Cockpit Fairing & Hatch Varnish Work

November 30, 2019

With a number of domestic items to cover and bring to a close over the weekend, I was limited today to the time on the boat.  I did, however, make the most of it and set myself up for a productive day tomorrow.  The first thing that I did was to water-wash the skim applied to the bridge deck in the previous work session - to remove any amine blush that might have formed on the cured epoxy surface.  After drying the surface, I used the 6" Bosch sander to sand the surface down.  After sanding, I realized that I needed yet another skim coat to complete the bridge deck repair, so I did just that.  

While I was at it, I took the opportunity to fill (after sanding and solvent-washing the areas) a number of small voids within the cockpit - most along the settee and gutter edges of the cockpit lockers and aft well locker.  These areas will be sanding far tomorrow, prior to the final primer coat of paint.

In the cockpit, to starboard, I needed to effect a repair to the winch cubby.  There was a bit of flex on the inward-forward top corner of the cubby, so to reinforce it I removed paint down to bare fiberglass and prepped for a couple layers of 1708 biaxial fiberglass.  I cleaned the surfaces with solvent, and then wet them out with neat epoxy.  I returned to the shop and wet out two layers of 1708 biaxial and then placed a layer of peel ply on top of the two layers of fiberglass.  With the remaining resin, I thickened it with 406 colloidal silica and 407 low-density fairing compound.  With this fairing compound, I smoothed out the roughest of the surfaces within the winch cubby.  With the surfaces prepped within the winch cubby, I returned to the shop to pick up the fiberglass.  Back on the boat, I placed the fiberglass cloth, with peel ply, into position and ensured that any trapped air was removed from the laminate.  The repair will significantly reinforce and correct any flex issues with the winch cubby. 

With remaining time, I had the three hatches sanded and ready for the start of 5 successive coats of varnish which will complete them and ready them for installation.

Total Time Today: 2.25 hrs

Sanding and Primer Paint for the Interior and Stern

November 24, 2019

I got started today sanding the interior of the boat, the areas that I had spot-filled in the previous session.  Those “spot-filled” areas were in fact quite numerous due to the raw nature of the hand-laid laminate’s inner most layer of glass being a heavy roving.  So, I took the time to minimize the irregular surface by applying fairing compound.

So today I would need to sand back the fairing compound, blending it into the greater surface area.  I used the small 5” random orbital sander and 180-grit sanding discs.  I worked the interior from the bow of the boat to the main cabin.  Since there were a number of areas in which the sanding broke through the initial layers of primer, down to bare fiberglass, I would need to apply one more sealer coat of primer paint.  I planned accordingly.

With the interior sanding completed, I headed into the cockpit and sanded the last skim coat of fairing compound applied to the bridge deck.  The sanding revealed the fact that I would need one more skim coat applied. 

I quickly moved on to sanding the stern of the boat.  The stern – and the motor mount – makes up the last of the exterior that requires primer paint.  I had applied a bit of fairing compound to the stern in the previous work session, to help fair the center line of the stern – the location of the exterior aft chainplate.  I worked this area with 150-grit sanding discs until I had achieved  a fair surface.

With the sanding complete, I retreated to the wood shop to begin to mix paint.  I started with the exterior primer, the Alexseal primer.  I mixed enough paint for the stern and the motor mount aft of the rudder.  With the paint mixed, I spent the 20-minute induction period required for the paint to catalyze by cleaning the surfaces to be painted.

I applied the primer paint to the stern, and then moved down to the motor mount.

Completing the exterior paint, I moved to the interior and applied the TotalBoat epoxy-based primer paint.

The application of the primer paint on the interior went rather quickly since I was not priming the entirety of the interior – just those areas that I had spot-faired and sanded.

I finished up on the interior, applying two coats to all of the areas that I had faired.  I closed up shop and headed home.

Total Time Today: 5 hrs

Sanding the Interior, Spot-Fairing, and Some Brightwork

November 23, 2019

With a full day to work on the Allied 24, I decided to get back inside and bring the interior to a conclusion.  Sure, there are a number of things that one would want to do to the interior, but we have to draw the line somewhere, right?  What is left for me is the completion of painting the interior, installation of the battery and battery box, and trim work.  To that end, I got started on sanding the primer paint.

With 120-grit sanding sponges, I made my way from the v-berth back to the saloon.  The effort here was to simply scuff up the cured epoxy-based primer paint so that I could spot-fair and then apply the finish paint.

The finish paint to be applied will be Interlux Premium Yacht Enamel.  I finished up the sanding, to include the v-berth and main saloon settees, and then moved on to vacuuming and wiping down the surfaces to remove any remaining sanding debris.

While I was prepping for the finish paint, I knew I had to take advantage of the state of work to affect a more robust repair on a couple areas of the underside of the side deck.  Curious enough, the repairs areas were essentially mirroring one another to port and starboard. 

