October 9, 2015
Aventura 11
Friday
I removed and set aside the sand weights and plastic that I’d used to secure the new core, and, with the core exposed, lightly water-washed and sanded as needed to remove any adhesive ridges and the like to prepare the core for fiberglassing. I also sanded the mast step area and other deck patches (instrument holes and water fill) as needed.
Once I’d vacuumed up the sanding debris, I used paper to create patterns for the new fiberglass deck skin, and afterwards filled the kerfs and any small voids around the edges with thickened epoxy (oops–no photos of that stage).
Down at the bench, I cut two layers of woven fiberglass for each of the recored areas–one layer extending to the edges of the ground flanges, the second layer about an inch smaller on each side.
Before jumping into an afternoon of laminating, I worked on the poop deck to fill as needed the outer edges with structurally-thickened epoxy, then installed the core pieces I’d cut earlier, covering with plastic and weighting down as needed.
Now I wet out and installed the two layers of fiberglass on each of the newly-recored areas, plus the mast step.
To round out the day, I applied a coat of epoxy fairing filler to the now-patched old instrument holes and water tank deck fill.
Total time billed on this job today: 4.5 hours
0600 Weather Report:
35°, mostly cloudy. Forecast for the day: rain, high in the 50s.