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Tuesday

Starting again with the inboard areas of the deck–the coachroof and cockpit well–I applied three coats of epoxy finish primer to the deck areas.  With the first phase complete, I continued with three coats on all other areas of the main decks, cockpit, cabin trunk, and loose parts.

Total time billed on this job today:  6 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  20°, light freezing mist, 1.5″ snow/sleet on the ground.  Forecast for the day:  Warming, freezing rain supposedly changing to rain later in the morning and through the afternoon, 30s. 

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Monday

The fine fairing compound had plenty of cure time over the weekend, and now I sanded these areas as needed to remove the excess and complete the high build phase.

During the rest of the day, I cleaned up and prepared the boat and shop:  blow down, vacuum, rinse down the floor,  two rounds of solvent wash, and all other related steps to prepare the decks and loose parts for finish primer next.  As before, I prepared portions of the deck with protective paper for me to walk, kneel, and/or lean on so I could reach and paint the inboardmost areas first.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  31°, cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Snow developing in the afternoon and evening, continuing overnight with light amounts

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Friday

The high-build primer acts as a sort of final step to the initial and major portion of the pre-painting surface preparations, evening out the various textures of the surface and filling or otherwise highlighting small flaws in the substrate, including pinholes in fairing material or exposed laminate and other areas requiring touch-up for other reasons.    Now, with the sanding complete, I vacuumed and solvent-washed the decks so I could continue the work.

With the decks clean, and armed with a headlamp to help locate the various small flaws that could be otherwise hard to see, I went over the decks with some fine epoxy fairing compound, troweling it in to whatever surface interruptions I found:  areas of slight unevenness; pinholes; gelcoat dings that hadn’t been previously filled, and whatever else seemed to call for it.

Total time billed on this job today:  3 hours

0600 Weather Observations:  10°, clouds, snow shower.  Forecast for the day:  Clouds and sun, 34°

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Thursday

I spent the day sanding all deck areas with 220 grit paper, by machine and with lots of handwork in the tight corners, gutters, bulwarks, and other areas.  As expected, the fresh primer highlighted various areas that would require fine-filling, which would be my next step.

Total time billed on this job today:  8 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  10°, clear, about 6″ new snow.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 30°

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Wednesday

After final preparations, I started the high build application with the coachroof and cockpit well, areas for which I needed to walk, lean, or kneel on the more outboard sections of the deck.  Over the course of a few hours, I applied three coats to these areas, then continued from the staging with three coats on the remainder of the decks and loose hatches.

Total time billed on this job today:  6 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  25°, snow.  Forecast for the day:  Snow, 4-8″, around 28°

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Tuesday

I spent the morning on a variety of final tasks to prepare for high build primer, starting with covering the hull against overspray with plastic, which I taped securely to the toerails.

Afterwards, I washed down the staging and shop floor, creating some stage fog when I opened the door a crack to push out excess water.

I set up the loose hatches so that I could access them acceptably for spraying, then did a final solvent wash on all deck surfaces and the hatches.

Because I’d need to stand or kneel or lean across portions of the decks to properly reach areas like the cockpit well and coachroof, I laid out some strategic paper to walk on as needed for the first stage of the primer spraying.

I spent the remainder of the morning preparing paint and spray equipment and all the other final chores required before spraying in the morning.

Total time billed on this job today:  4 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  14°, clouds, snow flurry, dusting overnight.   Forecast for the day:  Cloudy, maybe some stray flurries, 20°

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Monday

A quick round of sanding finished up a little detail work around the new cockpit drain openings and (not shown) the steering room hatch.

After more vacuuming and an early solvent wash on the decks, I got started in the cabin by cleaning off excess sealant from around the port openings in the forward cabins so I could mask these openings from inside.  I also masked off several vent and hardware openings as needed, including the new cockpit seat drains.

With work in the cabin complete, back on deck I masked over the forward hatch and companionway, and finished off all the port and deadlight openings with additional tape from the outside to cover the inside edges of the openings, which would prevent dust buildup in tight corners and crevices.

