March 24 2012

Monday:

I used sheet wax to build up a dam around the hatch opening on the lower cabin and laid up a tapered wedge of fiberglass to make a flat pad for the hatch to sit on.

The stress cracks above the portlight got ground out. Dremel with a ball burr through the gelcoat and filled. I started filling the lows in the interior, on the underside of the deck.

Tuesday:

I built some staging to go around the back of the boat. 8 foot 2x4's. I cut a 28 inch drop, and a 54 inch piece. One rung 24 inches off the ground, 28 inches wide. The top 24 inches wide... Cheap easy and stiff.

After that I added some more fiberglass to the hatch flange.

Wednesday:

I ground the gelcoat off the starboard side of the boat. Everything except the underside of the counter at the transom.

Thursday:

The sun had eaten my old epoxy fiberglass work on the deck from 3-4 years ago. For peace of mind I decided to redo it, to not have to think about if it was still strong enough...

I ground the fiberglass off the starboard side deck, and replaced a some coring that I didn't do a few years back. The piece of divinycell went from the cockpit up to the aft deadlight of the main cabin, and resin coated the exposed balsa coring.

Leah came by for a bit and helped sand the old paint off the toe rails.

Firday:

I finished grinding the bevels around the outside edge of the deck, water washed and sanded the epoxy coat. I wanted to jack a bit more crown in to the deck at the front of the cabin, so that under foot it would be stiffer. The camber of the deck makes it stiff, when you step on it the arch tries to flatten... When that arch is upside down it isn't doing its job.

When I laid the core a few years ago... I used a tool box to weight down that section, and it made a low spot. I screwed a 2x2 strip of pine, to the underside of deck and stacked paint stirrers in the middle by eye until the side deck had shape. I then ground the screws that were sticking through the deck off flush.

This cracked the coring along the center of the arch, so I ground out the crack and filled it with epoxy, let it gel and cut a strip of fiberglass for the side deck.

After that, I mixed up a batch of slow epoxy and started laying three layers of cloth. I air rolled it and worked all the excess resin out, and continued to roll until it had gelled. After that, I applied a quart and a half of Adtech Proseal to seal the weave of the cloth.

Zach