Repositioning to Complete Bottom; Priming & Varnishing

January 3rd, 2016

Today was a day of odds and ends, some of this and some of that, a little here and a little there...but it all has to get done.  My first task for the day was to reposition the boat stands and blocking so that I could gain access to the unfinished areas on the bottom.  Through a series of maneuvers with the trailer-mounted pads and the jack stands, I was able to re-block the keel and re-engage the trailer-mounted pads to expose the areas previously hidden during the initial application of barrier coat and bottom paint.

After I repositioned the stands and pads, I roughed the bottom with 60-grit pads on the 6" random orbital finish sander.  I also took the bottom paint back to allow a good tie-in with the upcoming application of barrier coat paint.

I progressed through the areas hidden by the boat stands with 60-grit paper.

I finished up at the port bow stand and then turned my attention to the keel.

Keel work hidden by blocking...

I had a block at this location while doing most of the new bottom job, and now I had access to this spot to finish this area.  There were also two spots that required further fill and fair work, but that I had missed in my previous work - likely due to the proximate location to the blocking.

I began with mixing a small batch of epoxy to wet out the areas needing repair, as well as the areas hidden by the boat stands and blocking.

I then mixed up another batch of epoxy and thickened it with a combination of micro-balloons and colloidal silica.

Using a squeegee, I applied a thin layer across the surface of the areas requiring barrier coat and bottom paint.

The thickened epoxy was primarily for the fill work on the keel, but with leftover material I decided to apply to the areas hidden by the boat stands.

Just prior to filling the areas on the keel, I used a grinder and flap wheel and carefully removed the loose material and feathered the edges back to provide a greater surface area for the epoxy to bond with.

I also thoroughly cleaned all these areas with a solvent to prepare for the epoxy application.

Finishing up what I could on the bottom, I then turned to some work in the shop that needed completion.  I started with removing a few bungs with the bandsaw.  I lightly sanded the end of the bung that was attached to its mahogany slab from which it was cut.

The bungs were to seal the 3 screw holes on each of the coaming boards.  These screws were in addition to epoxy-gluing the returns to the coaming boards' forward ends.

I "glued" them in with varnish, and will trim in the coming days.

I was debating whether or not to paint the companionway hatch and cockpit seat locker lids with another coat of primer or to paint them with finish paint (Interlux Perfection).  In the end, I decided to paint on another coat of primer.  In doing this, I also could apply a coat of primer to the underside of the companionway hatch once the topside had sufficiently dried.

I used a foam brush to hit the areas that the foam roller could not.

To finish the day, I sanded the brightwork in the shop with 220-grit paper by hand, and varnished with Epifanes.

These coats were thinned just slightly, perhaps by 5% to 10%, and were laying down nicely.  I will build the coat of varnish up over the coming days and then install on the boat.

Total Time: 6.25 Hrs.