January 26, 2017
Halcyon 20
Thursday
I finished up some minor sanding work on the exterior trim, including cleaning up and finish-sanding the two existing, and one new, pieces of companionway trim, along with a couple areas on deck where I’d made some minor wood repairs.
During various sanding, scraping, and stripping chores, some old bedding compound at the edge of the toerail where it met the deck had flaked away, and this left, in some areas, a small gap at the corner of the rail. This sort of void would attract dirt and moisture and eventually compromise the new wood finish, so I decided to apply a small bead of sealant here to seal the crack and provide a more cosmetically appealing appearance.
After vacuuming and solvent-washing the area, I applied masking tape on both sides of the seam to protect the adjacent surfaces. I left just a bit of exposed surface on both deck and toerail to give the new sealant somewhere to bond externally, but mainly I wanted the sealant to be forced into the small gap as much as possible.
I applied a bead of brown-colored sealant and, with finger pressure, forced it into the small seam and into a smooth cove shape, minimizing the material right at the edge of the tape.
Afterwards, I immediately removed the masking tape, carefully pulling it away from the fresh sealant and leaving behind a nice little cove.
Meanwhile, I turned to the companionway trim. After final preparations, including drilling the new piece for screws and test-fitting all three pieces, I installed the trim in a bed of sealant with new fasteners all around. The reddish spots at the corners of the opening are areas where I’d filled and repaired some damaged gelcoat chips.
Total time billed on this job today: 5 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
30°, partly clear. Forecast for the day: Mainly cloudy, 40s