| Circe
| Thursday, August 20, 2009 I water-washed and sanded all the through hull patches, both inside and out. On the interior, I sanded only lightly to remove rough edges, while on the exterior I faired the patches in smoothly with the adjacent hull. Afterwards, I blew away the dust, washed with acetone, and applied a light coat of fairing compound over the exterior patches to fill the weave of the cloth and any minor low spots. |
|
|
|
While I was in sanding mode, I sanded the interior bulkhead instrument hole patches in the saloon; the port side was done, but the starboard side had one minor low spot and one area where something hard had created a trail in the fairing compound application. I filled these minor areas with a bit more of the fine filler, which would wrap up the work there. |
  |
|
I also washed and lightly sanded the new tabbing on the fuel tank platform. I planned to build a small bulkhead at the forward end of the platform, which would then wrap up the work there. |
 |
|
I sanded the final coat of fairing compound over the newly-reworked chainplate slots in deck, completing that job. Inside the boat, I noticed a stain of water running from the bottom edge of one of the aft chainplate knees. Even though I hadn't yet delved into determining the condition of these knees, I decided at this point that I would cut out and replace both aft chainplate knees in the near future, since the water trickle was a clear harbinger of what I might find inside the knee; also, the starboard knee wasn't really wide enough to properly support the chainplate, as the chainplate had ended up right at the edge of the knee, and I'd been pretty much planning on replacing that knee anyway. |
  |
|
Next, I rebuilt the aft cockpit coaming mockup. I moved the aft edge forward by four inches, which seemed to be a good amount based on the space available and how much room this would leave in the new cockpit opening, and constructed a new curved coaming to tie in the proposed cockpit changes. Final decisions on the current state of the cockpit coaming proposal were pending. |
 
  |
|
During what remained of the afternoon, I worked on a few small jobs that needed to get done. I had yet to address the cockpit locker lids and companionway hatch slide, so I removed the hinges from the lids and sanded off the nonskid, then sanded the entire surface through 80 grit; I also sanded off the paint from the inside of the lids. Similarly, I sanded the companionway hatch slide. I set these aside for later patching and filling of the small holes and other areas that would require attention during paint prep. |
 |
|
I ground a small divot in the hull in way of the old exhaust through hull, and filled this area with epoxy filler. I didn't reinforce this patch since I planned on installing a new exhaust outlet fitting in the same area; the fill would just make the installation and milling of the new hole easier. |
 |
|
|
|
