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.