Over a couple days in the week, I focused on prepping the fasteners holes for Biscuit's mainsheet and jib T-tracks - the mainsheet to be located on the aft deck and the jib tracks on the cabin top. This drill-fill-and drill process serves to protect the surrounding balsa core should any water find a way into the fastener hole. The first to be worked was the mainsheet traveler T-track, and with the base location marked by tape, a teak piece contoured to the aft deck's camber, I mounted it and secured it with tape to ensure it would not inadvertently move. I used an awl to insert through the fastener holes located in the base to then scratch, or mark, the location on the deck. With all 10 fastener locations transferred to the deck, I used a 3/8" forstner bit to remove the first skin of fiberglass and the interior balsa core, ensuring that I did not penetrate through the bottom layer of fiberglass. I carefully cleaned put the balsa remnants with the awl, and then vacuumed the remaining detritus from the new void. At this pointI taped around the voids to protect the adjacent surfaces from epoxy work.

In the shop, I gathered epoxy materials and mixed a small cup of neat epoxy. With a small brush, I then saturated each of the 10 holes to wet out the glass and balsa to better accept the thickened epoxy to follow. With all 10 holes wet out, I returned to the shop and mixed in West System 404 high-density filler in the remaining epoxy creating a thickened mixture to fill in the voids. I used a medium size syringe to first uptake the thickened mixture, and then carefully filled each hole to nearly the top. I finished by applying a small patch of peel ply to promote a surface ready to work in the next session. I finished this session with sanding, cleaning, and an iterative coat of varnish to the mainsheet traveler base and the motor mount block.

In the more recent work session, I began by removing the peel ply from the recently filled mainsheet traveler fastener voids, offered up a quick sand, and then cleaned the ten fastener locations with acetone, I mixed a small cup of epoxy thickened with 407 low-density filler and squeegeed it on to fair it to the aft deck's surface. I then pivoted to locating the cabin top jib tracks. Using a simple jig comprised of a piece of cardboard and a scrap piece of wood, I located the port side jib track and then reversed the jig for locating the starboard jib track - a mirror image location for both tracks, adjacent to the companionway slide rails. I carefully taped off the cabin top deck in the space the jib tracks would occupy and returned the jib tracks to their future install space. With a sharp pencil, and through the fixe fastener holes of each track, I transferred the fastener location onto the tape. Again with the forstner bit, I removed the top skin of fiberglass and the balsa core. After cleaning and prepping each void, I wet the interior surfaces and applied the 404 filler in the same process, finishing with a small patch of peel ply. The wrapped the day's work.

I did return to the shop Friday, May 1, for weekend work prep and decided to advance the game in order to install all tracks over the weekend, I removed the peel ply, sanded, cleaned with acetone, and then applied the final filler, 407 low-density, to bring the voids into a fair surface with the cabin top. I also managed to get another coat of varnish on the mainsheet T-track traveler base and the motor mount.

Total Hrs: 4