Cabin sole glued down, glassing port settee

I ran the sole hatches over the jointer, creating a slight rabbet around the edges to accommodate the thickness of the epoxy and paint coatings that will go on these and the hatch supports.  I don't want them proud of the rest of the sole. 

So they should sit just about right. 

I mixed up a batch of boat fare and fared in the area around the cockpit drain exit in the transom.  For some reason I don't have a picture of that.  I like this fairing compound.  Mix till green.  Smear on.  

 And we're finally ready to glue the sole down. I spread it on both the floors and the bottom of the sole.

I didn't use mechanical fasteners - just epoxy thickened with wood flour. 

 I used a notched trowel to spread it on both the floors and the underside of the sole. 

And there it is, looking just like it did three weeks ago, pretty much.  But this time it's staying. 

I began fairing in the sole to the areas where it runs into the hull.  Phenolic micro balloons mostly in the epoxy mix.  I actually want this to droop and self level. 

 I glassed in the port settee bits and pieces where it meets the hull.  

 Two layers of 1708 on everything, pretty much.

 And sanded and put a second coat fairing the sole in.

 And that's about it.  It was a busy three days.  

 

 Oh.  I also flew Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, and Wednesday afternoon.  Which takes a bit of time out of the workday - totally worth it.  I had some lovely flights. 

Cockpit drain and Cabin Soles, continued

 

 I ground /sanded/ shaped the opening and exit of the cockpit drain, rounding over the edges with about a 1/4" to 1/2" radius and sanding off the gel coat about 2 inches around.  I cut some strips of 6 oz glass cloth on 45 degree bias and covered the edges with about two layers.  The bias cut strips conformed very easily to the compound curves.  I'm happy with the outcome.

 The outside looks pretty good, too.  Eventually this will get covered with a flapper gate to reduce water running up into the boat the wrong way in a following sea or chop.

The galley bilge got a second coat of primer.  I had waited beyond the 72 hours specified, so it needed a light sanding first.  I'm not sure I did the best job of that because I really hate sanding all those odd spaces.  But hey, it's just the bilge. 

 The sole hatch support frames got two coats of epoxy.

And rest of the day was spend laying out, cutting out, and framing out the galley bilge hatches.  I put in two - one was able to stay on the center line and match up with the other four in the salon: 18 inches long and 8 inches wide.  

Well, almost 8 inches wide.  Because of the toe kick and odd angles around the galley counter the forward section of the galley sole was made in two pieces.  The joint of the those piece was almost perfect for the hatch side, but it wanders a little away from exactly fore and aft.  Like, 1/4 inch.  So the forward side of the hatch is slightly wider than the aft. I don't think it will be noticeable.  

Salon Sole Hatches and other items

 

I started the day with two lovely flights over fields greening and forests just bud breaking. Delightful. Landed on my feet both times, so yay me.  My PPgPS app hasn't been working correctly, so I didn't get a record of my tracks.  Oh well. 

The big work today was for the salon sole hatches.  I cut them out, built frames for them to rest on, and installed the frames.  

I'm a little concerned about the second from the foreground - the jigsaw blade got a bit askew during the cut, so I had to sand the hole and the hatch piece significantly to get the edges back to perpendicular - it may be that the hatch is now too small for the hole.  

I rounded over everything with a 1/8" radius router bit.  It's a tiny roundover, yes, but I don't want a big gap around these to collect more dirt.  It is a sole, after all. 

I also cut the cockpit drain tube flush both inside the cockpit and out on the transom.  

 I slapped a little leftover fairing compound around some gaps in the cockpit side.  Next comes rounding over these edges somehow, and running some glass from inside the tube out over the cockpit and transome.  I'm thinking just two layers of 10 oz glass cloth cut on bias, maybe 3-4 inches into the tube and onto the transom and cockpit liner.  This isn't for strength so much as smoothing the entry and exit nicely.  Make it all pretty kinda.

I also cut the outside  of the head / nav station 45 degree bulkhead angle flush, rounded it some, and glassed it in with a strip of 1708 on each corner.  It's really starting to come together. 

Bilge Paint, Cockpit Drain Install, Sole Work - Part II

 A cold and rainy day, but progress.

The tabbing on the galley floors was cured enough to sand the entire area.  It was cramped work and I used four types of sanders to get at all the spots.  But it's ready for primer.

