After allowing plenty of time for the glue securing the bungs on the cabin trim to cure, I spent an hour this morning trimming them flush with a chisel and sandpaper.  Then, I dabbed thinned varnish on the raw plugs so that my final coat of varnish later in the day would absorb evenly over the pre-varnished trim and the newer bungs.

I cleaned up the inside of the boat and removed many tools and other unnecessary items in preparation for the final coat of satin rubbed effect varnish on the trim.  A bit later in the day, I applied the varnish to the trim.

Most of the old deck hardware had been installed in tapped holes, and in the months since I removed it I had forgotten--until now--that these cleats had not been secured with tapped screws.  It wasn't until I gooped up the first one with caulk that I discovered that the holes were not tapped.  This was inconvenient, since I had planned to simply thread the screws tightly into the holes for now, securing the cleats and waterproofing the installation, and dealing with the backing plates and nuts/washers beneath later.  One concern I had was that it would be difficult to reach the underside; I had sort of figured on finding a small volunteer to crawl into the lockers through the new aluminum hatches to help me.

Now, though, it seemed I had no choice but to proceed and try and get the nuts and washers on myself.  Yes, leaving the existing holes in place was a mistake...it would have made much better sense to have filled them, and then relocate the cleats accordingly.  But what's done is done, and I found that I could just reach the bolts through the deck opening--or mostly, anyway.  I secured the first (forward) two without particular difficulty, securing a fiberglass backing plate first and then nuts and washers, but my arms simply were not quite long enough for the back two.  I could touch them, and almost managed to thread the nut onto one, but I needed two more inches of arm length.

Not being Avner the Eccentric, with his convenient extendable arms, there wasn't any more I could do.  I'd have to wait for help on this one.

ON the other side of the cockpit, however, I taped off the holes and filled them with thickened epoxy, so that I could redrill and tap them tomorrow to accept fasteners that would pull the cleat tightly into place and then await, at my convenience, the installation of the hard-to-reach nuts, washers, and backing plate.

Total Time on This Job Today:  5.5 hours

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