Continued Patching & Fairing

July 12, 2015

Sunday was an easy day for boat work - managing to get around to doing some work on Alva Anne by late afternoon.  The focus today was the patching on the poop deck and transom, and spot filling.  I began by water washing the previous day's epoxy work, and then sanding those areas to ensure a fair surface.  The obvious spots that needed further attention was the patch work on the poop deck and transom - these were holes for the former haws pipe and the stern light.

The former haws pipe hole on the poop deck was brought close to the level of the existing gelcoat, and need only fairing compound.

The former stern light hole, once patched, needed a bit more work to bring closer to the adjacent gelcoat surface.  My approach here was to apply a couple more layers of 1708 biaxial cloth, and then fill with fairing compound.

I again made a couple of patterns of ~3/4 circles to further fill the transom patch.  I transferred these patterns to 1708 biaxial cloth, and then prepared a small batch of epoxy. 

With rain approaching quickly, I went straight to work by properly saturating the cloth and then laying the two pieces of cloth into place.  with rain shrinking over my shoulder, I went ahead and applied a small protective sheet of plastic.

In the same moment, I also mixed a small batch of epoxy thickened with micro balloons and spread this out over the transom where the motor bracket was formerly affixed.  This areas was on its third round of filling-fairing, and hopefully this would be the last.  I also applied the fairing compound to the poop deck patch, and quickly covered with plastic sheeting to protect from the rain showers - sorry, no picture of the deck work.

With the primary goal accomplished for this easy day, I set out to reconnoiter the bottom of Alva Anne.  There are quite a few small blisters across the bottom.  I noticed these the day she came out of the water in Oriental, NC - I took 20 minutes on that day to pop as many as I could.  Today, I took the  Porter Cable 7335 and a 6" 40-grit pad, and proceeded to survey the surfaces below the anti-fouling paint.  For the most part the bottom is in good condition, despite the sporadic blistering.  My initial thought after I worked this small area is to sand the bottom to remove any poorly adhered paint, dish out, fill and fair the blisters, wipe clean with a solvent, apply Interprotect 2000E, and finish with a hot-coating of ablative bottom paint. Some research is required first, but I like this approach.  

I also wanted to take a look behind the structural panel (port and starboard).  I had a suspicion that access to the chainplate bolts lay behind this panel.

I removed the 13 screws and gently pried the panel from its placement.

Sure enough, just through the 6" circular access hole I spied the chainplate bolts - without a backing plate.  I will be replacing these while the boat is being refitted.

Total Time: 3 Hrs.