I had a long day today but not all of it was spent working on the boat. More than half the day was spent literally watching paint dry. I started at about 8.30am and immediately applied the first coat of resin. It took a little over an hour to apply a coat to the entire hull. I then had a 4 hour wait until the coat had sufficiently dried so that I could apply the second coat. I assume the second coat is to be sure that the hull is completely sealed by the resin, the plan calls for 2 coats so that is what I applied. So around 2pm I started applying the second coat and finished around 3.15. While I was waiting for the first coat to dry I had computer work to catch up on so I wont count the time in between coats on the man hour count.

For the technically minded, one full coat of resin is 50 pumps using the west wall pump (the same as it was on the first hull). Each pump is 0.065 kgs of resin and hardener so 50 pumps is 3.25kgs of resin. As I applied 2 coats today I added 6.5kgs of resin to the hull.

I am not sure what the highbuild weighs as I didn’t have time to weigh it today, I will do so on the next coat but I assume it is slightly heavier than the resin as it has the pigment in it that makes it easier to sand. I applied the highbuild at around 6.30pm. The first resin coat had 4 hours to dry but the second coat only 3 and it was still tacky to touch. This slowed down the application of the highbuild a little and it took about an hour and a half to apply. I got the same pigment falling in the highbuild that I got on the first hull. I don’t think it has anything to do with the resin being still tacky, I cant remember how tacky the resin was on the first hull when I applied the highbuild. It has no effect anyway as the next coat covers these clear streaks anyway so I didn’t worry about it. I think it is just something that happens with the Penguard highbuild.

One final note on Penguard highbuild. For those that have never smelt it before, it is very overpowering and I get a headache and sometimes even nausea from it after about half an hour. I have to wear the breathing mask while applying it to avoid these side effects. I don’t have this reaction to epoxy resin. This smell or vapor is also released when sanding the highbuild so the respirator is doubly needed, for the dust and the vapor.

So again I have an easy Sunday. I will check the highbuild tomorrow to see that it has cured ok but it is unlikely that I can start sanding tomorrow, as the highbuild should take a bit longer to be ready to sand. I can start on the internal tapes but I think I will have an easy day.