The foam stiffening battens I glued on yesterday were still a little green but on well enough for me to round the tops with a router. I then cleaned it up with some sandpaper just hand held. I started by cutting the uni strips that will cove the tops of the foam battens and the double bias tapes (200mm) that will lap from the base over the battens and to the base on the other side holding it all down. I then coved the side to base joins and wet out the uni and glass and applied the uni and then the glass. I tell myself often don’t pull threads and this is especially true with uni as it often frays at the edges and the outside glass threads often don’t sit as neatly as you would like, especially if when cutting the strips you sever an outside thread, but as usual I forget my own advise and cant resist the temptation to pull at loose threads, and inevitable it creates more mess than it clears. Don’t do it, just smooth them down and let the next layer smooth it out or if it is an outside layer clean it up when the resin is green and you can cut it off or wait for it to completely go off and grind it clean. So with the glass down and well wet to the base and into the coves I stopped for lunch and let it set for a while.
After lunch the glass whilst still tacky had gone off enough for me to bog the frame and the curved sides. The underside wont be very visible except from in a dingy under it but I still want the tapes to be blended out so a very light layer of bog will be enough to be able to sand it all smooth. The curved sides were glassed a couple of days ago but I peel plied them so I could apply bog directly to them. Again only a very light layer will be needed as the sides are already quite fair but the bog will make it completely ready for paint fair. In order to get a very light bog layer I decided to paint it on with a brush. This means that I had to make the bog a little more runny than I normally would so that it is able to be applied with a brush (normally a trowel is used but on a tightly curved surface a trowel is not as effective) but the downside with this is that a runnier mix means more resin than usual (less powder) with in turn means it will be a little harder to sand. I am not too concerned by that even though I have to manually long board it as it is only a very small area so it wont be too difficult. On the frames I will use a flat orbital sander.
In the late afternoon there was not much more I could do to the catwalk while the bog sets so I measured and cut the seat base and back in the ensuite toilet. Both pieces taper as the hull tapers down and back (actually forward but the back of the toilet cubicle is forward in the hull) so the best way to get the right size duflex panel is to cut cardboard templates to the exact size required then transfer that size to the duflex piece to cut it to size. So I measured first, transferred the size to a sheet of cardboard, cut the template out, trimmed it where needed or noted on it where it was too small and by how much, then transferred that to the duflex and cut them to size. I did not have time to glue them in but I may get time tomorrow.
I doubt the bog will be hard enough to sand tomorrow, at least not in the morning but it will be set enough to handle and I will cut the sides to the shape of the template and fit it to the forebeam and foredeck bulkheads. Then once it is fit, if it is able to be faired I will, and if I don’t have any problems I may even get time to glue it onto the boat.
