Back on Somerledi and working against the weather clock since rain was called for later in the afternoon, I began with a quick water-wash on the port side to remove the amine blush on a handful of repair areas that needed some additional fairing. The majority of the port side received its first application of barrier coat last week, and these handful of spots are what remains of the port side repairs. A second coat of barrier paint will come after sanding these spots. Using the 5" orbital, I quickly brought these faired spots down, the other handful of areas that received fiberglass patches and peel ply were then skim coated with thickened epoxy fairing filler. I switched gears and switched hull sides to begin on filling and repairing the starboard blisters that had been ground out.

I started at the bow, washing a section at a time with acetone, mixed "neat" epoxy to wet out the repairs areas and then came back with a first round of thickened fairing filler - West System epoxy thickened with 406 colloidal silica and 407 low-density fairing filler. Using a squeegee, I pressed this thickened compound into the shallow divots. I worked my way towards the stern of Somerledi, applying the same process to bring these ground out blisters into fair with the balance of the hull surface. I worked around the deeper blister repairs, as these require the application of 1708 biaxial fiberglass patches.

In the end, weather came and so I had to wrap it up for the day. I applied a crude drip edge made of tape to clear water coming from the deck scupper and running down onto the bottom sides of Somerledi. The first round of fairing filler was applied to a good 80% of the blisters, so good progress was made prior to the rail setting in. A brief visit tomorrow afternoon should net a quick sanding on the port hull and a complete first application of barrier coat before heading to the shop for another job.

Total Hrs: 5.25