Kevin & Don (3 hrs each); Christian & Thomas (3 hrs each); Scott (6 hrs)

Guiness toast to Tikiting next summer

After an extended session with Liam “coloring” different paint jobs, Scott cleaned up the shop.  Had just started sanding when Christian made a first visit.  Thomas arrived as we were house touring.  Together they upped the ante by drinking their refreshments from coalesced colloidal silica devices.  That led quickly to our joint realization that what should be done next summer is not just rowing (because we don’t anticipate having a mast to sail), but towing the Tiki with one of Christian’s kites!

Kevin brought his dad, Don, over shortly after we had sanded down the (properly cured!) epoxy (and filler where I’d put material in the wooden chunks that went missing during the great scrape-off).  Scott learned Thomas trick number 36 (instead of a damp cloth, always use an alcohol wipedown on a foggy night).  Deemed dry enough, we glassed the final portion of the port hull — thanks to Kevin’s carefully mass-balanced epoxy blends.

We got through the tricky parts (Kevin again suturing a big glass cloth fold at the bow and Thomas deftly working us around the skeg.  Then all headed into the mist and Scott put on a second coat of resin+#1.

Uncured consternation

Matt, Mike, Scott, Kevin, Thomas (~2 hr each)

Somehow throughout the last week I managed to ignore the few sticky spots that seemed to not be curing.  Surely they would be nice and hard, ready for a light sanding by Tiki Tuesday!

Well, when all had gathered and gloved up to finish off the sheathing of the port hull, the death knell sounded.  The sticky patches were still sticky.  How were we going to sand these areas?  Like an obsessive child beginning to pick at a scab, we scraped gingerly at the edge of the fiberglass.  It was appalling to see the edge come up and wide swaths of the glass lift off!

Most of the night was spent devising a way of getting the goo off and getting back down to bare wood.  The best technique was to use a razor-bladed paint scraper preceded by blow torch.  This generated slightly less carcinogenic fumes than the conventional method of slathering the situation with acetone.  But the fire risk was pretty high…

We finally re-applied a coat of epoxy in the affected areas (mixed carefully by Matt, NOT Scott-who-botched-the-last-batch-because-he-drank-too-much-beer).  We all fervently hope it will be totally cured by next week so we can get done what was intended for tonight.

Matt, Mike, Kevin (3.5 hrs each), Scott (5.5 hr), Zander (photos) | Photos

Sanded down hull and rails, especially the lower edge of the keel strip.  Glassed inboard hull with hardener #2 and overlapped full width of the glass on outboard hull.  Kevin did precision surgery on overlapped glass at keel/bow joint and on forward corner of skeg base.  Matt bought us righteous pizza!   Mike stayed up late before his Chicago trip.  And Zander and Matt got some pix of Scott, who was thereby inspired to stay up late, trim the green edges, and roll on a second coat of epoxy.

M&M get dusty

Scott (4 hr), Thomas (3.5 hr), Mike (3 hr), Matt (3 hr), Kevin (1 hr) | Photos

Biggest turnout in a long while meant we really blazed through the work, as well as the beer and Halloween candy.  Thanks to one and all.

Moved starboard hull out to driveway and port hull into garage.  Formed the keel, bow and skeg.  Sanded down the hull sides and parts of the rail, mostly using 40-60 grit (Thomas trick was to use cut belt sander with one on each side to strop the keel and get a nice round, symmetrical curve.  Rolled 1 coat of S1 on both sides of hull (as outboard ply was pretty dry with raised grain).  Recovered outside from VOC brain liquidation.  Glassed keel with 15cm tape.  Filled miscellaneous divots and outboard stitch holes.

Next time we should be ready for the big glassing job — sheathing the port hull!  We’ll also try to straighten the skeg and reinforce it with carbon fiber.