Working under Bruce's direction I put in several hours of effort to clean out the perimeter around the large panel that had been poorly fitted in the forward bulkhead and prepare it for filling. It took hours to dig out the sticky Sikaflex using a combination of electric tool, Stanley knife, paint scraper, and rough sandpaper. After that we then laid several coats of Everdure on the sanded bulkhead then Bruce proceeded to fill join with Epiglue, which is peerless in its adhesion and rock solid strength. We then performed several iterations of fairing the entire bulkhead with liberal applications of Megapoxy filler followed by sanding. A lot of filling was required because we wanted to remove any ripples in the bulkhead as well as any evidence that the bulkhead had been filled in with panels. Next came the painting with one coat of No Rust primer followed by one top coat of Northane. I included the painting of the sides of the V-berth (ie forecastle) area. (The ceiling did not need a repaint.) Bruce and I agreed that the result was very good.
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| In center is square panel that I had fitted in Hawaii and was OK |
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| Everdure applied, ready for cleaning and filling |
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| Bruce filling in perimeter with Epiglue |
For days I had been eyeing the sail lockers which did not have an urgent need of repainting particularly because they are usually closed up and full of sails, but presented a golden opportunity given that they were empty and wide open. It was a case of now or never.
It took just over two days to paint the sail lockers: 2 hours of sanding the first day, more sanding and the first coat of No Rust the second day, the Northane top coat the third day. I made the wise choice of using a roller wherever possible which saved several hours of work and resulted in a better result.
In order to repair and repaint the forward bulkhead I had removed as much of the windlass mechanism from the bulkhead as possible. I managed to mount everything back correctly with the aid of sketches and photographs that I had taken, but a test was required. I could not do the test that afternoon because Bruce's wife Dolfie had parked her car directly under the bow of the boat and our relationship would have been somewhat strained had I dropped my anchor on her bonnet. But early the next day I successfully lowered and raised the anchor from the cockpit. I raised the last few feet of chain using the foot switch at the bow and when the anchor hit the roller everything went dead. I went below and saw that the breaker had thrown, which was good. It means not only that the windlass is protected from overload but also that I would be able to raise the anchor from the cockpit without fear of damage if I misjudged the raising.
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| Perimeter filled in with Epiglue |
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| Bulkhead coated with Megapoxy filler |
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| Forecastle work finished |
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