Got over to the shop Sunday night to work on the boat a little. Biggest goals of the evening were to remove the plastic sheeting covering the epoxy patches on the hull exterior, assess & sand the ends of the gunwales where I have been filling with epoxy, and if they are ready, to oil the gunwale ends at the same time as putting on another coat of oil on the rails.
Well, the patches turned out pretty good. Using the popsicle stick as a squeegee of sorts worked well, the patches don’t have as much of a noticeable transition between hull and patch. The biggest patch will need a little more work, but that’s mostly due to my using multiple sheets of plastic to get the job done. The gunwale ends look good too. They required a fair amount of sanding to get the gunwales out from the epoxy, however. I wanted to leave the shop about 10:30 but because of what I was doing I didn’t get away until closer to 11PM. The gunwales got their first wet sand using the oil… I lightly sanded the whole undersides & sides with 180 grit then after dry wiping I brushed on a coat of oil, taking the time to go over the gunwale ends a couple times. The end grain didn’t wick up the oil as much as I thought it might, perhaps this is due to the epoxy work & the grain sucking up resin? After the undersides were oiled I flipped the boat over & put into the cradles so I could apply a coat of oil to the topsides. After going around the whole boat a couple times I came back with a clean piece of 180 grit and after applying a little bit of oil to the paper I rubbed the wet visible surfaces with the paper. Without wiping off the oil I went through and brushed on another coat of oil all around.
I also remembered to bring pipe cleaners this time so I could go around and really coat the interior of all the thwart & seat hanger holes.
Next up – Lightly sand the big interior kevlar patch to remove high spots and remove gloss, fair the hull exterior, keep the project moving forward.
Won’t get another chance to work on it until April.