It was a little cooler today but it is still very hot inside the upturned hull. I decided to get better organized today. I did away with the ladder and put 2 44gallon drums inside with a plank, that way I could tape the whole length by walking along the plank. I got away with the ladder yesterday because the gap is only 2000mm and I could step on the doorway of the bulkhead and the back of the ladder on one side and the rungs of the ladder on the other and manage to roll the tape out with a bit of a stretch but this one is 2700mm. You cant let go of a tape half way or the whole thing just peels back and falls so you have to get it up in one go. So I had no choice anyway.

I managed in 4 hours to do what it took me 6 hours to do yesterday. I decided that I would only peel ply the top 2 joins (bottom on the upside down hull) as the rest end up under the sole anyway. I also had a much better appreciation of how fast the filler would go off, but that still didn’t stop mixing more than I could apply before it set hard in the tub as I was applying it! I mixed up enough for 4 joins and managed to get 3 done before the stuff started really heating up and hardening. I mixed up another small pot, finished the 4th join and repaired the 3rd that was not well applied due to the fill hardening, the first 2 were fine. I am much slower working upside down in the heat. The bottom 2 chines were already filled and I had also sanded them smooth ready to tape.

Anyway I got them all done and started on the glassing. I had pre cut the 12 tapes (6 150mm, 6 100mm) so I started wetting them out with the paint brush and applying them. I got the top 2 150mm tapes on first, then put the 100mm on top of them, then did the next 2 150mm and so on until I had done all 6 joins. I then peel plied the last 2 and that was it for the day. The cricket was calling, and I was a little fatigued by the heat of yesterday and today inside the hull.

One final tip. I find that if I wear latex gloves for any length of time my hands turn into prunes from the sweat. I decided to try wearing a pair of cotton gloves inside the latex gloves. The result is much better. The cotton gloves absorb a lot of the sweat so you still end up with a little moisture but nowhere near as much.

So I have about half the hull joins taped, then I can do the bulkhead joins. So I figure I still have a couple of weekends work to finish this hull. With Muster weekend and Melbourne trips I have only managed a pitiful amount of hours this month.