Lackey Sailing | Further 21

January 11, 2023

Further 21

Tuesday

After delivering another boat to the outboard dealer first thing in the morning, I got to work on preparing the decks around each of the areas currently being recored, With a grinder, I removed the gelcoat and tapered the adjacent laminate as needed to accept new fiberglass patches once the core was complete, providing a roughly 2-3″ wide area for tying in the new material. I also sanded the exposed inner skins of all areas, leaving just some corners and detail work to deal with shortly.

At the same time, I prepared the edges of several other areas to be repaired in the cockpit, including the instrument holes on the bulkhead, the engine panel opening, the pedestal opening, and an obsolete locker opening at the port aft side, plus the inside of the hull in way of three through hulls in the counter that the owner had removed (I’d prepare the outsides of these three holes later).

With some plastic pattern material leftover from one visit or another from my canvas contractor, I made patterns of the sidedeck and foredeck core openings. For now, I focused on these areas forward of the cockpit, as I hoped to button up the sidedecks as soon as possible so I could get to work on the coachroof repairs, and there were some minor inner skin repairs to be completed on the areas outboard of the cockpit, plus other details that I’d get to once I had core in the sidedecks.

From these patterns, I spent the rest of the day cutting 1/2″ balsa core to fit, getting all the core prepared for the port side (forward of the cockpit) and foredeck before the end of the day. At the foredeck patch, I cut out sections of core and prepared 1/2″ solid fiberglass material in way of the two bow cleats. Next time, I’d cut the core for the starboard side, then get to work installing the sidedeck core.