Continuing through the cockpit, I covered the locker openings and any remaining hardware with tape as needed.

Finally, I masked the wooden toerails above the bulwarks, completing the bulk of deck masking.  I’d finish up the masking and other final preparations next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  8 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  0°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 15°

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Friday

I got right to work on the cockpit drains, as I wanted to mold the new recesses early and be able to remove the fittings before the end of the day.  The little plug beneath the starboard opening, where I’d installed epoxy fill material from above last time, came right out as intended, leaving a nice little platform from which to work further, and the backing plate on the port side was now ready for further action as well.

Continuing, I drilled holes through the center of each side with a hole saw sized to match the diameter of the through hull threads, and with just a bit of hand sanding work to create a bevel at the top edges of the holes, the fittings rested flush with the surrounding deck, as intended.

I covered the threads with masking tape, then covered the entire fittings with a couple layers of shiny clear plastic tape, which would allow me to use the fittings directly for molding the recesses.  Thusly prepared, and with the openings in the deck cleaned as needed, I applied abundant thickened epoxy to the fittings and pressed each tightly into its hole till it was flush, forcing out excess epoxy but otherwise completely filling the voids beneath with the mixture.  I cleaned off the excess, ensured each fitting was truly flush and straight, and put some little weights on top while the epoxy cured–more to remind me to stay away from the corners than because the weight was actually necessary.

With that done, I turned to the day’s sanding, going around the deck as needed to sand the various fillets and hole repairs.  Then, by hand and with a 4″ vibrating sander, I sanded all the areas in the cockpit that I’d not previously dealt with, namely the myriad inside corners and all the areas around the cockpit locker openings and gutters.  In all cases, I ended with 120 grit paper, the last grit required for pre-primer preparation.  This all left the decks in good order, though the steering room locker hatch had a couple trowel marks left over that I’d need to fill and sand once more (I filled these before the end of the day).  Otherwise, the high-build primer would inevitably highlight additional detail work, and for now I’d taken the prep about as far as I could.

With warm weather outdoors for a change–never mind that it was time to do so regardless–it was the perfect opportunity to give the boat and shop a good cleaning, particularly with the door open so I could blow down the walls and corners and other areas before sweeping and vacuuming as needed, to get a start on the cleanup required before I could begin the final preparations for primer and paint.

I positioned the sea hood back on deck for a moment so I could mark and pre-drill the fastener locations.  I also drilled pilot holes for the stanchion bases, now that I’d finished their hole preparation, and the bow cleats, as well as the mizzen mast step and a deck plate in the cockpit, completing for now the hardware marking steps.

Late in the day, I felt the cockpit drains were ready for removal.  Gently tapping from beneath with a wooden block and hammer, I released the fittings, leaving behind nicely-molded recesses that, once fully cured, would be ready for a quick sanding dress-up before primer.  The tape over the fittings, in addition to acting as mold release, also meant that the recesses were just slightly larger than the fittings to provide some room for sealant during final installation.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  44°, clouds and fog.  Forecast for the day:  Rain, fog, warm, around 53°

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Thursday

I spent a few hours sanding the various detail areas, fillets, and small patches that I worked on last time.  This left a few areas, mainly in the fillets and some areas of the cockpit, that would require an additional application of fairing material, but otherwise most areas were in good shape by this point.

I removed the clamps from the new fiberglass surround at the steering room hatch, and test-fit the hatch to make sure it fit the new lip.

On the port sidedeck I confirmed the location of a pilot hole I’d drilled earlier for the waste pumpout fitting, ensuring that the hole was centered over the hose beneath, as the alignment was critical because of the way the existing plumbing was arranged.  Satisfied with the location, I cut a larger hole to accommodate a new deck fitting, as the original plastic one had been destroyed during removal.

After cleaning up from the morning’s sanding efforts, I applied additional fairing filler to a few areas on deck, mainly some of the fillets that required fine-tuning, and some of the newer cockpit patches.

