November 17, 2020

Skeedeen Phase 6-37

Tuesday

The project was mainly finished for now, other than a few final details.  In the morning, Jason, the contractor building the winter cover, came by to measure for the cover so he could begin building it before a final fitting in a week or so.  Afterwards, I reassembled and reinstalled the companionway hatches and bifold doors, the last of the brightwork to go back aboard.

To finish up the through hull patches on the bottom, I applied a coat of unthickened epoxy to seal the fairing compound and new fiberglass.  Once this cured overnight, I’d lightly sand and apply some bottom paint over the patches.

The last detail on the transom was the flaps over the cockpit scupper openings.  The original flaps had been a sort of cobbed-together arrangement of something like Irish felt and half oval, and while these may have been effective they were not overly attractive.  So early in the project, the owner and I decided to replace them with new plastic flaps, but as the transom work progressed it became clear that installing molded ivory plastic flaps in the middle of the beautiful “wooden” transom would be a travesty.  Fortunately, I was able to ask Renee, the artist who did the transom work, to take the new scuppers and similarly faux-finish them so they’d blend in better with their surrounds.  With the completed units back on hand, now I could install them and complete the transom work.

Total time billed on this job today:   1.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  36°, partly cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Partly sunny, 43°