Jo and I walked in to Gosford foreshore for the Australia Day celebrations today which took up all morning so I started on the boat at 2pm. The day was cool so I knew I would be able to get a start on gluing the cabin sides onto the boat.
I started by removing the peelply and sanding any bubbles in the peel ply because the section of surface not in contact with peelply is not keyed and also to remove any glass overhanging the edges, besides it is easier to sand the panel flat on the ground then overhead on the boat. Once done it was time to lift one of the panel back onto the boat. It suddenly felt hot in the shed after manhandling the panel back onto the boat.
It took me a while to get the panel back into its exact position. To my surprise the panel is still quite flexible and needed to be coerced back down just as it had to be when I first attached it before gluing. I thought the gluing would mean that it had a shape it would keep and glassing just reinforced that. But as I said, it needed to be pushed or pulled down into place with screws and block.
Once I had the panel in place I glued it onto BH6 then started filling the gaps between the roof and the side. In the middle of this join I felt that it was too big for the filler to sit without sagging so I filled it with a thin duracore offcut which at 20mm wide is quite flexible. I applied glue to each side of it and put it in the gap and filled it over with filler.
I coved the bulkhead join inside and glassed it. The outside of the bulkhead join does not have enough overhang yet to glass to but once I glass the final part of the cabin sides that overhangs around the cockpit to provide a little side protection from water to the cockpit, I will then have enough panel to glass to.
I continued filling the edges top outside and bottom inside (because it is from these sides that the gap is wider) until I had coving material coming out the other side. I was careful to overfill the gaps so that I could round them off when set ready for glassing in the same way I filled the hull panel gaps.
I will still have to fill under the tabs that are pulling the panel down into place but I will attach the port panel first and fill and glue that and fill the gaps while it also sets then I will just have the tabs on the port side left to fill before I can sand it all rounded and then glass the whole thing together. Once glassed the roof and sides will become rigid.
I set out to get the cabin glued and glassed on in January and with a little luck I might just make it.