No varnishing today so the first task was to finish the support extension started yesterday.
The new extension piece was firmly attached after sixteen hours or so of clamping and drying.
A few minutes work with the belt sander shaped the workpiece to match the original, more or less.
The extension piece was made a little too long and it does not fit as expected.
The excess was cut off using the table saw and now it is a good fit. I will need to adjust the fit widthways a little more as this originally rested against the original case side and now the case side is 6mm thicker.
During my next break I assembled the aft navigation light and mount. It is still not fitted finally, as I need to sand the deck and put on some new paint under the mount before it can be fitted properly.
Likewise with the deck gland. Still a good start to the day.
The next break I had allowed me to cut a thin strip of wood off the support.
The result is a much closer fit an about as good as I can get. Sealant will fill the gaps when it is fitted.
Now I need to make another one for the other side to replace the one that had to be destroyed to remove it. It looks to be shorter that the port side support and it is since it does not need the half-lap on the top to help resist the pull of the pate uphaul. It is, in fact, about 3mm longer than it needs to be (I checked, twice) so that I can sneak up on the correct size.
After work I spent some time under the boat, on my back, checking the bottom of the keel slot. It was difficult to see much but I could see that the SikaFlex had squeezed out all along both sides of the keel slot under the new sides. Hopefully this will mean that it has made a good seal.
I cut a few of the larger lumps off, but left the rest. The will be covered with antifoul paint before launching and the action of lowering and raising the plate will wear away most of the squeezed out sealant over time.
I raised the gudgeon fitting up a little and then needed to plug the old holes. Which is what you can see here.
The transom eyes and the rubbing strake were also fitted. The excess sealant you can see will be cleaned off with a chisel once it has dried.
A good day.
Time for a cup of tea.