The voids were large enough to make me want to apply some thickened epoxy as well as a layer of 1708 biaxial cloth.  I wet the areas out with epoxy resin, applied the thickened epoxy, and then the layer of 1708 biaxial.  I finished the repair by applying a layer of peel ply to eliminate the need to water-wash to remove the amine blush, followed by sanding to prep for additional work.  After the epoxy cures I will simply “peel” off this fabric, taking the amine blush with it.  The surface will be ready for additional work.  

Now that I had the two fiberglass repairs tucked away, and all other surfaces vacuumed and wiped clean, I was now ready to begin doing a bit of spot-fairing.

I would be working with the TotalBoat TotalFair product – a two-part epoxy-based system that is ready to apply when you mix yellow and blue to make green.  

When I say a little, I actually mean a lot!  There were a TON! of small voids in the laminate that were just bugging me.  I know the owner would be constantly looking at these specs while below.  In addition, the voids were a point of potential start of mildew and mold – capturing any condensation that occurred on the interior of the hull.

The sheer number of small voids was both impressive and daunting!  In the end, I managed through it.

I moved from the v-berth back to the main saloon.  The saloon, or main cabin, appeared to have roughly the same ratio of surface area to voids as the v-berth had.

In the end, I wrestled the beast to the cabin floor and conquered!  Tomorrow, I will plan to come back, sand the many areas that I had faired, and then apply the finish coat of paint.  At this point I extracted myself from the interior and got to work on the exterior.

The only remaining area of the topsides that I was not comfortable with was the stern.  The previous chain plate (externally hung) was apparently covering up a low spot in the laminate, and now that I had removed it I needed to address the unfair surface.  In previous applications of the topside priming paint coats 1 through 4, I purposefully did not paint the center line due to the unfair surface.  Today, I roughed up the surface one last time, wiped it clean of any contaminates, wet it out with epoxy resin, and then applied a final skim coat of fairing compound.

Back up in the cockpit, I applied (hopefully) a final skim coat of fairing compound to finish off the bridge deck repair.  This last bit of work would conclude my time on the Allied 24 today.  I gathered my materials and tools and headed back to the shop.

With the companionway slide hatch sufficiently cured, it was time to sand the top surface to knock down the teak caulking that stood proud of the teak slats.  I used 80-grit discs to knock down the “proud” material, and then finished things off by hand with 150-grit paper.  I blew the surface off with compressed air, and wiped it down with a solvent to remove any remaining sanding debris.

I decided to go ahead and apply a thinned coat of varnish (Epifanes Clear Gloss), so I gathered materials and tools and proceeded to apply a highly thinned coat. 

Total Time Today: 6.5 hrs

Final Coats of Topside Primer & Spot Fairing

November 17, 2019

Having just completed a move into our new home, I finished the weekend off with a few hours on the Allied 24.  I began by sanding the topsides - the first and second coat of primer - as well as some areas that I spot-filled with fairing compound.  These were the small voids that were made obvious and visible by way of the application of primer paint.

In a combination of hand work and machine, I covered both sides of the boat, including the cove stripe.

In a previous session I had applied fairing compound to the where the motor mount would be installed as well, and so I completed the sanding (fairing) of this addition to the boat.  Well, I did have a few pinholes that would need another coat.

I test fit the motor mount and all was looking good...according to plan!

Prior to the final round of fairing for the motor mount, I went ahead and mixed a couple pots of the Alexseal Finish Primer to apply to the topsides.  I worked from the port aft quarter and forward to the bow, and then from the starboard bow to the aft quarter.  I completed two trips around the boat, and with the previous sanding, I achieved great results in the layout of the material.  I had also thinned the paint a bit more in this third and fourth coat, which aided in the flow of the paint.  As you can see, I had to erect some lighting for the final hour of work.

To wrap a long and busy weekend up, I applied a final skim coat of fairing compound to the motor mount.  In my next work session I will sand this area fair, reapply tape for the waterline, and complete the priming of the exterior of the boat.  The stern of the Allied 24 is also under some fairing work, but will be incorporated with the motor mount for the final priming work on the exterior.

Total Time Today: 5 hrs

Sanding the Topsides Primer & Spot-Fairing

November 11, 2019

Arriving back in town in the afternoon, I was able to get onto the boat by 2:30.  My focus was to get the first two coats of Alexseal Finish Primer sanded, so that I could spot fill the many small voids that suddenly were [more] visible due to the paint application.  

I started at the port side bow, using 9" X 12" sheets of 100-grit sandpaper cut, quartered into more manageable sizes.  

I "cut-in" along the tape line (aka waterline), and then worked my way up to the sheer line.

The primer is extremely durable, which is good for the durability aspect of the topsides paint, but tough slogging for the hand-sanding human!

At the conclusion of the sanding, I brought out my small pancake air compressor, and then blew out off the sanding dust.  I made sure that I covered the surface with the compressed air so that the small voids would also be revealed.  

I then wiped down the surface with a solvent to remove any remaining sanding dust, and there was enough to certainly warrant this task.

