Lackey Sailing | Arietta 4

December 4, 2020

Arietta 4

Friday

After an overnight cure, I removed the weights and plastic from the fresh core on the poop deck and cockpit sole. This left behind some flimsy epoxy shards and a shiny epoxy coating over the entire area.

To prepare the core for the next steps, I lightly sanded all areas to remove excess epoxy and smooth the surface.

I also sanded lightly the small fiberglass patches I’d made around the cockpit. These would all require additional fairing that I’d complete in due course.

I made paper patterns of the recessed area around the rudderpost and the cleat reinforcement on the poop deck, then patterned for the new laminate, marking to the outer edge of the prepared deck areas adjacent to the new core. Afterwards, I masked off around the poop deck repair to protect adjacent surfaces, and masked the tillerhead and scuppers in the cockpit to protect them from any stray epoxy during the laminating.

I cut 8 layers of fiberglass to fill the cleat and rudderpost recesses, then installed the solid laminate to bring these flush with the surrounding core. I added a single layer of 10 oz. fiberglass over the rudderpost laminate to help smooth the initial application and tie the whole thing in slightly with the surrounds. I let the new material cure for a bit while I used the patterns to cut the three layers of fiberglass for each repair, then mixed and applied a bit of thickened epoxy filler to complete the solid recesses, as well as to skim coat the top of the core and fill any small voids left behind at the edges.

I started with a layer of fiberglass cut to the same size as the core, inside the deck edges, to cover the core and bring the level up as needed with the edges. Then, for each repair, I installed two further, overlapping layers of fiberglass that extended to the edges of the prepared deck areas around the repairs. At the rudderpost, I changed the position of the relief cut on each of the three layers so none were directly above another. I left the new fiberglass to cure for the weekend.