Having removed the thru-hulls and seacocks the week earlier, it was time to patch up the hull and get the surface back to fair for an eventual placement of new thru-hulls and new seacocks with base flanges. I began the day by water-washing the dished out areas as well as the old thru-hull locations that had been tapered with the grinder and flap disc. I had skim coated a few locations with thickened epoxy to fill in dry laminate containing voids - a result of poor fiberglass layup from the factory....it happens. With the work areas water-washed, I lightly sanded them to create some "tooth" for the approaching epoxy work to bite into.

The first step was to template the areas for new fiberglass. In the case of the thru-hulls, I ended up with 4 separate patches, each a bit larger than the other; the other, smaller dished out areas on the bottom held one to two patches a piece. Some plastic sheeting and a Sharpie served as the templating tools, and templates were made for each of the areas that required new fiberglass. I took the templates back into the shop and applied them to a roll of 1708 biaxial cloth, cutting out each of the more of less concentric circles for those repair areas requiring more than one layer of cloth. I set the layers of cloth onto a work surface awaiting epoxy to wet them out.

Back on the boat, I solvent-washed the surface of the areas to be worked, returned to the shop and mixed a pot of epoxy to then apply to the surfaces of the hull requiring work and then to wet out the cloth layers themselves. With the cloth wet out, I returned to Biscuit's bottom and applied them in their correct orientations and then finished them off with a layer of peel ply. A couple rookie cuts of peel ply required taping the material to the hull, but was probably best giving the gusting winds tunneling under the barn.

With the bottom tucked away until next steps, I turned my attention to the area on the poop deck where the motor mount deck plate is installed. I imagined the core around the where the deck plate is mounted might be wet, or damaged from at one time being wet. I also wanted to install a solid fiberglass core in this area to strengthen where the motor mount deck plate is installed and prevent future issues that result from water ingress. So with that in mind, I grabbed the oscillating tool and removed a portion of the poop deck at the immediate location of and around the motor mount deck plate. I did in fact see signs of water damage and was happy with the decision to move forward with this repair.

I cleaned up the work area and templated for layers of 1708 biaxial cloth to serve as the new core. I removed the individual layers, 10 buy the time I was finished cutting fiberglass. I taped up the old fastener holes from the underside of the bottom skin, using the access plate just aft of the tiller head. With a small amount of thickened epoxy and after wetting out the work surfaces and edges of exposed core, I applied a skim coat of this thickened epoxy to fill minor gaps and prepare for the installation of the fiberglass cloth. Next, I applied epoxy to the layers of glass and then began setting them into void, building up the solid core. All in, I applied nine layers of cloth to bring the new core to on plane with the bottom of the top skin of fiberglass. I applied a runny thickened epoxy to fill the small voids around the perimeter of the new core and existing balsa core - this was ~1/16" at most. Happy with the new solid fiberglass core, I finished it off with a layer of peel ply. Later, I would grind a taper to accept the new top skin, and fair the surface with multiple applications of thickened epoxy - the typical 406/407 combo.

Total Hrs: 5.5