Retreating to the shop, I mixed a smallish amount of the TotalBoat TotalFair epoxy fairing compound.  The two-part system contains a soft yellow paste and a blue, mixed together thoroughly catalyzes the epoxy, known when the yellow and blue turn to green, and remains soft (in Florida) for a period of ~15 minutes. 

I slowly worked my way around the boat searching for and filling the pinhole voids.  I did this by hand, simply pushing the fairing compound into the voids and ensuring that there was enough standing proud of the surrounding surface to then sand back fair.

I finished at the aft port quarter.  It is amazing how many of these small voids were revealed with the grey primer paint applied.  The topsides were far from uniform in color palette after sanding, and the made identifying the voids nearly impossible.  The first two coats of primer served as a great base, but also served as a way to see these voids.

I finished the evening by fairing out the recently fiberglass reinforced Torqeedo motor mount.  I had recently completed the angle of attack for the motor installation, that is setting the mounting pad so that the propeller pushed water at a slight downward angle.  As part of that adjustment, I wrapped the exposed portion of the base in 1708 biaxial and 10oz fiberglass cloth.  Once I had sanded the surplus cured fiberglass from the motor mount, I then needed to come back and fair the weave of the cured fiberglass.  I did the fairing this evening, and purposefully over applied the West System epoxy fairing compound slightly to ensure that I could hand shape the final product and be ready for the next round of primer paint.

Total Time Today: 3 hrs

Deadlight Frames & Sanding

November 6, 2019

With a bit of time in the evening to give to the Allied 24, I got to work on unclamping the deadlight frames...

...and then sanding the squeeze out epoxy from the glue-up.  Later in the work session, I continued work on cleaning up the port deadlight - a tenacious battle with butyl tape.

I moved over to the motor mount aperture that required a bit of alteration.  Due to the location of the motor mount, as dictated by the lazarette bulkhead, I needed to alter the angle of the assembly of the Torqeedo motor,  I did this by gluing in a G-10 board that replicated the shape of the Torqeedo motor.

With the G-10 fiberglass board installed and rectifying the angle of attack needed for the motor, I proceeded to trim the excess fiberglass, and also smooth the transition onto the counter of the boat.

The work came out as planned, as can be seen in the photograph below, the angle of attack is moving downward from forward to aft.  

Total Time Today: 1 hr

Deadlight Frames & Motor Mount Fiberglass Work

November 5, 2019

With the boat now level, the plane of the motor mount aperture was not level to the waterline.  In fact, the propeller would have promoted an upward push of water - I wanted the opposite.  I wanted the angle of the propeller to be ever so slightly oriented downward.  So to that end, I fabricated a piece of 3/8" thick G-10 fiberglass board in the teardrop shape of the motor mounting pad.  I would glue this board into the aperture at a downward angle, fore to aft, and then fiberglass it to the counter of the boat. 

My first step was to sand away the primer that I had just applied.  It was tenacious in its grip - a good thing, and happy to have strained through it.  I cleaned up the sanding debris with a bit of acetone to prep for the installation of the G-10 board.

Back in the shop, I laid out the materials that I would need for this project:  the G-10 board, two cuts of 1708 biaxial cloth and 2 cuts of 10oz cloth.  I mixed a cup of West System resin and wet out the fiberglass, as well as the bottom surface and edges of the G-10 board.  I then went over to the boat to wet out the surfaces to be worked.

Next, I thickened the remaining resin with a combination of 406 colloidal silica and 407 low-density filler, and knowing it would not be enough, I mixed another small cup of thickened epoxy.  I applied this thickened epoxy to the backside of the G-10 board, and then inserted it into the motor mount aperture.  With a small level, I ensure that my fore-to-aft angle was appropriately sloping downward, and I also ensured that the G-10 board was level in an athwartship orientation.

I then wrapped the epoxy assembly in the 1708 and 10oz fabrics.  Later, I will come back and knock off the excess glass and sand all to smooth and fair.  I will no doubt apply a skim coat of fairing compound to bring the surface into a state that it is ready for primer and paint.

I then turned my attention to the required frames, or spacers, for the deadlights  - the two non-opening ports within the main cabin space.  I wanted to improve the look a bit, and so decided to utilize a bot of teak to create the frames.  The exterior and interior deadlight assembly was too thick for the ~3/16" thick cabin sides, thus the need to fill some space.

I selected a few boards from the cull bin, and devised a plan to utilize them.  I decide on a ~1/2" thick deadlight spacer/frame, and cut it thusly on the table saw.  

** A note to caution:  operating power tools is a serious endeavor, take your time, use the safety tools prescribed (i.e. pusher sticks, etc.).  On this occasion, I nearly ripped into the pad of my thumb!

With all boards cut, I began the layout for gluing them up.

I protected the work table with plastic, and then laid out the frame boards.  I wet out the edges to be glued together, and then came back with thickened epoxy, applying a bit to each glue edge.  With clamps, and then creative weights, I assembled the frames.  Later, I will cut out the frames/spacers to be used in the deadlight assembly.

Total Time Today: 3.5 hrs