January 21, 2018
Handy Cat 2
Sunday
Now that the propeller hub and vertical shaft were well tacked in place, I removed the wedges and tape and lightly sanded the epoxy from overnight, then cleaned the surfaces. With more thickened epoxy, I filled in remaining gaps around the pod and shaft, and smoothed in some fillets around various areas to streamline the shape for fiberglass.
Meanwhile, I prepared two layers of fiberglass for each side, one full size to match the shape of the ground areas and the second about an inch smaller all around to match the tapered edges of the patch area. Once wet out with epoxy, I installed the new fiberglass over the whole area, rolling it tightly into the contours of the shaft and hub. At the top and bottom of the propeller hub, and around the top of the vertical shaft, I added some light cloth to seal the edges completely.
Total time billed on this job today: 1.25 hours