110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
Once more, I started the day with the sanding tools, and lightly cleaned up the new fiberglass on the port hull, as well as sanding the new fairing compound in the cockpit.
Afterwards, I focused on the port hull. Inside the boat, I made a basic paper pattern of the area requiring new core, following the edges where the original core had been. I transferred the pattern to new sheets of core and cut out the required pieces, then taped them in place for a test fit. Where the core ended at the top and bottom edges, I cut a 45° bevel on the core to ease the transition for the eventual inner skin of fibergass.
Happy with the fit, I made final preparations for the core's installation, then wet out and installed the new core in a relatively stiff bed of epoxy adhesive applied with an aggressive notch. It would have been nice to vacuum bag the core in place, but with that not an option at this point I relied on significant pressure from a heavy roller to press the core securely into the adhesive after sampling the process on one of the smaller pieces of core to confirm the effectiveness and consistent adhesive coverage. Mixing the epoxy adhesive to a stiff consistency held the core tightly in place with no propensity to slide downwards, and there was no problem for the core to conform and adhere to the contours required.
To round out the day, I applied a second round of epoxy fairing compound to the cockpit, and to some small nagging lows on the foredeck.
Total Time on This Job Today: 7.25 hours