The cockpit seats featured small drains at their forward corners, as the design of the cockpit molding didn’t allow for natural drainage from the seats into the well.  The owner asked that I replace these small drains, which he said were a constant frustration of clogs, with new, larger drains.  The current drains were short lengths of copper tubing with a flared top end, and drained through hoses that tied into the cockpit scupper drains belowdecks.

Removing the hoses from beneath (I’d deal with new plumbing later on; for now only the deck fittings were important to immediate progress), I was able to hammer out the port drain fitting from below, but the starboard fitting was badly corroded and crystalized, and shattered when I tried to release and remove it.    The way the boat’s construction was configured on the starboard side was also different, as there was a molded liner in the area that seemed directly bonded to the deck above; on the port side, not only had the liner been previously cut away, but in any event there was a large space between liner and deck above.

To replace these drains, I purchased 3/4″ flush Marelon fittings equipped with debris screens.  These required a tapered recess in the deck to accommodate the flush heads.

My original plan had been to use progressively smaller hole saws to make concentric cuts in the deck to a certain depth, after which I’d chisel out the remains, leaving me with a flat-bottomed cutout slightly deeper than the depth of the head on the new fittings, from which I could easily mold a new opening to fit the new drains exactly.  However, with the removal of the old drain on the port side, I found that the deck laminate was somewhat thinner than expected, and this wouldn’t leave much material if I made the cuts as I’d planned.  Plus, there was the challenge of the non-removable pipe on the starboard side.

Instead, I used a hole saw just slightly smaller than the maximum flange diameter to drill all the way through the deck on both sides.  The hole was sized so that it still held the fitting from the top, and to get the fitting to sit slightly lower when all was said and done it’d be easy to sand a slight chamfer around the top edge as needed.

The larger hole saw also removed the entire pipe assembly from the starboard side.   As I’d suspected, the cabin liner was bonded directly to the bottom of the deck here, creating a solid structure all the way through.  There was some core material as well, slightly damp around the old pipe location but otherwise sound.  (Apparently I didn’t take any photos of the raw holes at this stage.)

To rebuild these now-overlarge holes to accommodate the new drains, I took a different approach on each side, tailored to the details therein.  To port, where the deck was a solid laminate of about 5/16″ or slightly thicker, I epoxied a piece of 1/4″ laminate sheet below the large hole, effectively closing off the opening from below and giving me the basis for the custom recess I’d have to mold using the drain fitting itself later.  I wedged the backing plate in place and left the epoxy to cure overnight.

To starboard, there were a few considerations.  First, the thickness of the deck here meant that there was a lot less of the drain’s threads that extended below into the cabin, and to allow sufficient room to thread on the pipe-hose connector later (as well as cosmetically), it would be better if the nut for the drain fitting was slightly recessed–easy, since the hole was already more than large enough for this.  But I also had to partially fill and plug the hole to allow me later to mold the recess from above, while allowing the fitting’s threads through and a way for the nut to secure the whole arrangement.  To this end, I chose to use the plug that I’d cut out with the hole saw.  Wrapping the plug in many layers of masking tape to provide a good friction fit back into the hole from beneath, I then covered the whole thing with several layers of clear plastic tape as a mold release, and pushed this assembly up about 1/4″ into  the hole from beneath–enough space for the through hull nut later.  To ensure the plug didn’t fall out despite its friction fit, I taped over the bottom too.

Now, from above, I filled the hole partially with thickened epoxy, which when cured would form a solid plug and bottom.  There was ample texture to the inside of the hole to provide plenty of “tooth” for the new epoxy plug to grab on to the adjacent material.  I only added enough epoxy to build a base of about 5/16″ thickness, as I didn’t want to risk the filler becoming overly hot during curing, which would cause it to foam and expand.  When cured, this would give me a solid base on which to build the final molded shape for the fitting recess, as well as to support the fitting and allow the tailpiece to pass through.

 

With this work complete for now, I wrapped up the  day with a small fillet job on the coaming next to the port cockpit drain; I’d held off the epoxy work here so that the work on the nearby drain wouldn’t affect it.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  33°, partly cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Mainly cloudy, highs around 45°

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Wednesday

I spent the day knocking off sundry small repairs and miscellany, all items that needed to be completed before I could move into final primer preparations.

