Continuing the weekend effort, I arrived with at least a portion of the items required to move the ball down the field: bottom paint and a few fasteners. I began the day by pulling a 12-24 fastener from inventory to serve as a measure to ensure that I was about to order the correct length machine screws, and then headed over to Biscuit. I also carried the bottom paint with me, having had it stored at home in a climate controlled environment.

I grabbed a few tools and headed to the foredeck. I began by pre-drilling the foredeck cleat holes in order to tap them for #12-24 machine screws, cleaned up the dust and then tapped them to accept the required fasteners. I then carefully placed the one stainless steel fastener in place, serving as a proxy for the future bronze fasteners, and screw it through the freshly tapped threads. With the cleat in place, I went below with the backing plate to see what length #12-24 screw I would need. As it was, the 1.5" length #12-24 stainless steel machine screw was the proper length, so will be ordered later today. Before cleaning up the foredeck and staging the cleat and its backing plate, I countered the fastener openings to allow space for bedding compound to help seal the fasteners.

My next task was installation of the mast step, having just acquired the fasteners to do so. I began by countering the fasteners locations, and vacuuming the dust created. With a quick acetone wipe down, I then gathered the mast step, fasteners, Sikaflex polysulfide bedding compound, and clean up materials. I first threaded the fasteners in place, allowing a portion of the screws to extend below the plane of the mast step base to assist me in locating their entries into the coachroof. Next, I liberally applied the Sikaflex 291-lot to the base of the mast step and just underneath the screw heads and placed the mast step onto the coachroof. With a Philips head screwdriver, I sunk the fasteners into the freshly tapped threads and then proceeded to clean up the ample squeeze out of the Sikaflex.

With the mast step completed, I turned my attention to completing the bottom paint - completing the antifoul paint up to the bottom edge of the boot stripe. The previous day's work held most of the hard work: tapping off the line, sanding the surface, and then wiping down with acetone. I unsealed the can of bottom paint and used a mixer wand to reincorporate the paint additives. With a standard house roller, a 4" roller, I applied the bottom paint. All went on well, and I finished by removing the tape.

My final task for the day was to flip the coaming boards for the outboard surface to receive it first lightly thinned coat of varnish. More coats to come prior to final installation in Biscuit's cockpit.

Total Hrs: 2.25