24 Hour West Marine?

My goal last night was to finish up the remaining 6" of deck core on each side.  After some head scratching I decided that I could use balsa for most of it and still have the sealed, reinforced area by the stanchion base.   Because of the countour of that section it was like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle with lots of work for my Dremel.

After piecing both sides together I went into the cabin to mix epoxy.  While I had plenty of resin and hardener, I did NOT have plenty of colloidal silica.  I had just enough to get a slightly-too-thin mix, but thick enough.  Not enough for the starboard side though, so I'll need another trip to finish that off.  If only there was a 24 hour West Marine I could have finished it!

When this last balsa job is done I'll have a tiny section to laminate which is only about 1/4" thick, so not bad at all with the 10 oz. cloth.  Oh yeah, and a whole lot of grinding and itching.  Yuck.

The other job I completed last night was removing the windows from both sides.  I'm going to bring them in to a local glass store that does replacements.  I have too many projects going right now, and I need to get it done, so I'm outsourcing some of the work.  Hopefully they will be able to finish them before its time to paint, and it can all go back together efficiently.

I think I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel... Or maybe its a mirage...

First Section of Deck Installed!

I had a half-day off of work this afternoon, so I ran down to West Marine to pick up some West System Slow hardener.  The fast I bought was great in the fall and spring, but it's a bit too aggressive for the 70 degree days we're seeing now, especially considering I am not always super-efficient.  The extra pot-time is nice.

Exercising great self control at West Marine I made it out to Ravat in short time and un-tarped her.  The wind wasn't too bad, and I'm starting to get quite good at tightly rolling the big blue beast in between gusts.  Once it turns into a giant sausage tube the wind isn't so brutal.  With a little set up time I pieced back together the balsa sections and did some trials to make sure everything was ready.  When I was confident of the jigsaw pattern I went below to mix the epoxy.

I mixed up 105 resin with 206 slow hardener in a dixie cup and added a few teaspoons of 406 Colloidal Silica to thicken the goop to about a mayonnaise or ketchup consistency.  After cleaning the laminate with acetone I made a sort of fillet around the entire area to soak up imperfections in the balsa fit, then laid down a thin spread over the entire bottom of the deck laminate.  Ideally, this would be done with a notched spreader, but I didn't have one available.  This layer was just thick enough to float above the minor imperfections in the laminate surface, but no more.  I then pressed the deck core into the laminate and aligned everything.

The final step was not easy.  I pressed slowly and with great force (maximum thumb power!) to press the core into the bottom and ensure it was bonding to the laminate, not just floating in the epoxy.  I definitely think a notched spreader would have taken much of the effort out of this step.  I worked my way from the center outward, and from fore to aft.  This stage was where I really appreciated the slow hardener as it took a good 15 minutes to work the excess epoxy out.  When epoxy finally stopped oozing from the joints I spread a thin layer across the top of the balsa to provide a minimal seal until I would be able to lay down glass atop the repair.  My well worn tarp definitely lets in some rain, and I didn't want to let the new balsa go into sponge mode.

It took longer and was messier than I'd anticipated, but I'm very enthusiastic about the finished job.  It looks very clean, and the thickened epoxy did a great job (with the help of a spreader) filling the gaps.  I'm anxious to get back out there and finish this up now that I've stuck my toe in the water and tasted success.

@!%%#$# Sick

The weather didn't cooperate at all today.  It was windy and unseasonably cold, with even a touch of snow.  What sucked the last wind of ambition from my sails was a full blown respiratory and sinus infection.  I'm knocked out of the game for a few few days while I recover.  The weather better recover at the same pace I do as I intend to get back on schedule as soon as possible.

I've been working on adding a lot of pictures and background to the site, catching up many projects to where I am today.  It's been too much to detail each addition individually, but you should be seeing a lot of content coming on line each week...

!%#$#$! Weather

I tried to get some work done today, but the wind was beyond brutal.  The tarp was getting whipped around like a spinnaker in a hurricane, and everything I needed to do would require me to squeeze between the boat and tarp.  To make it worse, it was raining hard at times, which meant I couldn't remove the tarp.  I don't even want to think about how hard it would have been to get it back on.

What really irked me was the amount of rain that had found its way into the boat since I was last out.  I hand-pumped about 20 gallons of water from the cabin and forward bilges.  Not too bad considering how hard it rained, but more than I like.  I really need to finish up the fiberglass work and seal those decks.  If only I could get a few weekends with cooperative weather.

Tomorrow I plan to regroup and try for a few hours of progress.  It's supposed to be below ideal epoxy working temperatures tomorrow, so my big goals all avoid stirring the magic glue.  I need to get the remaining aluminum fittings off the bow, and finish up fitting the starboard balsa core to the deck.  If I can do that I'll be ready to get it all glued down when the first chance presents itself.

Wish for nice whether - I'm going to need it!

Christmas in May

The big box from Jamestown Distributors came today.  I now have the Six10 tubes I need to start filling the hull blisters I ground out.  I also have about half of the pieces I need to re-do the through-hulls, and a nice Groco step wrench.  I can also begin removing all of the through-hulls excepting the cockpit drains.  I don't want to disable them until I'm ready to immediately replace them as that's the one part of the boat that can really scoop up rain.

Unfortunately I need to send some stuff back.  They sent me black 3m 4200, and I want white.  They also mixed up my 1" through-hulls and sent stainless steel rather than bronze.  No big deal.  Jamestown is very good with customer service and I'm confident they will help get it all sorted out.

The real bad news is that the upcoming weekend is looking like it's going to be really lousy weather, so it may not be conducive to getting these projects done.  It's frustrating not to make big leaps each week, but I can only work with what I've got and be thankful that I have a boat.  I do, and I am!

Deck Core Progress!

I snuck out after dinner to steal a few hours of remaining daylight.  In that short window of opportunity I managed to fit the rough cut template into the deck with the help of my trusty Dremel tool and a small sanding drum.

It actually fit almost perfectly, which was a surprise to me.  A little forming here and there, and it slid into place.  Next I need to do the same thing for the starboard side deck and I'll be ready to start mixing epoxy and laying down sand bags.

I was lucky tonight that there was almost no wind, which saved me having to do jiu-jistsu with the tarp.  That can easily add a half hour to an evening of work when it's shifting direction.  Not fun.

It also dawned on me tonight that I need to pull the windows really soon and start figuring out my strategy for replacing the acrylic in them.  It's crazed and cloudy, so I need to put some new pieces in there.

The good news is that I spent two sessions this weekend looking at a white boat rather than a blue tarp.  It was refreshing to feel like I owned a boat and not  the worlds largest blueberry.  

Finally, as I looked off my stern this evening I was treated to a nice sunset over the other boats.  Life is good.   

(Forgive the picture quality, I only had my iPhone along, so they are a bit grainy in the low light.)