June 17, 2016
Rhodes 4
Friday
I vacuumed off the hull and deck, then washed these surfaces with acetone to prepare for the next steps. Before continuing, I took a moment to mask off the scribe mark at the waterline so I wouldn’t lose this during the upcoming hull surfacing work.
Now I applied a skim coat of epoxy fairing material–mixed a little on the thin side–over the entire deck, including the molded coamings. My goal with this was to force epoxy as much as possible into the myriad cracks and other surface interruptions on deck, helping to stabilize and, ultimately, smooth the surface to prepare for primer.
Afterwards, I repeated the process with the hull. The starboard side was in better condition than the port, which featured a heavier crazing pattern and also several particular areas where the gelcoat was pocked with long-burst “blisters” or pocks, notably at the turn of the bilge on the quarter, the port bow a few feet aft from the stem, and the forward part of the hull just above the waterline.
Total time billed on this job today: 3 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
45°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 70s