March 7, 2022

Luna Mia 4

Monday

Continuing the process with the various small repairs underway, I sanded all areas again as needed.  The sail drive mount hole and transom repairs were near their final contours, with a few low spots requiring minor attention that I’d finish up in the near future, and the stem repair work was complete other than some additional finish sanding and eventual painting, which I’d probably wait on till after the hull was painted.

However, my focus for the moment was the cockpit sole repair.  The main repair over the pedestal hole was more or less complete, with only some minor low areas remaining, but to deal with the overall cosmetics of the repair, the owner asked that I repaint the entire cockpit sole, which would best hide the repair work.  So to prepare for this, I sanded the nonskid over the entire sole, smoothing it as much as possible without abrading or otherwise getting into the smooth borders around the nonskid field.  The molded nonskid, as per usual, was essentially a raised area, so by maintaining the general height of this plateau the refinishing work would be similarly limited to the area in question.

This process brought the molded nonskid down to a relatively flat level, but not completely eliminated because of variations in the thickness of the molded gelcoat.  I’d average out the surface and achieve the desired smoothness by skim-coating and filling the remains of the molded pattern with fairing compound, so to begin I masked around the perimeter of the nonskid field, following the raised edge of the field, then coated the entire area in epoxy fairing compound, starting with the known low spots in the pedestal repair and continuing with a thin coat troweled over the entire surface, up to the tape on the edges.  I removed the tape thereafter, leaving a clean line, and left the material to cure overnight.

Total time billed on this job today:  1.25  hours

0600 Weather Observation:  44°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Rain in the afternoon, 44°