Getting back to Somerledi's starboard hull was the focus for today's work - getting the hull ready for its first application of barrier coat. The work thus far, as had been on the port hull, was to remove the existing layers of ablative anti-foul paint, grind out revealed blisters (deep and shallow) to good glass, and then fill and fair these locations with and without layers of 1708 biaxial fiberglass - depth of laminate damage dependent.

I began with my usual water-wash (light scrubbing) with a Scotchbrite pad to remove the amine blush from the cured epoxy-based filler applied to the blister repair areas. After the Florida temps quickly dried the hull, I immediately got started with the 5" ROS and 80-grit disks to bring the areas into fair with the balance of the hull. The sanding is always the bulk of the time, yet a necessary endeavor! After water rinsing the hull, I thoroughly wiped the hull with acetone to ready for additional next steps. With a latex glove and a marking pencil, I went over the recently skim coated repairs areas to check for any required touch up work...and noted about a dozen of the several hundred locations needing another skim coat. I circled these with the pencil, and then prepped myself to apply the final skim coat. The application was West System epoxy thickened with 410 micro-light, applied with a squeegee as per usual.

With the previously worked shallow grinds - those blisters removed in just the outer layer or two of laminate - skim coated, I turned to the roughly 5% remaining blister repairs areas. This small remaining bucket of work included roughly 30 deeper grinds, requiring layers of 1708 biaxial cloth, as well as shallow grinds requiring just the thickened epoxy. I started with filling the shallow divots, or grinds, using West System epoxy thickened with a combination of 406 colloidal silica and 407 low-density fairing filler. All of the remaining work was in the aft ~6-feet of the hull, and with the shallow areas now addressed, I then moved to the more obvious and deeper repair areas.

As mentioned, these deeper repairs numbered roughly 30 and required applying fiberglass to build them out to a point at which fairing compound could be applied. My approach is to pattern each of the uniquely shaped repair locations, and I do this patterning with clear plastic sheeting and a marker (numbering them and notating application orientation. I set up a work station off the shop truck's tailgate and set to work. The effort was only challenged by blustery wind conditions, forcing me to weight any lightweight materials down (most of what I was working with!) in order to avoid chasing them around the yard. I managed to work all 30+ locations, finishing them with a layer of peel ply to aide in reducing sanding work prior to applying fairing filler. I also secured a layer of biaxial cloth on the larger repair on the lower portion of the rudder, also finished in peel ply. A bit more fairing to come, and then barrier coat to the starboard hull, as well as subsequent coats to the entirety of Somerledi's bottom.

Total Hrs: 7.25