Started with the NEIYA fall swap meet that I chose to not attend and Bill B. did attend. Bill noticed a bit of a wood structure issue in the stem blocking area of the DN after Jack had made his purchase.

I believe that Bill mentioned the issue at the Chicky meeting at Camp Kieve. Then with an email from Bill to Jack Denker and I reminded me of the issue that a fellow Husky sailor had with his first DN. Biddeford about 1:45 from Northeastern, so a relatively short drive for Jack who is also a frost-biter on the soft-water.

Jack arrived at about noon on Sunday 11/8. We talked a bit about stuff like Northeastern, and how the sailing team is doing. Very interesting for me to hear that the sailing team was still going strong. When I started at Northeastern in 1992 there was only a sailing club with the use of the facilities that MIT had on the Charles River. Myself and some fellow students started racing, and traveling to races, so I suppose we may have started the Northeastern sailing team. From talking with Jack I have found that the team is very popular and an alum who had a son on the team made a substantial donation that has allowed the team to survive quite well. They even have a frat-type house I believe.

So we did not waste too much time and got to work on the DN. I started poking with an ice pick and found that indeed the stem area had some issues. I routed about 5/16 of an inch of the port side panel a foot back from the nose, leaving the top and bottom deck in tact for reference. We cut out about a 4 inch by inch and a half of the punky port side panel, exposing the bushing tube. We found that the stem blocking did not extend as far back as the steering chock bushing tube. The tube was still in place and attached to the top and bottom of the stem, so I cut a 3/4 inch piece of plywood to fit the cutout area, and a 1/4 inch piece to fit the area of the side panel that I had routed 5/16 from. We then mixed some epoxy, I gave Jack several ounces and while he wet out the routed area and the plywood pieces I thickened the remainder with West 404 High-Density filler to as thick as I could mix. I surrounded the bushing post with the mixture and then bedded the plywood pieces in it. Using wax paper and a good flat piece of 2/4 clamped that and also clamped a few inch piece of the top deck that had also delaminated. There was also a bit of plywood separation from the side panel that we sanded and epoxied also.

Jack’s uncle came and picked up the boat the next week, and he said that he indeed was epoxy skilled so would be able to sand and then coat with epoxy the repaired nose. So you can all look forward to seeing Jack on the ice this winter, and his steering chock will stay attached.