More topsides

Again most of this week has been spent on filling and fairing the topsides which has now largely been completed there are a few scratches etc to be dealt with but the more serious repairs are complete. After some final sanding with 180 grit paper I have started to apply the International 'Prekote' to the repaired areas the intention is to apply two coats before finishing with International 'Toplac', The transom was given its second coat today the whole area will be repainted as after the repairs there was not a great deal of the original paint left intact.

Transom after 2 coats of 'Prekote'

The area at the bottom of the transom was originally epoxy coated some of which was removed when sanding the repairs to the stress cracks in this area this will be reinstated before the anti fouling is applied.

As a little light relief from sanding the topside repairs I have progressed a little further with the electrical installation by pulling through and connecting the cables for the berth lights in the forward cabin also I have obtained a 30w solar panel and charge controller from Photonic Universe the controller has been connected and I spent some time today temporarily connecting the solar panel and deciding on a route for the cables from the panel to the controller which will require a cable gland and some additional cable. The intention is to mount the panel on the hatch garage.

Charge controller

The wiring to the charge controller still requires tidying up, the photograph is a bit blurred as the camera battery was about to give up and the screen had gone blank so it was point the camera and hope for the best. The controller is an MPPT (maximum power point tracking) which makes the best use of the power from the panel which gives an increase in the charging current than that which would be expected from a conventional PWM (pulse width modulation) controller don't ask it's all magic to me.

Another short post this week which belies the effort applied especially with the filling and fairing but the project is still moving forward. 

Topsides

Again this week has been spent on the topsides first off is the photograph of the completed repair on the port side which I had forgotten in last weeks blog.

Port side repair complete

First off this week I sanded the blue section of the topsides and gave it two coats of International Toplac which can be seen in the photograph above. I am not happy with the result probably more about my painting skills than the paint. I put on the first coat which looked reasonable apart from some runs which I sanded out and continued with a second coat in order to reduce the risk of runs I used a much thinner coat which made matters worse sure enough there were no runs but the brush marks are still visible. I shall leave it for the time being and get on with the rest of the topsides and if time and weather allows deal with it at a later date, however I take some small comfort in that it looks alright from the other side of the creek. Next time I will try using use a roller.

I then moved on and gave the transom a good sanding to prepare for painting it has come up reasonably well but requires a little bit of filling in places which I shall use some epoxy with West Systems lightweight filler.

After sanding

I then moved on to start sanding the gelcoat repairs on the starboard side I got as far as the aft area today again this area will also require the application of some filler in a couple of places, one of the problems using thickened epoxy is that it drags when trying to level it off I tend to try and build up the repair but then the stuff is hard work to sand back. The photograph below shows the moulded cove line which has been finished with what appears to be some sort of gold coloured tape which is peeling off in places but in others it sticks like the proverbial and it takes a lot of hard work to sand it away I don't know if a heat gun would be useful here the intention is to remove all the gold coloured tape and then paint it to match the rest of the blue areas of the topsides.

Gelcoat repair after sanding

The blog for this week seems to a short one in spite of the effort that has gone in but sanding epoxy thickened with colloidal silica does require some effort there will be more of this next week. 

Still more fibreglass

This week has again been taken up with filling and fairing the topsides starting with the repair to the top of the flair as described in last weeks ramblings the epoxy had completely cured over the weekend so the first job was to sand it down to the required profile unfortunately I seem to have forgotten the photograph the port side is now complete just a matter of painting over the repairs. most of this week has been devoted to the starboard side where there are two areas of more extensive cracking to the gelcoat it looks as though this is as a result of an impact or two. I had already inspected the inside and ascertained that the damage did not go right through the laminate and so the first priority was to open out the cracks to their full depth with the tungsten carbide scraper as with the port side.

The above photograph shows the cracks after having been opened up also visible are what I take to be the two impact points after I had removed the damaged gelcoat. The two impact points were sanded back so that the edges were tapered back then cleaned with acetone before adding several layers of CSM and resin following this the cracks were first cleaned with acetone before brushing in some straight epoxy then filling with epoxy thickened with colloidal silica see the photograph below.

The above photograph shows the impact damage on the starboard side aft some of the cracks and the impact point were filled last week and they were sanded fair on Monday morning the remainder of the cracks were filled today.

Also on the starboard side towards the bow there was evidence of a previous repair being carried out at the top of the flair I am assuming that it was similar to the problems of poor design and or layup that I had dealt with on the port side. Whilst the repair appeared to be sound the finished profile left a bit to be desired and so I gave the area a good sanding to remove the paint and get the profile as close as possible before proceeding to build up the area with epoxy and woven glass tape where necessary in a similar manner to the port side repairs. 

As with the port side I shall complete the job with some epoxy thickened with colloidal silica before sanding back to match the existing profile. I had hoped to complete the starboard side repairs this week but unfortunately the rain on Wednesday afternoon put a stop to the work all was not quite lost however as I have obtained some more tinned cable so that further progress was made with the internal wiring, this part of the project is almost complete I still require some light fittings for the over bunk reading lights but the aim for the time being is to run all the cables so that the installation can be tidied and the cables made secure.

Fibreglass continued

This week has been completely taken up with further work to fill and fair the topsides a further problem at the top of the flair towards the port bow became evident while opening up gelcoat stress cracks for filling again its a bit of Friday afternoon lay up where the CSM has not been pushed into the angle. After a gentle prod with a screwdriver a section of gelcoat virtually fell off and it was clear from the amount of dirt in the void that water had been leaking in for some considerable time. The photograph was taken after cleaning out the void.

Note the gap between CSM and gelcoat to the left

I poked a piece of stiff wire along the gap to the left and it went in a further couple of inches so I then removed some more of the gelcoat until I found more solid lay up.

After further gelcoat removal

There was still a very small void and I did consider removing the gelcoat for the whole length of this section up to the repair on the port bow and then building up with glass and epoxy however I am hoping that these are just isolated  areas so I decided to just build up this area. I cut some narrow strips of woven glass tape, cleaned the area and built up quite a few layers of glass and epoxy and then left it to cure. Later I sanded back the repair as shown in the photograph

First stage after sanding 

The second photograph was taken after building up further and then sanding back the surplus.

Second stage after sanding

After the second application of glass tape and epoxy I decided to finally profile the repair with epoxy thickened with colloidal silica in a similar manner to the port bow repair. In order to hold the epoxy in the correct profile I epoxied on a piece of woven tape with the woven edge along the top almost like shuttering this was also the case with the port bow repair but as the work was more extensive it came about almost as a matter of course also in this area the tape remained completely as part of the repair lay up.

Glass tape 'shuttering'

Once the epoxy holding the tape started to stiffen I filled the area behind the tape with more thickened epoxy using ketchup consistency rather than the usual peanut butter which made it a little easier to level off without distorting the tape. Once the epoxy has cured I would expect that most of the tape will be removed by sanding to finally blend the profile with the existing. While this has been going on I have filled and faired the remainder of the defects on the port side and also made a start on the starboard side. Some of the stress cracks towards the top of the transom cut through the name lettering which as a consequence will require replacement and as I am not a member of CYC, which I think is Colne yacht club, also New Morning will not be moored in Colchester it was an ideal time to remove all the lettering and give the transom a complete repaint which is where I finished work for this week. 

Bare transom

I will keep the New Morning name and once the mooring has been finalised I will add the home port to the transom together with the SSR number, which has seen better days, at present it is on the after end of the aft cabin coach roof and is not clearly visible because of the stern boarding ladder and the various appendages which are usually to be found hanging from the pushpit. Fortunately there is a local manufacturer of vinyl signs to be found around the corner from the boatyard.