Unfortunately I did not get anything done on the boat this weekend, but I did manage to get the kerfs glued and glassed today. I also gave the outside ones a light coat of bog to fill the grain of the glass and to fair out the ends of the glass to the panel.

I decided it was too big a job to glue the very long seat back panel down and glue and glass the kerfs in one go, and also I thought having the curves formed and set would make it much easier to glue the base of the panel by simply raising the panel on blocks and glue buttering the bottom with a scraper, the panel would be able to be easily lifted when it is set into shape but very difficult when it is a floppy panel as it is before the the curves are set.

Before filling the kerfs with glue, I sanded off the glass splinters. I then released the seat back from the upright seat panels in order to move the panel around to straighten out the kerfed area so that I could scrape glue down into the saw cuts. I put peel ply down so that the panel does not glue itself to the bridgedeck until I have glued the whole panel down. I then put the panel back into place including curving the kerfs back into place and using screws screwed down into the deck tight up against the seat panel back and front to hold it in the correct places (be careful not to screw them all the way through as the bottom is faired). I then scraped the excess glue off the panel that was squeezed back out of the kerfs when the panel was re curved. I had the panel screwed in place for the weekend and it retains a little memory of where it has been and went back into place really easily, I had marks on the floor to remind me where the panel should be.

Once the entire panel was in place and the excess glue removed, wet out glass and placed it on the kerfed curves. Once all the glass was on, I mixed up some bog and spread a thin layer of bog over the outside kerfs in order to fill the grain and to fair out the glass edges.

Once this is all set I will raise the panel on blocks, give the corners a sand whilst it is still easy to get to the corners by moving the panel around. Then I can give the entire bottom edge a butter up of glue, as well as the forward faces of the seat uprights and glue the panel into place onto the bridgedeck. I may get that done tomorrow, but there wont be time to cove and glass it down, that is quite a big job. I will get that done on the weekend.

The boys have also been getting on with the fairing of Nine Lives. They have long boarded the bog lines and are in the process of back filling with bog to the sanded bog lines. Once that is on and set they will then fair that again but it is a lot neared to fair and will only need a light sand, a lot less sanding or at least a lot easier work than flat bogging and sanding.