May 24, 2011

Sunday I spent the afternoon fine tuning the bridge deck blank ( a 6 foot x 27 inch piece of 3/4 divinycell glassed on both sides with 1708 biax and epoxy.)

I cut the top of the bridge deck bulkhead off level. I cut the lower lip remnants of the back of the cabin off, and ground the gelcoat off so the flat foam panel would fit up tightly. I screwed a piece of 3/4 plywood across the back of the cabin to hold the existing fiberglass to keep the opening true.

Once the foam blank fit nicely, I rounded it over with a router to ease in the glass work.

Then I ground off all the gel coat around the cockpit sides, where the coaming boards attach so the new foam and fiberglass will be firmly attached. I left a small lip of the old cockpit seats to have a support for the new work, and to keep the side decks from deforming.

Then we went for a sunset sail on the tanzer.

Monday was a no-boat work day.

This afternoon I double checked all the past work, and finished grinding the inside edge of the cabin wall.

Then I ground out a bad spot on the starboard side deck, where in the past a stantion had been ripped out and a polyester repair was made. It was a bit of a soft spot, so while I had access I ground the old out and glassed in three layers of 1708 with epoxy. I used blue dow board foam, and a few dots from a hot glue gun to hold the backer in place. I wanted to fix this spot before the new bridge deck went on, and it made access to the underside more difficult. I will be glassing the bridge deck bulkhead to the side decks, and making the bulkhead water tight.

While the hot glue gun was heating up, I walked down the port side deck with 40 grit on an 8 inch pad sander, where I had applied fairing compound over the weekend.

Next I acetone wiped and sanded off the foam board and edge around the cockpit. I mixed up some epoxy, and painted it on the edge of the foam and all around the cockpit lip. I took the extra, and put it in a bigger mixing pot... mixed up two more little batches and added cabosil (fumed silica) to thicken the epoxy to peanut butter consitency. Then I took the mix of glue, and piled it up on the lip around the cockpit edge and smushed the new bridge deck in place. I filled the gap around the outside edge and worked out all the air, cleaned the excess and called it a day.

I also... forgot my camera.

Zach