During the week I sanded the last of the tapes and rough edges inside hatches on the starboard hull in preparation for gluing the inside bow panel on that hull and glass the forebeam in. I still have some work inside the starboard hull before I can start gluing though. I need to paint the inside of the bow locker. I will also need to glue and glass the toilet cubicle in. I have the sides and roof made. I still need to glass the kerfs and joins on the inside. Once it is glued and glassed in I can cut the opening through the bulkhead.
I decided that my notched trowel (an off the shelf model) had too many notches meaning that I have more bog to sand to get the surface fair. It does not affect the amount of bog on the end result but the more bog lines to sand the harder it is to sand, and this sanding is all manual torture boarding. Once sanded it is a little trickier to back fill as the wider the bog area the harder it is to backfill without the bog pulling (a friction thing with the trowel and fluid) out as you fill but otherwise the end result is the same with a little less effort. I settled on one notch every 25mm and I just got a normal cheap trowel and cut the notches in with an angle grinder. It took about 2 minutes!
My method for getting bog lines on is to use the flat edge of the trowel to apply a level layer of bog on the entire surface a little area at a time, then once down, pull the notched side through removing all but the bog lines through the notches. You get a build up of bog on the trowel that you use a scraper to remove back into the pot and then onto the job again in the next section as you go.
Getting the bog the right consistency is important at this stage, too wet (not enough bog powder) and the bog will run or the bog lines will self level like paint, to dry (too much powder) and the bog will pull off the job as you pull the notched trowel through. (Remember the resin/hardener is always 5:1 but you can add as little or as much powder as you need for the job.)
I have bogged around the forebeam where I ground it off to glass it in and around the conduit. There is a dip where I coved the conduit onto the bow panel. The bog strips should level that out but I am not sure yet if I want to retain the slight cove or fair it out completely. I think it will probably look better faired out and will probably be easier to fair that way.
It is most unlikely that the bog will be set sufficiently to start fairing tomorrow. That’s a shame because I am so looking forward to sanding again! Tomorrow I will complete the inside of the starboard bow so that I can get on and glue that panel on.