December 15, 2017
Jasmine 11
Friday
After a quick water wash, I lightly sanded the epoxy skim coat in the deck areas to be re-cored, cleaning up thoroughly afterwards.
I made simple paper patterns of each area, pressing thin paper into the deck openings and tracing with a marker before cutting out the pattern for a test-fit. In known hardware locations that wouldn’t change with the reinstallation, I marked out areas to eliminate the core so I could later fill the sections around the hardware (including chainplates and stanchion bases, and around the perimeter of the steering room hatch) with solid material. I chose not to eliminate coring in way of the old stern cleat locations, as I wasn’t sure whether these locations might change with the new Norvane windvane installation. Once I finalized those locations later in the project, I’d do the standard core removal at bolt locations through the completed deck.
With my patterns complete, I spent the remainder of the day cutting out new 3/8″ balsa core to fit all areas, as well as a series of 1708 fiberglass layers from which I’d build up the mast step reinforcement. I left most of the core whole for the test-fitting to double-check the locations for hardware core omission, but before final installation I’d remove the core from those areas.
Total time billed on this job today: 6.25 hours
0600 Weather Observation: 0°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sun and increasing clouds, low 20s.