It is a beautiful day to day, the sun is shining, the temperature is set to get up to 20º C or more and there is little or no wind.
As soon as the tasks allowed we lifted Shoal Waters off the overnight blocks and tipped her over onto her starboard side.
This took very little time since we had done the procedure tentatively yesterday so today we knew what to expect. As it happened the entire thing took five minutes, maybe ten, but not more. Most of that was removing the various support blocks away from the working area and resetting the inversion strops such that the ratchets were on the other side of the hull and up as far as they would go.
The tipping part of the procedure took about 30 seconds. This is such a good system.
Time for a cup of tea.
At the next break, lunch as it happened, I did the next part of the process, the penultimate epoxy work under the waterline.
The lower side of the slot as seen when standing by the hull was cleaned up, removing the squeeze out sealant, sanded, to provide a key, air blown, to get rid of the detritus, taped, to keep accidental splashes off the copper epoxy and neat epoxy brushed onto the join between the hull and the side of the centerplate case.
I mixed up a fairly stiff thickened epoxy batch and this was applied to the join. Peel ply then added to that and finally, another batch of neat epoxy mixed and brushed onto the peel ply.
I used the fast hardener for this task as I would like to have this cured enough to apply the final coat of epoxy to the work done yesterday and today this afternoon. This will be copper epoxy. That will leave the second coat of copper epoxy to do tomorrow.
Time for a cup of tea.
After work ended for the day I inspected the state of the epoxy and found it cured enough to be able to apply the copper epoxy. I removed the masking tape and tidied up the epoxy as there were some straggly bits here and there. The area around where I wanted to apply the copper epoxy was then rubbed down with the stainless scrubbing pad, but I got a little carried away with that and did as much of the hull as I could reach. It was going to be done tomorrow anyway and it was such an easy job that I just kept on going.
After donning my overalls and nitrile gloves I mixed up a small batch of the C-Guard and applied it to both inner sides of the centerplate slot.
I also covered the few drips that I made with the neat epoxy applied earlier after scrubbing those with the scouring pad. You can see the scouring marks on the hull quite well with the sunlight in that direction.
I’m please with the result and I shall keep an eye on the temperature with the view to applying a second coat when it gets to around 15º C or so. If the copper epoxy is cured enough by that time it will be recoated, if not then I’ll wait until tomorrow. This evening would be preferable as it would mean one less turn of the hull.
Time for a cup of tea.
I was able to get another coat of the copper epoxy applied before the got dark and too cold and once that was done we put Shoal Waters back in the same position she was last night. I also scrubbed the portions of the hull that I was unable to reach earlier.
And here she is, ready for the night.
That completes the under the waterline work I needed to carry out on the hull, tomorrow we shall attempt to put her back on the work trailer and in the Hay Barn. Work from here on can be carried out at a slightly less frenetic pace.
Time for a cup of coffee.