February 24, 2021
Lyra 25
Wednesday
After being away from the shop all morning to finish up a small job offsite, I got back to work in the afternoon on the forward hatch, ready now for the final installation after some final masking to the hatch frame itself.
I installed the hatch frame in a bed of thickened epoxy adhesive, securing the frame with clamps as needed to press it into the epoxy and to keep it level from side to side. I cleaned up the excess epoxy and shaped it as needed inside and out, then removed all the masking tape leaving clean lines everywhere. I left the frames in the clamps to cure overnight.
Next, I prepared and installed the plywood platform in the generator compartment, now that the support cleat at the forward end was in place. After surface preparations, I epoxied the bottom (hidden) side of the platform, then installed it in a bed of thickened epoxy adhesive at both sides, forming fillets as needed to smooth the transition to the hull and at the cockpit end. I used a couple small lead weights to hold the platform securely against the hull, as it tended to rock slightly.
Afterwards, having already masked off around the hatch coaming again, I cleaned up the original fillets with some more epoxy, just to improve appearance and make the fillets consistent all around. I removed the tape afterwards to leave a clean line.
Total time billed on this job today: 2.5 hours
0600 Weather Observation: 32°, mostly clear. Forecast for the day: Increasing clouds, 46°