Over the weekend, I applied the first coat of barrier protection to the starboard hull and continued to fair the remaining blister repair areas. On arrival, with a slight drizzle of rail coming down, I got to work water-washing the previously worked areas (those blister locations that were addressed with fairing compound). This water-wash serves to remove the amine blush (wax) that forms on cured epoxy. With this task complete, and rain still coming down, I decided to move into Somerledi's cabin to begin work on removing the original bronze seacocks. I started with the head discharge seacock to port, and found that no thru-mounting machine screws existed!! The seacock quickly became movable about its wooden base block! I climbed out of the cabin to grab some additional tools, and saw that the clouds were now broken and the sun was coming out. I decided to switch back to priority one - getting the bottom barrier paint protected. This was the right decision to make even as it meant more sanding. The sanding was spot in nature - those specific areas that had been filled with thickened epoxy and/or filled with layers of 1708 biaxial cloth. This sanding work ate up a good bit of the time, as always, but it did leave me with a transition to more fill work. Most of the more significant fill work was on the aft third of the hull, with only a final fair coat to apply to select locations on the forward two-thirds of the hull.

Prior to the application of fairing filler, I taped around the work areas requiring more time and effort because my next task was to apply the first coat of barrier paint to the starboard hull. I masked the water line after cleaning it with acetone, and then mixed 24 ounces of combined parts A and B of the Total Boat barrier paint. I painted back to the remaining third of the hull, and between an approaching storm and the sheer number of areas where additional fairing filler was to be applied, forcing me to paint in an inefficient manner, I decided to not mix an additional pot of barrier coat paint. The storm forced me to wrap up work for the day.

My earnest desire to transition to the seacocks had me back at Somerledi after Sunday services to complete the small amount of spot fairing filler work required before applying the balance of barrier paint to the starboard side of the hull. I applied that fairing filler and then set out for the shop for another project. In the coming weekend, a small amount of spot sanding will lead to a completion of the first coat of barrier paint across all under the waterline surface, and removal of the seaccocks will resume.

Total Hrs: 8