May 2, 2022

Holby 18

Monday

I lightly sanded the new interior fiberglass work in the usual way, just lightly scuffing to remove sharp edges and prepare the surface for future steps.

Now, beneath the boat, I prepared the bottom in and around the new repair for its final fiberglass work by grinding a tapered area 4-5″ out from the patch, from gelcoat at the outside to about 1/4″ down at the borders of the new patch, bringing the existing hull there flush with the new repair I’d completed from above, and as designed.  This would provide the space required for the new fiberglass to tie in the repair work with the existing hull from beneath.

Around the vertical transom opening, I created a similarly-prepared area for tying in the eventual new fiberglass required to complete the transom patch.

From here, I planned to start with installing new fiberglass forward of the patch to fill in the slightly-flattened area left from the old tunnel configuration, which I’d complete before installing fiberglass over the whole area to recreate the hull shape and finish the structural repair.  At the transom opening, I planned to fill in with solid fiberglass, and eventually incorporate the final layers with that of the bottom.  Meanwhile, inside the boat, I still had to fiberglass the new transom structure into the sides and bottom of the boat, then, finally, fiberglass over the new cutout in the transom to complete the overall repair.  I’d take care of these steps over the coming days.

Total time billed on this job today: 1.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 32°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 60°