October 9, 2020

Skeedeen Phase 6-12

Friday

To begin, I finished up with the plank seam and scribe mark sanding, mainly on the starboard side and transom.

The transom had some cracking down the vertical centerline, a standard occurrence on boats built in two-part molds.  Structurally insignificant, it did create a cosmetic problem to be dealt with, so I ground out the cracked area and a bit beyond to provide a wide bonding area, then applied the first of a couple coats of epoxy fairing compound.

Also in the area, I reamed out and filled screw holes left from the old scupper flaps; we planned to install new flaps of a different nature, and they had a different fastening pattern.

At the engine vent openings, I masked around the openings inside and out, then wet out the reamed out core edges with epoxy before installing a thickened, strengthened epoxy mixture into the voids.  Afterwards, I removed the tape and filled the old fastener holes with epoxy leftover from the transom work.

This short work day left me in a good position for the beginning of the week, when I’d work through the remaining preparation tasks required before painting.

Total time billed on this job today:  2.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  25°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 55°