To begin, I finished up the reinforcement work on the new icebox hatch patch, working from beneath the deck on both sides of the interim bulkhead to install fiberglass over the patch from within.  After solvent-washing the areas in question,  I started with a bit of thickened epoxy putty to smooth the transitional areas between my top-down patch and the existing moldings, and coated the entire bottom of the new work with epoxy, letting this tack up slightly.  Meanwhile, I prepared new fiberglass tabbing to cover the entire repair on both sides of the bulkhead and tie in the new work with the adjacent deck laminate, as well as tabbing down onto the bulkhead for additional support.

The cockpit had several areas requiring some new fiberglass, including a few hole patches in the cockpit well, along with the underside of the starboard sidedeck in way of the stanchion base, which I’d rebuilt from the top but was still un-reinforced from beneath; now I went ahead and installed fiberglass over all these areas.  I patched the hole for the old shore power plug at the aft end of the cockpit even though I’d be installing a new receptacle in that area later, as I didn’t think the cutout size would be the same, and in any event the existing hole was too close to an obstruction on the back side of the cockpit (one of the bulkheads enclosing the after steering room).  It made a lot more sense to plug the hole now and worry about recutting it later.

The top hatch for the steering room was in poor cosmetic condition, with the gelcoat badly checked throughout, plus some laminate damage to the aft side where the hinge had been attached.  I’d already done some initial fairing to help prepare the surface and begin to smooth out the areas requiring repair, and now to help cosmetically stabilize the surface of the hatch, as well as provide some new material to strengthen the aft edge, I chose to drape the entire hatch in new 10 oz. fiberglass, which would provide a better substrate for the new paint once faired.  I let the cloth hang wild over all edges, and wet it out with epoxy.

The “new” stanchion bases had a different shape and bolt pattern than the ones removed, so I located each in its proper position and marked the holes so I could drill out and remove any core material in way of the new fastener locations.  The two aftermost bases fell over areas I’d made solid during the recoring repairs, but in other areas I still had to bore out the core and fill the voids with thickened epoxy.  Where there was no core, I drilled small pilotholes into the deck to help me locate the positions later, after painting.

The replacement bases had a built-in angle that meant the stanchions would end up more or less properly vertical, unlike the every-which-way angles of the mis-matched bases I’d removed from the boat.

On the coachroof, I used my mast step pattern to relocate the holes for the step, and drilled small pilotholes for future reference.

To replace the original handrails, I chose two sets of 5-loop rails per side, as 11-loop rails were not commercially available.  I confirmed that the new rails’ loop spacing was basically the same as the originals, then drilled marking pilot holes in the centers of each of the now epoxy-plugged holes for future reference.

I went through the same marking procedure with a pair of plastic deck rings to accommodate the solar vents, and some small bronze padeyes nearby on the coachroof.

From inside the chainlocker, I drilled a pilot hole up through the center of the location for the anchor line hawsepipe on the foredeck, then from above deck drilled a large hole through the deck for the opening.

With drilling and related work complete for the moment, I cleaned up the decks and went ahead with various minor fairing chores, including a coat of compound over the small cockpit repairs I’d made earlier, several other areas on deck that required a coating for one reason or another, and some fillets along the edges where the decks met the bulwarks in way of the core repairs I’d made earlier in the project; various sanding had created a small divot that that corner, and the fillets would bring things back to their proper contours.

The epoxy and fiberglass draping the lazarette hatch had cured to a point that I could trim most of the excess with a knife, and I used up a bit of fairing compound on the surface to begin the weave-filling process.

The hatch itself had originally sat upon a set of wooden cleats surrounding the opening in the poop deck.  To replace these, and provide the requisite lip for the hatch, I used one of the original wooden pieces as a guide to determine the size needed for new solid fiberglass cleats, which I cut to fit around the opening and glued in place with thickened epoxy and fillets.  With solid fiberglass edges already surrounding the hatch opening, there was no need for my new cleats to overlap and hang down as had the originals.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  8°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, low 30s