Val (2 hr), Mike (3 hr), Thomas (3.5 hr), and Scott (4 hr) | photos

The final rub down

Whoo-hoo!  The starboard hull epoxy/glasswork is DONE thanks to rapid light sanding by Val and Thomas and a simultaneous application of fillets and a final coat epoxy by Mike, Thomas, and Scott.  We practiced using rubbing alcohol to finish both the open areas and the fillets (beautiful!) along the forward cabin-deck joint and the rail-hull joint.  The latter will need a tiny bit of sanding where the glass had sprung up a bit, but otherwise only a light sanding will be needed prior to painting.

We’ll add beam supports and a rudder before painting, but that can wait for later in the winter.  Thomas kindly offered up his shop/tools for generating the requisite pieces.

Next week we’ll begin with the momentous move: the starboard hull goes outside for a stint while the port hull comes inside for shapping glassing of its hull.  With some luck and the right power tools, we should be able to sheath it quickly — within the next two weeks.  And then the garage can be cleared for beam and rudder construction!  We may have a swimming platform by summer 2010, yet…

Sailor smurfs?

Scott (5hr), Kevin (3.5hr), Thomas (3hr) | photos

Kevin and Scott cut out fiberglass bits for the cabin sides, stern, and cabin top.  Thomas stopped in as we had mixed up a first pot of epoxy.  It was pretty hot by the time we got through introductions!

So we blazed through the two sides, then glassed the stern, and pushed through to finish the cabin top.  There were a few tough corners and some teamwork to massage the glass over the triangular deck stringer, but we ended up with a job well done.

Thomas and Kevin cranking

Taping along front of cabin as well as under shear stringers worked well, but so did draping extra glass over the stringers and cleaning up any stray drops with isopropyl alcohol.

Kevin and Thomas took off just after midnight.  Scott put on another 270 ml of epoxy and called it quits.

Scott (4 hr) and Thomas (3 hr) | photos

It was a real treat tonight to get to meet Thomas Nielson, owner/builder of the Tiki 26 Tsunamichaser. He helped me get over my trepidation about tackling the foredeck after its been *so* long since we glassed the port topsides.  (I had hoped to review by laying down the port keel strip last weekend, but schedule and deteriorating whether nixed the plan.)

It came out well, despite uncertainties about the hatch combing corners and those pesky triangular deck strips.  The highlight was learning Thomas trick #1: rubbing alcohol on a sponge does an amazing job cleaning up epoxy — from wiping up drips to smoothing fillets so no sanding is needed!  Clearly, Mike and I are going to need to derive and publish a long list of such tricks.

After only an hour or so after Thomas left (near midnight), the epoxy was tacky enough for me to trim off the extra glass with the box-cutter, but not so hard that I couldn’t clean up errant drips on the hull with the rough side of the alcohol sponge.  Added a second coat of epoxy around 2 a.m.

Thanks, Alan, for the Facebook intro to Thomas!  Thomas’s blog led me to the inspirational refit and first voyage through the San Juans of the Badu, a Northwest Tiki 21!

Scott (4hr) and Kevin (3hr)

Sanded all the filled areas, lovingly shaped the bow and stern handle areas, and rasped out the rest of the gaddamned masking tape.  Still found a few tiny blemishes, but all is essentially ready to glass!  Laid out the glass ceremonially and Scott spent some time marking/cutting in preparation for glassing the deck and cabin.