| Hattie
Mae | Friday, July 3, 2009 With yesterday's portlight installation, and the boat therefore weathertight once more, my part of the project had more or less wrapped up for now. While there is still a lot to be done to the boat, the owner planned to take care of the remaining work list. Before calling the job complete, however, I needed to finish up the stern tube installation. I removed the shaft, stuffing box, and Cutless bearing and then washed and lightly sanded the exposed epoxy fillets to prepare the area for fiberglass. I cut four layers of fiberglass: two layers of 1708 biax, and two layers of wider, lighter 10 oz. cloth, both of which were long and wide enough to substantially overlap the hull and aperture on all sides of the stern tube, plus some assorted strips and smaller pieces to use to provide additional reinforcement and wrap the exterior of the stern tube. I cut slits in the centers of the four larger pieces so they'd slip over and tie in with the stern tube and wet them out and installed them, beginning with the biax. Between the biax and cloth, I wrapped a narrow length of biax around the outside of the stern tube, to encapsulate the biax darts that overlapped onto the tube, and to further reinforce the tube itself. Then, I applied the lighter cloth, followed by one final layer over the stern tube, plus some additional sections of tabbing to tie the whole arrangement together. I left this to cure until green. |
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In the meantime, I used thickened epoxy to create a wider, stronger fillet around the tube where it exited the deadwood inside the boat, now that the shaft and other obstructions were out of the way and I had better access. |
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Later, I trimmed off the glass that had extended past the aft end of the tube, and, while the material was still green, applied a first coat of fairing compound over the area to jumpstart the fairing process. I left this for the remainder of the day. |
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Finally, I moved all the jackstands and painted the patches where the stands had been when the bottom was painted. I planned to leave the boat indoors over the weekend, after which I planned to sand the stern tube area, fair the area additionally as needed, and move the boat outdoors for storage so I could begin the next project. |
 
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