Fibreglass weather

It was good weather for fibreglass this week but the first job on Monday morning was to get the second coat of primer undercoat on the chain locker bulkhead and another coat on the stern gland access cover. Once that was out of the way I went round and sanded the various areas around the keel that required filling after which I wiped down with acetone before filling with epoxy thickened with colloidal silica mixed to the usual peanut butter consistency.

I had several nominally empty epoxy resin and hardener tins kicking around each with some of the contents remaining I find that the West System dispensing pumps seem to lose suction leaving an appreciable amount in the bottom of the tin so I spent some time punching a hole in the bottom of each tin and fully draining the remaining contents into the tins that I am using at present given the price of the stuff these days it was a worthwhile operation, also I stripped the pumps and gave them a thorough clean out in hot soapy water something I should have done some time ago as particularly in the resin pump  there was a fair amount of congealed resin present which after a good soak had dissolved.

While the weather was being kind I started on the repairs to the heads locker moulding a section had been cut from the lower locker opening for what reason I am unsure but I do know from bitter experience that this had left two nasty corners which could be quite painful. I decided to fill in the cut out section with some 50mm x 5mm GRP flat bar in much the same way as I had previously done for the galley locker. After giving the inside a good sanding and a wipe down with acetone I clamped a flat piece of timber covered with polythene,so that it would not stick to the epoxy. across the cut out and then clamped a piece of the GRP bar to the timber so that it would be as flush as possible with the original moulding I then cut four pieces of woven glass cloth and epoxied them into place to hold the bar.

First fix of GRP bar

Once the epoxy was cured I removed all the clamps then gave it all a  clean down with water to remove any amine blush followed by a sanding and a wipe down with acetone before fully glassing the full length of the infill with several layers of woven glass cloth.

The infill fully glassed in

As can be seen there is a bit of a gap at one end of the infill which requires to be filled also a number of redundant holes but I had run out of colloidal silica by this time a trip to the chandlers will be required before I can complete this item. Once it has been filled and faired the plan is to gelcoat the whole area as previously carried out with the galley locker.

There are a number of construction details on this boat with which I am less than impressed one of these is the hull/deck joint the deck is pop riveted to a flange moulded round the top of the hull and the whole joint has then been glassed over from underneath. I have repaired several leaks in this joint by cleaning back and re glassing short sections however there have been a couple of leaks at the bulkheads and by cutting back the tabbing at the top of the offending bulkheads I find that the bulkheads had obviously been fitted before the hull deck joint had been made and the GRP seal had been terminated at each bulkhead such that any water entering the hull deck joint can travel along to the top of the bulkhead which is not sealed fortunately there does not seem to be any serious damage caused so far. After cutting back the tabbing in the affected areas I have sealed off the hull deck joint covering with thickened epoxy and I am now waiting for some wet weather to test the repair if it is successful the plan is to reinstate the tabbing this will be a dry boat.

To finish up the week I have completed the painting of the chain locker bulkhead and the stern gland access cover. On the homework front the painting of the forward cabin locker panels is now complete I intend to let the paint fully harden before bringing them back to the boat next week. The homework for the coming weekend/week is to sand and paint the heads wet locker front panel although the weekend is threatening to be too cold for painting.

Chain locker bulkhead

There is still some work to be done up here before the locker panels can be fitted re the cable openings to the pulpit for the navigation lights, the deck openings do not line up with the pulpit bases I did install draw wires when I fitted the pulpit but as the holes don't line up they appear to be trapped. Weather  permitting I will try and rectify this next week.