Hands up the biggest idiots here. If you raised your hand you are in the top 10 but I still think I would win. I just sanded 70% of the hull using the 60 grit paper when I could have been using the 40 grit and cutting the work almost in half. I was trying to remember how many coats of highbuild I put on and I remembered that each coat was sanded off by the next finest paper until I got to the 225 when it suddenly dawned on me that I was already on the 60 when I should have started on the 40. I immediately switched to the 40 and the bog came off so much easier. As a result I decided to go back over some of the areas that I was thinking of filling and sanded it down the rest of the way. Its is no biggy as mistakes go, actually I hope all of my mistakes are as inconsequential but it just goes to show that some of the work building a boat is going to be self inflicted!

I actually still do have a number of areas I have to fill. You may remember that I felt that some of the tapes were not quite wet enough using the wombat and as a result some of the edges were not bonding properly with the glass below. I didn’t notice that the bonding was poor in places until the next day when we had to apply the bog. Of course I should have just gone over the suspect areas with a brush and more resin when I glassed them, but then I didn’t realize the problem existed. I didn’t do much about it the following day when I first noticed the small areas that hadn’t properly been wet down because I was rushing to finish and get the bog on before the resin was green. Rushing is a trap that I think all amateur builders fall into because many jobs are time sensitive, that is you have to finish before resin goes off. But in reality you have far more time than you think most of the time.

Anyway as a result now, when the bog is sanded away over an area that has a poor bond or a small bubble, the glass kind of collapses to the layer below and tears away until the resin is back in full and the layer is back to normal, leaving a hole that needs filling. In some of them I actually need to cut some of the suspect glass away with a Stanley knife, which is fairly easy as the suspect glass does not have as much resin in it, so its a matter of cutting until it isn’t possible to cut with the Stanley knife because where there is resin cutting isn’t possible. Most are about 30-50mm long and about 3-5mm high and 1mm deep (1 layer of glass). Apart from the extra work fixing them I am totally unconcerned about these holes, most are on the edge of the top tape, a tape that I was originally contemplating not having at all, so a few gaps and tears in them are of no consequence. I have about 10 to fill in all.

My original plan to resin coat the hull and a coat of highbuild tomorrow was a little optimistic. I am almost there but I still have to fill all of the holes and I also still have a little sanding to do in places (that I will do once the fill has set). I underestimated just how much the heat slows you down. It was 35 deg yesterday and 37 today. I managed to work for 6 hours today but that was my limit. I finished by vacuuming the dust off the hull and floor and giving the hull a wash down. Once I washed the dust off the hull I saw how much work I haven’t done yet!

So tomorrow I will fill the holes. That may take an hour or so. Tomorrow will be a light day. The resin coats and highbuild all need to be done in a day (whilst each coat is still green) and I wont have time to fill, wait until it sets, then sand and still get all that resin and highbuild on. As it is an all day job I may not be able to do it until next Saturday so when I get time during the week I will use the time to start doing the internal tapes.