| Circe
| Monday, August 17, 2009 I sanded the fairing compound I'd installed in the saloon last Friday, as well as the thin compound on the starboard sidedeck and starboard cockpit bulkhead. After cleaning up, I cut rounds of biax cloth to patch the large holes in the interior liner left over from the old sailing instruments, and epoxied the material in place. (Later in the day, after the fiberglass had cured sufficiently, I added a first layer of fairing compound to these areas--not pictured). |
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Meanwhile, I mixed more fine fairing compound and applied a second coat over the various fastener holes on the interior liner. |
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I reamed out and cleaned up the inside edges of the various old through hull locations, cleaned the areas, and applied tape over their exteriors before filling the holes with thickened epoxy as a first step in the hole-patching process. Because it was a very warm day, I applied the filler in two lifts, waiting an hour or so between applications to avoid excess heat buildup. At the same time, I prepared portions of the interior for some minor cosmetic fairing--namely the areas where I'd removed bulkheads and other structure, to fill in and smooth the transitions between the old tabbing and the surrounding areas for a cleaner appearance and better surface for future new installations. |
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I cut out a few square inches of deck and core material in way of three of the four chainplate slots in order to fill these areas with solid material and eliminate the possibility of water intrusion into the core from these large openings (the fourth had been included in one of the newly-recored areas and was already complete). I ground tapers into the deck around the new openings to accept new fiberglass, and vacuumed up the debris. I installed HDPE strips through the openings to act as stand-ins for the chainplates and maintain (and neatly form) the existing openings, and packed the newly-voided spaces with thickened epoxy, again working in two applications to avoid excess heat within the confined space and thick application. After applying the second layer of fill material, I installed biaxial cloth over the openings and around the avatar chainplates to tie the areas back in with the surrounding deck. |
 
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Discussions on the proposed cockpit changes were still underway, and I planned to make some modifications to portions of the mockup in the near future to reflect some of the new thinking. |
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