Over the past month I have been sanding the aft deck. After about 4 or so hours of sanding in the 90 degree weather with the sun beating down I usually have to pack it in. I’ve been trying to go out early in the morning but by 11am it really starts cooking out in the field. The first session was basically just to knock down sharp spots and ridges left from the last fiberglass layer. This was particularly tricky because some wasps and mud daubers had made nests in the propane locker and I kept knocking them around which did not make their inhabitants too happy. As you’ll see in the next post I ultimately decided to get rid of the propane locker all together and evict the uninvited guests.
Once those ridges were knocked down I decided to remove the raised fiberglass bases for the hatch hinges. For months I have been delicately working around them trying not to bump into them with the angle grinder or sander and what I finally realized was that I was not going to be able to sand the area in between the hatch base and the hatch hinge bases. By removing them I will be able to make the whole area stronger and look better to boot. They will be replaced with teak wood and will match nicely with the teak dorades that are going to flank the hatch. Here is what they looked like:
Five minutes with the angle grinder and they were no more:
Its amazing what a relief I felt after they were finally out of the way! I then got down to about four hours of consistent sanding and made a lot of progress!
We are now ready for the final layer of fiberglass which I hope to get to tomorrow if its not storming or too hot.
Looking great. I envy your ability to spend a few hours here and there working on your boat. Mine is 300 miles away from me so that is impossible. It’s a shame you don’t have a video channel. It would be fun to watch your progression.
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ahh yes, 300 miles is a very long ways! Ours is an hour away and that feels like a lot! You are not the first person to request a video channel and I have been seriously considering how I would do this… its quite hard because I am out there by myself most days but I promise I will keep trying to figure out a good way to start making some videos 😉 Do you have any channels that you like that you could suggest so I can find out more about the world of video?? Thanks!
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Good progress, Ryan ! When we were repairing the deck we got rid of the raised bases for the chainplates; it was such a rotten mess.Not sure if we’re going to prefabricate them or not.
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