Over the last couple of days, the installation projects are beginning to gain in momentum, and the immediate focus was to complete the foredeck cleat and the taff rail. I also managed to clean up, sand, and varnish the interior starboard fiddles for the v-berth and quarter berth. Biscuit will be moved back to the pole barn in the coming couple of weeks, so focus on getting her buttoned up is taking priority.

In previous work sessions, I had drilled and tapped for the foredeck cleat fasteners, bronze #12-24 machine screws, and had fabricated the G-10 backing plate for the cleat. My work now focused on marking and drilling for the fasteners to pass through the backing plate. I grabbed the appropriate drill bill and opened those holes up in the backing plate. At the same time, I sanded the backing plate, top and bottom, to bring the thickness down to what was needed - this was done with the ROS and 60-grit disks. I cleaned up the components, as well as the deck, to prep for application of Sikaflex 291 bedding compound. With the compound applied, I placed the foredeck cleat into position and threaded the machine screws into place by hand. After applying a bit of Sikaflex to the upper portion of the threads of each screw, I drove them home with a screwdriver to tighten the cleat onto the deck. Next, I grabbed the backing plate, the Sikaflex, and washer and nuts and went below to complete the installation. I placed the backing plate into position and secured it with washers and nuts on each of the four machine screws. Installation was finished by wiping up the squeeze out.

My next task was the tafff rail. With it weighted in place, I used a forstener bit to open up the location of 16 fasteners. The 3/8" bit will have a screw driven into it and then covered with a wood plug, or bung. After drilling out for the bungs, I drove a small pilot bit through the center of each opening and into the deck below in order to mark the location for further work on the deck. I removed the taff rail, and pre-drilled for a combination of wood screws and machine screws. The forward fasteners will be #10-24 machine screws with washers and backing nuts; the aft row of fasteners will be wood screws - the access to the aftermost fasteners was minimal if nonexistent due to the resin glue squeeze out used to adhere the deck to the hull.

After pre-drilling all fastener holes, I then tapped the forward holes for the #10-24 machine screws. I finished the prep by tapering the holes to accept additional Sikaflex 2901-lot bedding compound, to create a water-tight penetration. I cleaned up the surfaces.with acetone and then applied a liberal amount of Sikaflex. I threaded one screw into the taff rail, revealing about an 1/8" of the screw head, and carefully placed the rail into position and indexing the screw head in its eventual home. I worked from the centerline to outboard, alternating machine screw and wood screw as I went and removing the assisting weights at the same time. I removed the squeeze out and cleaned the surfaces of the final trace amounts of Sikaflex. That would be a wrap for the shop today due to. my son's baseball game.

Back at home, I moved to work on the interior fiddles for the starboard v-berth and quarter berth. I cleaned them and sanded them fair to remove old bedding compound, paint, and grime, After cleaning them with acetone, I applied a thinned coat of varnish to soak into the wood grain. A couple more varnish coats will complete these pieces.

Total Hrs: 5.75