Transom

For unknown reasons, a previous owner had assaulted the transom with a grinder. We have used 40 grit to get down below the grinder marks deep into the original gel-coat where we have begun to uncover an old name as we sand.

It shows up as a light colored "ghost" shadow against the original cream colored gel-coat. The name "Defiance" was on second to last coat of paint. This name is much older and not fully legible yet. The first letter is "P" then maybe an "I" or "L" last two letters look like "WA" with perhaps an "L" before the W, with a lot of space between the first and last letters. The name is low on the transom and might be the port name? Its become a game at the shop to try and guess what it might be but no one has come up with anything that fits yet.

July 5th: After further sanding the name has been revealed, "Philadelphia". I was way off on what I thought the letters were.

Sanding, sanding, and more sanding

With temperatures being on the cool side this week we took the opportunity to do a lot of sanding. Its a nice job to do when its cool, when its hot out the temperature in the shop soars and its difficult to stay suited up for very long without overheating. We started on deck and got most of the old non-skid sanded off of the deck and cabin top. The texture had been badly damaged and it was necessary to sand it off. 40 grit 3M purple sanding disks made the work go fast.

The hull was sanded down to bare fiberglass between the toe-rail and the cove stripe in preparation for glassing the hull and deck joint. Tyler and Chris stopped by and asked if they could lend a hand sanding the bottom. They had done the first wave of sanding on it when the project first started and wanted to finish the job. I was grateful for the help! In four hours they had most of the bottom on the port side sanded down to bare fiberglass and promised to return tomorrow night to sand some more. If we can keep up this pace we should have most of it done by the weekend.

Anchor locker: glassing the core

Filled and faired the imperfections then cut the balsa core and test fit it. Removed it and wet the area with epoxy resin and installed the core, placed weights on it, and let it cure.

Once cured, a long-board sander and DA was used to fair the area. The low spots were filled and then the area was faired a final time. Two layers of Biaxial cloth were then rolled into place.

Anchor locker

I could not sleep last night, at 3am I was wide awake so I set off for the boat.

I crawled under the cockpit and realized I was very close to being done down there. One small partition to go and some minor fairing.
It made me smile. I crawled out and looked the interior over,.....most everything is well underway and either dfp (down for parts) or on hold till more of the dust making is done. The end is in sight for the interior!
I went on deck and wandered up to the anchor locker, put the density meter on the deck and plotted out the area that needed to be removed. Took the skill saw and cut thru the top layer of glass then used the fein tool with a scraper blade and had the zone cleaned up to the base laminate in no time flat. That tool is amazing!! Took an old hatch of of the salvaged boat and cut it down and laid it over the chain locker opening on deck. With a little modification I think it will work out fine. Then it hit me! I'm actually moving on to the exterior stuff now! :-) I will be working on glassing the hull and deck joint soon if this pace keeps up.