roof rot

steen and i headed down to the marina today to go for a sail. the wind was kinda dead, and both big dave and tiffany bozic had flaked. we decided to have a look at something that has looked suspect since we bought the boate. the previous owners installed this hand rail in the cabin, and did a really bad (“that’s sub-par work, man” was the opinion of jay, the local live-aboard boat-workman) job of securing it. they drilled through the roof of the cabin, and threw some galvanized bolts into the holes, and then slathered some clear silicone gel around the protruding bolt threads. at one point today, i was inspired to say “those guys were fucking shitheads”. it was that bad.
in any case, water has been slowly leaking down into the laminated plyboard sandwiched between the fiberglass on the deck and the resined finish of the ceiling in the main cabin. this, to resort to my usual conversational parlance, is FULLY not cool.

if it were just a matter of us being wailed aesthetically by water stains, a simple thick coat of paint would suffice to push this problem out of sight and therefore out of mind. a bit more investigation, however, revealed that rot has set in, and could eventually cause serious structural issues (two of the mast stays are anchored in this region of the ceiling). this has to be dealt with for peace of mind and overall sense of preparedness, particularly before the end of summer, when we’re out there with a fresh breeze and some good swells.
after staring at the ceiling for a while, and consulting the aforementioned local expert jay, we decided to get into action. we had to get a saw, set the depth just inside the fiberglass of the deck, and cut the offending cancerous plywood out, with clear margins (to use the jargon of an oncological surgeon). off we went to orchard supply hardware on ashby.
but why buy a miniature makita radial saw when another power tool, one for which you have been waiting for the slightest excuse to purchase, could do just as good a job? yes, gentle reader, witness the dremel moto tool. it spins up to 35 gajillion rotations per minute, and i think the variable-speed control mechanism is actually a chip capable of controlling the power grid of a small city (ok, i made that up). it also has the flexible extension shaft, and we got an adjustable-depth cutter housing to go with it. steen, selfish bastard that he can be sometimes, figured that since he already had a photo of it brand new and unsullied in its packaging, that he could go ahead and bollocks the whole thing up. so here’s the best pic i got of it:

so here’s what we’ll be doing for the next few days. tonight there is a big fashion show over at the gallery, and everyone is encouraging me to show up and “check out the models”. *yawn* i think it may be a take out chinese and everquest kind of saturday night. or bret is pushing some sound files to my computer right now, maybe i’ll goof around with some pre-mastering techniques.