March 3, 2022
Luna Mia 2
Thursday
The initial fiberglass work on the transom was ready for some sanding to smooth and begin to fair the repairs in with the adjacent surfaces. Inside the boat, I removed the tape “molds” from the back sides of the openings and lightly sanded those areas as well.
At the same time, I lightly sanded the inside and outside of the larger repair covering the old saildrive leg opening in the hull.
After cleanup, I made a simple pattern of the patch area on the bottom and cut two layers of fiberglass to fill it. The exposed area of the patch required a light skim coat of a thickened epoxy mixture to fill small voids around the edges, after which I installed the two new layers of fiberglass over the entire area.
The transom repairs required a layer of fiberglass to cover the insides of the three patches, and I used more of the thickened epoxy mixture to skim over the patches on the exterior, the first round of filler needed for these areas.
Next, I turned to the repair of the old pedestal mount in the cockpit. There was no practical access to the underside of this area for repair purposes, so I’d effect the entire repair from above. To fill the square hole left from the pedestal mount, I cut a piece of 1/2″ thick prefab fiberglass to a friction fit in the opening, the installed it with epoxy adhesive all around, and used more of the mixture to skin the whole area and fill the smaller bolt holes as needed, which I’d previously taped over from beneath by reaching through the square hole.
Finally, I cut two layers of fiberglass to fit and installed them over the repair.
The last bit of minor deck repair was at the stem, where the owner had removed the mount for a Hoyt boom that he no longer used. These old screw holes required patching, so I reamed them out, masked from beneath, and filled with a thickened epoxy mixture.
Total time billed on this job today: 4.25 hours
0600 Weather Observation: 23°, snow, 6″ down overnight and still coming. Forecast for the day: Snow, then snow showers, 32°