December 11, 2020

Arietta 9

Friday

The small areas in the cockpit and poop deck required a bit of sanding to smooth and otherwise complete.  At this point, I thought the major work was done in the cockpit, though as I continued with the painting preparations I’d keep my eyes open for any spots that might need some touch-up sanding.  There’d be another opportunity for pinhole filling and fine-tuning following the high-build primer application.

Meanwhile, I sanded as needed the lazarette hatch to smooth the recent epoxy application, and also on the transom repairs.

Next, I continued work on removing the old boottop and, as needed, a bit of bottom paint.  During the morning, I worked my way down the starboard side, then back forward along the port, removing most of the old paint and hard white coating (barrier?) beneath, leaving some vestiges of the old paint here and there that would be removed during the next several hull-sanding steps with finer sandpaper and less aggressive tools.

After cleaning up a bit, I installed permanently the little toerail section on the port side amidships.  I bunged the screw holes and left the glue to cure.

To round out the day, I made patterns of the various patches on the hull that I needed to repair, and transferred the patterns to a leftover piece of fiberglass.  I ran out of time and couldn’t get these patches installed as I’d hoped, but that would come soon.

Total time billed on this job today:  4 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  32°, cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Mostly cloudy, 42°