Low resolution night time photos hide all of the brush stroke marks and little unsightly things here and there. Primekote cures quickly when it's still 85 degrees at night. Work boat finishes are the most functional though, righhhhhhht? Who needs a showboat.

Prime x2

I took the weekend off to go visit Alison in Birmingham. We went up to Little River Canyon (600' deep) to swim in the river that winds through it. It's pretty cool to have crystal clear water, 50 foot boulders, and 600' of walls on each side while you enjoy the refreshing water. Today I got the second coat of primer on the hulls after sanding down the first to 120. There are a few pinholes and voids here and there which I will fill in tomorrow. After this is complete, I plan to flip the hulls and start prepping the decks. They don't need much more than sanding and a final epoxy coat before they can be primed. Anyways, here are some photos.

Of course there had to be a massive ledge about 3' underwater. No jumping unfortunately

Second prime coat made her look pretty good!

Primer

Super tired so won't be writing much tonight. First coat of primer is on!

Epoxy Primekote fumes were horrible so took afternoon off to sail my Sunfish, aptly named Gertrude.

Glassing

Yesterday saw a lot of work. I made some fairing compound and faired the small gaps and edges of the thick biaxial to the hull. Then I sanded down all 12 sheer stringer doublers and 2 sets of chainplate knees, glued them on, filleted them, and glassed them in. Following that up I filled the weave on them with some thickened epoxy and filled the weave along the underside of the sheerstringer. Lastly I rolled on one more coat of neat epoxy over the hulls in prep for final sanding on Saturday. I plan to sand the biax fairing, hull-sides, and sheer and knees down to 120 on Saturday, and hopefully will be rolling on some epoxy primer on Sunday! I'm pretty stoked to take a break from the damn hulls today and work on some smaller bits for once.

Biaxial Keel Strip

Today I laid the 1708 biaxial tape along the keel. It is some beefy stuff to say the least! I laid it upside down on a plastic sheet to wet it out from the bottom before laying it along the keel. After that I did two more fill coats of epoxy thickened with silica and phenolic microballoons. It is now filled in completely, and I will sand it down in the morning and add fairing compound along the edges to fair it to the hull. I also cut out and shaped the sheerstringer doublers today and will get them glued, filleted, and glassed in tomorrow. All 12 of them :(   Ali was in town this past weekend, and she helped me wet out the glass along the anchor locker coamings, coat main hatch coamings, sand toe rails, and helped a buddy and myself to flip the hulls over. She's getting pretty stoked for the launch and quitting her job in November to go cruising! Tomorrow I will sand and fair in the biaxial, install the doublers, and lay down a final barrier coat of clear epoxy that will then be sanded down to 120 grit in order to...........hopefully.......lay down some epoxy primer this weekend!

Bare glass is super thick

Wet out

Two fill coats rolled on. Good to go!

A good helper who now knows how to glass, sand, coat, and fill fiberglass is always a plus

Well Ali and I got all of the beam sockets installed and epoxy coated. They look pretty sweet! I also glassed the anchor locker coamings yesterday in preparation to flip hulls. We were stapling the fiberglass to the battens in prep to glass, and I ended up snapping one. After some words, I decided I'm just going to get some 1/4X1 aluminum strap and get my welder neighbor to bend it up for me. Epic failure on the glass wrapped battens.

 

 

 

 

Today I got the rest of the beam sockets ready and glued up. I also fitted some bases for the dodgers and mocked up the dodgers. I'm using a faux wood batten and will wrap it in 8 or so layers of fiberglass to form each dodger hoop. A central strip along the end of the main hatch rails will be the front connection for the dodger canvas. They will basically be like Cooking Fat's. My stepmom came out today and helped sand all of the crossbeam fillets which was a great help for me. I still need to do the bottom plank fillets on the mast crossbeam, so unfortunately I will be doing that tomorrow. I also hope to install the sheerstringer doublers, make the main and anchor locker hatches, and glass the anchor locker coamings tomorrow as well. I've started the mast foot and step and dolphin striker, so maybe I'll have time to get around to those tomorrow as well. She's getting close, but still looks rough and needs more sanding and coating of some more parts before I can prime her.

Dodger hoops will be fastened to the small blocks seen next to main hatch rails. I glued them up after I took this photo.