This Sunday afternoon in late January would be dedicated to the not so fun grinding of the old fiberglass surfaces, preparing for the new material was the silver lining within the process. The port and starboard backing plates to replace the mild steel would be G-10 fiberglass, and so the underside of the hull flange would need to be sanded to provide a great mechanical bonding surface for the 1708 biaxial cloth and the G-10 plate itself. The first photo is looking up into the tight slot that would eventually be home to the new backing plates - securing the sidestep and lower shrouds, both port and starboard. Since access was tight here, I used the Makita 9031 belt sander. At just over and inch wide, the Makita finger sander is good for accessing less than ideal places.
With the boat yoga session finished, I moved on to sand the hull sides - the hull access was gained by cutting out a section of the interior liner within the salon, as well as widening access spaces in both the head (to port) and a hanging locker (to starboard). Securing the various mast wires and grounding wires proved challenging, but a few pieces of tape offered a third hand, and the sanding was completed.
I finished up most of the sanding in the interior of the boat before the Makita 80-grit belt gave way, forcing me on to other aspects of the project. I accessed an online merchant and set in process an order of more belts, and then moved out to the cockpit to gain access to the lazarette locker. The backstay backing plate and supportive knees were also being replaced, and so I took the time to template the port and starboard knees with a couple pieces of cardboard. Back in the shop, I would transfer the shapes to fresh G-10 material and use a jigsaw to cut them out. This work completed my time on Doryen for the day.

Total Hrs: 3.75