It's warmed up above freezing so I was able to fire up both burners on the propane and leave the door open to exhaust the paint fumes. After about an hour it was hardly noticeable and by the end of the night the fumes were gone. Was nice to be able to work without the mask.
First up I moved all the painted hatches inside the cuddy. There's sanding to do in there, plus some areas need more paint and some of the hatches need the same. I'm amazed at how much paint the wood is absorbing, but that's ok, better paint than water!
Next I decided to work on the support structure for the belly tank. A new sheet of 3/4" plywood and a couple hours measuring, scribing and cutting and the pieces were cut and fitted.
The tank will swell about three percent once it has fuel in it so after carefully measuring and cutting this is the result. You might notice that the pieces look a little tall compared to the stringers and you'd be right. After cutting the bottom piece and setting the tank on it I found the top of the tank just below the top of the stringers so I've decided to add one inch to the height of the stringers and thus the deck. I would rather have added that inch when I bought and cut the stringers to get the added strength the length of the stringers, but that's water under the bridge.
Last up was the inevitable epoxy and fiberglass. The bottom of the bottom piece was coated in epoxy, the holes and gaps filled with peanut butter and a layer of 10oz glass was added for strength and rigidity. 25 gallons of fuel is about 150 pounds and I don't that weight to cause me problems down the road.
Tomorrow I'll epoxy the other sides of the tank pieces, sand and clean the hull where they'll attach, plus paint the areas of the hull I won't be able to reach with Bilgekote and sand and continue painting in the cuddy.
Back to wearing the mask. :-)
4 Hours