With the temperature forecast to be around 10º C cooler today than yesterday at a reasonable 24º, it is a good day for doing some rapid epoxy work.
The first task was to shape the stem a little better, it is still not exactly the right size and again, this is deliberate. The next task was to trim the edges of the hull so that the cut is straight and clean. To do this I pencilled in a line where I want the cut to be and then a second line 38mm away from the line. A straight edge was nailed in place temporarily to guide the cut. The hull edge was trimmed using a trim router adjusted to the correct depth.
It didn’t take long to cut the hull to a nice straight line.
I repeated the procedure on the other side.
On both sides the cut stopped short of the end due to the router bumping into the underside of the deck and I used the multi-tool to cut away most of this followed by the rest using a sharp chisel.
The router also cut into the new stem a little clearly showing the correct size of the stem.
This allowed me to take away a little bit more of the stem leaving it the correct size.
I cut four pieces of Agba to fit each side of the gap, gave the stem, breast hook and some other timbers inside a coat of neat epoxy as well as the undersides of the Agba strips, then applied a liberal coat of thickened epoxy to the stem etc, seated the pieces in the correct place and stapled them in place. The staples are plastic so I do not need to pull them out before putting on the next layer. This is very good since getting them out invariably damages the wood.
The second layer went on at right angles to the first, more or less, and the third in the same direction as the first.
At this point I realised that the Agba I had was 3mm thick, not 2.5mm and the three layers plus the thickened epoxy made the new hull the same thickness as the old.
This is the last layer. It still looks wonky and that is because it is. I’ll be shaping the new stem a little bit once the epoxy cures, probably tomorrow, to get the final shape.
So a good day’s work albeit a little rushed as i used the fast hardener and that barely gave me enough time to get the next layer cut and in place before the epoxy was unusable.
The nice sharp point of the new stem will be flattened to match the rest of the hull and to be wide enough to extend the keel band all the way up the stem and to hook over the top. This will reinforce the stem since it is subject to quite strong forces upwards due to the staysail and the forestay pulling on the stem via the gammon iron.
But that is for another day.
Time for a cup of tea.