First thing this morning I continued the fiberglass work. As I was going to fiberglass the shelves I needed to touch up the joint between the shelves and the hull. So I grabbed the sander and worked the sides, shelves and hull down to finger tip smooth.
Now way back when I put the second layer of plywood on top of the shelves there ended up being a gap, sometimes as much as a quarter inch that I had filled with peanut butter. Problem was, it was a little too dry, and peanut butter that's a little too dry makes it "sticky" and it's impossible to get it smooth. So today I made a batch was was just a little runny and used that to fill all the tiny little gaps in the original work. I also filled any gaps I found in the plywood and then used the rest to continue the fillet on the port side. I made a couple more small batches of peanut butter to continue the fillets on the starboard side too.
Next up I cut 12" wide strips of 7oz fiberglass (not triax, I don't need the stiffness) and set them to the side. These were wide enough to lap up the sides two inches, across the shelves at six and a half inches, and over and down the hull about three inches overlapping the hull to shelves joint.
Last I marked a two inch line on the sides for reference and a nine inch line up at the bow deck area as I figured I might as well start all the way up there to make it simple. Then I made a medium size batch of epoxy and I was off.
Paint the areas that would get fiberglass, lay down the fiberglass, pushing and pulling it into place, cutting it where it wanted to bunch up, rolling it into the resin and filling in the dry spots, all the while trying to be very careful to make sure I didn't end up with any oopsies. From the front towards the stern three strips of fiberglass were layed in, each overlapping by about two inches. Obviously, this doesn't get me to the stern, but until I finish the shelves in the rear deck this is as far as I can go. I then went around and did the starboard side, repeating everything, and even overlapping the fiberglass up at the bow. There will be some method for storing an anchor up there so the extra strength will be necessary.
I went off to get lunch at this point, plus I stopped by AIH to get a drum sander that I could chuck up in my drill.
When I got back I took out my Dremel and a cut-off wheel and went to work in the cuddy. A bunch of the screws in the hinges and latches were too long and thus were cut off flush. Made a real pretty light show working in the very dim space. Sparklers and it's not even the Fourth! :-) I also cut off the tips of the screws in the roof that had had their heads snap off.
And then it was sanding time. Me and the 5" orbital sander got three hours of quality time. The entire cuddy got sanded inside, including the scarfing seam in the roof (what a pain!). All of the fiberglass edges in the cabin got feathered out and then I did the same on the outside. Back inside I went and sanded the roof support beams and their joints to the arch and rear cabin wall. Finally I sanded the edges of the windows to smooth and flatten them out.
Then I chucked up the drum sander and went to work. I started in the rear deck as I had an inside rounded corner that needed to be cleaned up. I did the rounded corners of the windows and then back into the cuddy. Where the cuddy sides overlap the shelves needed some serious work. Even though I scribed and cut them as best I could, in the process of installing them things never end up the same way twice. Also, because the of the acute angle of the hull to the shelves there was no way to get the orbital sander in there so the drum sander was the only way to go.
I quit about 8:30pm. I could have worked for a while longer, but my forearms are killing me and my hands still feel like they're vibrating. :-)
9.5 Hours