After returning from some out of state family matters, I was back on Somerledi Saturday, the 26th of September. At this point 4 of the 7 thru hulls have been nearly prepped for installation of the new TruDesign seacocks and thru hulls - leaving just the three engine room hull penetrations to address. Before getting to the engine room thru hulls, I grabbed my templating materials and tools and set out for the anchor locker. The shelf currently in place in the anchor locker was a bare piece of plywood, weathered and warped, and not fitting as it should. I removed the old shelf, tossing overboard, and then removed the one remaining cleats that the shelf was meant to rest upon. I inserted a fresh glue stick into the glue gun and then prepped the templating wood - creating varying lengths of narrow strips of door skin. I found, more or less, the height at which to create the template and attached a couple small blocks of wood for temporary rests. I then proceeded to template the shape of the hull within the anchor locker, recreating what would soon be a properly built and installed anchor locker shelf. After completing the template, I carefully removed it to a safe spot and continued on to other tasks.

I headed to the cockpit and removed the large Bomar hatch to gain access to the engine room. With acetone, I cleaned the previously sanded surfaces around where the original seacocks lived. Back inside Somerledi's cabin, I prepared two discs for each of the three hull penetrations. The fiberglass is 1708 biaxial cloth cut into circles, one being roughly a 1/2" larger in diameter than the other. I mixed a pot of West System epoxy and wet out the hull, and then applied the discs of biaxial cloth to each of the hull penetrations. I completed this task by applying peel ply to each of the worked surfaces.

Climbing back to the ground, I prepped the hull exterior around the hull penetrations by hand-sanding. After cleaning with acetone, I then applied a skim coat of epoxy thickened with West System's 410 microlight. The skim coat was meant to fill small surface anomalies created in the process of cutting out the bronze skin fittings. Prior to leaving for the evening, I secured a tarp over the cockpit to prevent rain water from spilling into the engine room - having had to remove the drain hoses to perform the glass work.

Sunday afternoon I was back at Somerledi to remove the tarp, remove the peel ply, and open the hull penetrations back up with a hole saw. I reinserted the drain lines at this point. Before heading for the shop, I took time to reinstall the anchor locker shelf template in order to attach some additional dimensioning guides. I unloaded tools and materials, and placed the anchor locker shelf template on the recently purchased piece of sanded oak ply.

Monday evening I was back in the shop to transfer the anchor locker template to the fresh plywood piece. After accommodating for hoses and other considerations, I removed the dimensioned shelf from the plywood stock. No doubt that additional shaping will be required for the final. fit, but I did want to lay up a layer of 1708 biaxial onto the top surface of the new shelf. After taking measurements, I removed a large piece from my stock and prepared the surface of the shelf by cleaning it with acetone. I mixed a pot of West System epoxy to first wet out the plywood, followed by laying the fiberglass over the surface. With a foam roller, I worked the epoxy into the weave to ensure good coverage, followed by work out any trapped air with a fin roller. I finished with a layer of peel ply and then closed the shop for the evening.

Tuesday evening I was back at the shop to remove the peel ply and clean up the edges of the anchor locker shelf, trimming the fiberglass overage flush to the shelf dimensions. At this point, I was at a point where I needed to be back on Somerledi for additional work to the shelf. So I turned my attention to prepping the new 1/4" sheet of G-10 material by sanding off the glossy factory finish and ready it for epoxy work. That completed, I set the G-10 to the side and pulled out the new TruDesign seacocks and thru hulls to prepare myself for installation. I took measurements of the skin fittings and bases of the seacocks to both ensure proper fit at the individual hull penetrations as well as to create the correct diameter G-10 base plates. Through the process I discovered that the cockpit scupper skin fittings will need to be opened up a bit since their diameter is slightly larger than the bronze originals. I order the proper diameter hole saw for this effort. This completed that last four days of work on Somerledi.

Total Hrs: 11.5