| Kaholee Refit |
April 19, 2007 Today was a minor day aboard, with most of the day's time spent shifting gears and preparing for the next project on the horizon. On board Kaholee, however, I continued with a few small projects, beginning with the second (port side) sheet cleat outboard of the coaming. Yesterday, I filled the existing screw holes with epoxy, and today I drilled and tapped for the 1/4-20 fasteners, and then installed the cleat in a bed of sealant; with the tapped holes, there was no immediate need for me to attempt to reach the underside of the area for now, though I made an important note to myself to remember to complete (or have someone small or long-armed complete) the backing later on. Additionally, I made some preparations for the sea hood installation. With enough varnish on the piece for the moment, I set it in place on the cabin top and made some various measurements to ensure that it was in the proper location--and also (and more importantly) eyed it critically from several angles to make sure it looked right, regardless of what the tape measure said. Once I was satisfied with the positioning, I masked off the deck around the edges, and then temporarily removed the sea hood so that I could prepare the fastener holes. To prevent the possibility of water ingress into the deck should the sealant fail, I wanted to create solid epoxy plugs at each location, as with all the hardware on deck. To this end, I bored 1/2" holes from above, passing through the top skin and into the core only, leaving the inner skin in place. In one location, however, I was surprised when my bit passed all the way through; closer inspection later from the underside revealed this to be an area with an exceptionally thin inner skin. I taped over the gaping hole from beneath to hold the epoxy; the finishing washers for the interior fasteners ought to cover the ugly hole later on. With the holes bored, I filled them with thickened epoxy and left it to cure overnight. |
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Next, I applied another coat of gray paint to the settees in the main cabin to finish them off now that the bulk of the work in the saloon was complete. |
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With the major work on deck complete, I broke down the staging from around the boat. I had a short day planned for the morrow: install the sea hood, and clean up the cockpit. I'll soon post a listing of the work that remains to be completed during Phase II. |
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