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.