Friday, April 23, 2010

Week 11

To start the week off I was able to roll the first coat of primer on the topsides. Although I hadn't filled any seams yet, and still had some work to do on the hull, it was good to get the primer in any open seams. While that was drying, I got a couple coats of red boot stripe on the rudder and some bottom paint. Then, I got some purple micro balloons mixed with epoxy spread over the transom to begin the process of fairing that out. Once fair, I installed the vertical support beams as well as the backing block. These were bedded with natural bedding compound. My bilge pump arrived in the mail, something I will surely need for the launch day, and so I was sure to install that in the lowest part of the bilge and install the thru-hull for its output.

Then, to get back to work on the hull, I added a spline that had appeared to have fallen out at a seam forward on the STBD side that left a wide open seam, probably a full 1/4". So I glued in a nice Cedar spline to reduce the gap to 1/8" on the outside to nothing inboard. While that was drying, I went around the boat and rolled in cotton to any open seams that needed it. In some cases, where the cotton and compound were loose, I had to reef out the seam and add new cotton, but this was not necessary in many places. Constantly, between jobs, I was mixing up body filling material to cover screw holes, pin pricks, or any indentations in the planking to get her as fair as possible before painting. As far as the seams, there are two different compounds used, one for anything below the waterline, and another for seams above. Above the waterline you use straight seam compound. For below the waterline, there is a special seam compound designed to be underwater, and to flavor it up a little, 1/3 roofing cement and a dobble of Pine Tar is used. Brad taught me this mixture, and says it has been used for ages, and the pine tar especially reminds me of what an old sailing ship smells like. These compounds are pushed into the open seams with a putty knife, then wiped clean with thinner. While that stuff drying, I got out my Fir and cut out the Port and STBD toe rails, shaped the ends where the chocks fit in and scarphed on longer pieces to make them roughly 16 ft long. Then I milled out Fir for the rub rails and scarphed together two pieces to get abour 24 feet. These are dry now, and will be dealt with once painting is finished.

The painting really started today, Friday, with a coat of primer to the interior. This was pretty tedious and took most of the day and a quart and a half of primer. This work was really taxing on my knees, and although it will need to be completely sanded down, painted, and sanded again before the final coat, it feels good to have it done. After this was on, I went around the bottom with my green Interlux CSC bottom paint and got the first coat on. A good way to end the week...although all my weeks blurr together. The boat is really starting to look fresh and by the end of the week she should be completely painted.