December 31, 2019
I wanted to close out 2019 with a milestone project - drilling out the holes for the fasteners and control cable for the electric motor. I did a bit of sanding to improve the fit between the mounting block and the hull pad, onto which the electric motor will be installed. Achieving a good fit was an iterative process, sanding portions of the mounting block with the small 5" random orbital sander.
Satisfied with the fit between the mounting block and hull pad, I then roughed up the area around and including the hull pad - this was more so to complete taping off the water line and priming.
I cleaned the area with solvent, and then proceeded to hut-glue the mounting block in its future position. The holes within the mounting block would serve as guides for drilling out the fastener and control cable holes.
Next, I gathered a few tools to help in the effort of drilling those holes out, chiefly a 1 and 5/8" hole saw.
The drilling depth of the 1 and 5/8" hole saw was just 2", and the hull and hull pad, as well as the interior "backing plate", together, was more than 2". So, in order to get the hole saw to push all the way through, I needed to remove the retained plug (this plug was now bottoming out inside the hole saw). I used two different, smaller size hole saws to remove as much of the retained plug that I could. With a flathead screwdriver I simply pried off the thin remnants of the plug. With a bit more than half of the way through, and the retained plug now ejected, I could drill through the remaining fiberglass. I finally broke through, and was very happy to see everything nicely aligned.
I drilled out the forward and aft bolt (fastener) holes, and then cleaned up the lazarette and grounds around the boat. In the coming days, with priming the starboard bow and the hull pad, I will prime the interior of the motor mount holes.
I returned to the shop to apply a sealer coat of varnish to the undersides of all the hatches. I sanded off any varnish that clung to the underside of the frame while I was applying the 6 coats of varnish to the tops, as well as cleaned up some excess epoxy from the filleting I applied to the forward and lazarette hatches.
I vacuumed and solvent-wiped the surfaces of all the hatches to prep for varnish.
I used Epifanes Clear Gloss for the sealer coat on the undersides of the hatches, thinned a bit less than I normally would for a sealing coat. Application was with a 2" foam brush, and went on without issue. The hatches are now complete, and will be installed in the coming weeks.
I headed back out to the boat for continued work on the laminate issue I discovered at the starboard bow. With the three layers of 10 ounce glass applied, as well as the first light skim coat of fairing compound, I came back today to sand and determine if another skim coat was required. In fact, another skim coat would be required. So to that end, I solvent-wiped the surface and mixed another small batch of the TotalBoat TotalFair product.
With a 6" knife, I applied the skim coat of fairing compound. Tomorrow, I will sand this area and prime it in preparation for the first coat of topsides paint.
I headed up into the cockpit after completing the work that I could on the bow. I grabbed the coaming boards, a small bottle jack and some scrap wood/shims and headed to the boat. I had previous fine-tuned the fit of each of the coaming boards, and now I wanted to get both boards in and measurements taken to prepare for fasteners. The fit was great, and with the boards pushed into their future positions, I marked the high point of the molded fiberglass coamings on the outboard side of the new teak coamings. I will be laying out the location of the fasteners soon, and then drilling pilot holes in order to tap for machine screws.
Total Time Today: 3.5 hrs
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