| Kaholee Refit | January
23, 2007 The fiberglass and fairing compound cured overnight, so the first thing I did this morning was to wash all the areas with water and a Scotch-Brite pad, then sand the new glass and fairing compound. With only one coat applied so far, I didn't expect the fill to be perfect, and it wasn't. Additional fairing compound would be required in most areas. |
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I removed what remained of some ineffective tabbing, which had been installed at some point before the boat came into our care, on portions of the v-berth structure. The single layer of lightweight cloth was poorly adhered to the plywood, and I could easily pull it off by hand. I ground as necessary on the remains, and prepared to install new tabbing using 6" wide biaxial tape and, on the outer surfaces where the finished product might be visible beneath paint, a layer of 8" wide cloth tape to provide a smoother finish. Before I installed the tabbing, however, I applied thickened epoxy fillets to the corners between bulkhead and hull, as necessary, to provide a better bonding surface for the tabbing. I let the fillets partially cure before laminating the tabbing over the top. While I was in the v-berth area, I gouged out some of the balsa core material from the new hatch cutout, removing about 1/2" of material. Then, I filled the resulting void with thickened epoxy to ward against the possibility of water infiltration into the core from the hatch opening. |
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After vacuuming up all the sanding dust and solvent washing as required, I applied a second coat of fairing compound to some of yesterday's patches on the deck, as needed to fill low spots. I added some extra layers of fiberglass to the low side of the cockpit icebox hatch; these layers would be the last ones before I began to finish off the opening with fairing compound. And so incremental progress was made towards the end of the deck preparation process. |
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Total Time on This Job Today: 4.5 hours
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