I also laid out the hatches on the bottom of the cabin sole.  I'm doing things a little out of order - I should probably have done this before I painted - now I have to sand the paint off the edges of the hatches for the hatch supports.  It turns out all four hatches can be 18 inches long by 9 inches wide.  And each on has an end that lands on a floor, which saves a tiny bit of support infrastructure work.  I'm deciding how I'm going to secure them down - gravity's good, but mechanical fastening is better. 

 I sanded and ground into shape the remaining bits for the cockpit drain tube.  It was as uncomfortable as I imagined, but I had a full face shield / particulate mask and ear muffs on so it had a spacewalk feel to it.  It turns out I can fit my entire body into the lazarette.  I think I've lost weight. 

Back in the cabin - the galley bilge is primed.

And back in the lazarette, the cockpit drain tube is glassed in. Whoot!  I'm taking the next three days off for fun and games.  My back and knees say I've earned it. 

Bilge Paint, Cockpit Drain Install, Sole Work

A few very productive days if I do say so myself.  And this is with me going for a 20 minute paramotor flight on Tuesday afternoon. I'd have stayed in the sky longer, but my hands got cold, my left should started to complain at keeping my hands on the break toggles, and I'm not yet comfortable enough to just stow the toggles and fly with the throttle and weight shift only.  Soon.  Landed on my arse, too. 

So I'm using this stuff in the bilge.  I used it already in the chain locker and it cured well enough given time and over primer.  

However, I noticed this.  I'm not sure why it's so "For Metal Substrates Only."  It's not something chemical, as far as I can think of.  So it's probably that the paint doesn't flex very well and so isn't great for surfaces that contract/expand much, or dent easily.  Anyway, I'm using it.

I like the bright yellow color; I'm not sure why most people paint their bilges that sad grey.  It'll be like a burst of sunshine whenever I open an access hole.

The cockpit is getting a heavy weather oh shit we've been pooped drain.  That's the cutout just above the sole. 

First I had to plug up some ugliness at the bottom of the lazarette.  Filled with fairing mix, I'll put a piece of glass over it later. 

This is the only bulkhead remaining from the original construction.  I didn't see a reason to replace it, though the work is pretty messy.  That gap in the plywood here just doesn't even make sense. 

This is the other side of the gap - looking forward from inside the lazarette.  In order to glass the tube in solidly, I need to tidy this up a bit to make a better landing area for the 1708 tape.

I made the tube 9" x 3" ID cross section to really get the water out of the cockpit fast.  I made the tube out of fiberglass wrapped around a plastic downspout cut in half and separated by two pieces of luan doorskin.

You can just barely see on the right the cleanup work on the bulkhead.  This is a day later when things are ready for installation.

This was pretty straightforward except that in order to glass the bottom aft portion, I was working upside down with most of my body stuffed into the lazarette opening. The little area between the tube and the existing centerline stiffener is touchy - I'll let what I've done so far cure, then come back to grind it clean and finish up.

This is that pesky underside.  I'll have to grind a little of the side tabbing off here, too, before painting.   You can bet that will be fun, with my face two inches away, upside down.

And here's it sticking out the transom.

You can see right into the companion way.  

I got a second coat on the bilge and a first coat on the bottom of the sole. 

Epoxy coating the aft sections on of the sole

The aft three floors glassed in.

And finally, the funky corner piece in the head that will provide the surface for the grab rail near the nav station.  Cut, tacked, and glassed.

Glassing in the floors

 

Turning back to the interior, the weather was finally warm enough to start epoxy work again.  I glassed in the fiberglass I-beam floors I cut a few months ago.  There's no way they are going to cause any rot issues down there in the bilge.  Not that my boat will have any leaks, of course.  But just in case.

 I scratched my head quite a bit on how strong the floor/hull attachment needed to be.  I'm not actually sure that floor is the correct term for these - they don't provide any structural support for the hull or keel, they are just there for the cabin sole to rest on.  So - strong, but not really strong.  One layer of 1608 tape on each side is what I went with, except on the third floor from the bottom of the image.  There wasn't room on its forward side what with the real floor from the original Pearson construction in the way.  So I went with two layers on the aft side. 

 

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I was actually pretty shocked at how much of a transformation putting a coat of grey primer did for the boat.  After years of seeing that mottled and greenish bilge, the sudden cleanness of the unbroken expanse of flat grey was delightful.  It'll nearly be a shame to cover it all up with the sole.   But I'll get over it. 

And speaking of years - it had been several since I really cleaned up the deck or cockpit.  The layers of grime were disheartening.  

So I spent an hour or two just scrubbing the cockpit with that brush thingy on the vacuum attachment.  Another delightful improvement. I can move around in there without getting all skeeved out.