Finally, after about 6 weeks of dry and hot weather, we finally had some rain. A few spots yesterday afternoon that prevented me from continuing with sanding the hull and last night we had a little over 3 mm of rain. That means that I will have to start thinking seriously about making a cover for the boat under which I can work if it rains. Once the epoxy & fibreglass sheathing starts, rain must not stop play.
Moving on, this is the transom repair after the epoxy had cured and the peel ply removed. The Truss head screws were removed and countersunk ones put in their place.
Then I removed all the varnish I put on the transom a couple of months or more past. The reason for this is that the transom will also be sheathed in fibreglass and epoxy and for that to work, I need to have the varnish gone.
Then I gave it a couple of coats of the stain which will not affect the sheathing.
I took that time at this point to seal up the holes in the tarpaulin. I do not remember why I made them, there must have been a good reason, but right now, they let in the rain.
And then it was on with the sanding. Now, I’ve decided to be practical about this and not sand too heavily. That means the some of the old paint will remain where it has seeped into the grain. Sanding that out will remove too much of the hull. The result is fairly good, even so.
The bow is the same. A fair but not perfect finish.
This is one of the more major scratches, some really damage done here. One of the tasks that I need to do before the sheathing process starts is to fill in these scratches with thickened epoxy. There are a fair few areas that need to be done and if I do it correctly, I will not need to sand the hull again to get the epoxy in these areas smooth. The forecast for tomorrow is rain during the early morning, so I think I need to do this tonight whilst it is still light.
Time for a cup of tea.