood was directly exposed to the water she was floating in. As she was only ever used a few hours before being taken out, it never had a chance to do any damage, but as I intend to do some "camp cruising" Spark will be in the water for days, leaving more time for exposure to occur. I will be epoxying the inside the case and varnishing the outside.

As for the parts you see, they were in amazingly good shape. Some sanding and a small bit of filling will see the case looking good as new. Then I will get to reseal it and install it back into Spark for another fifty years of use.