Rebuilding the Turtle

Removing the old Schaeffer traveller lead to a few surprises surrounding the teak turtle. After discovering the plywood sub-layer was rotten I disassembled the turtle.

The turtle is solid teak plank sides, on top it's teak decking surrounded by teak trim. There is 3/8" plywood under the decking material; this was rotten on our boat. The construction of the turtle was a surprise. The plywood was formed, presumably under heat/steam at the yard. It was NAILED into the teak sides, the decking was GLUED to the plywood. The bungs in the top did little to release any of these pieces. Additionally, the aft end of the plywood fits into a grove into the teak traveller bridge. In essence, this thing was not built to be taken apart.

After disassembly I used a Fein Multimaster with a scraper blade to separate the plywood from the decking. Everything was cleaned up and a new piece of 3/8" marine plywood was cut to fit the top. Since I did not have the resources to steam the plywood into the correct curve, I had to bend the plywood using the frame in front and the traveller in back.

After several attempts I found I was unable to bend the plywood without producing a prominent saddle. Over time this would have created problems in the decking piece. After conferring with the yard woodworker, the yard manager, and a fellow tenant who's been working on a wood Monk power boat for three years, we decided adding 'trusses' was the best approach.

I scribed the curve of the turtle from the forward edge of the frame and made corresponding archs from Alaska yellow cedar. These were mounted into the turtle frame.

The arched supports are supported by cleats, everything is screwed and glued. The plywood was then bent over the curve and held in place by screws.

The plywood was screwed into the wooden arches and into the frame by wood screws to ensure ease of disassembly. The bunged holes in the decking piece were used to screw the decking piece to the plywood. Since no adhesive was used Dolphinite was used between the two pieces of wood. The decking piece was sealed to the frame with SIS 440 from Teak Decking Systems.