My winter projects for this winter and into the new year

 Now we are all looking forward t​o the new year and carrying on with the projects we put to bed for the Christmas break. It is now time to dust off the sheets and uncover the boats and get to grips with the boat job lists on the work in the workshop and out in yard. The main job at the moment that needs most of my time is sanding down the decks which were filled with epoxy filler before the Christmas break and now needs finishing off so that I can move on to the next stage on the deck repairs, which is to do the second layer of filling to get the deck to a flat and uniform shape with the correct camber.

There is other work is being done on the Morgan Giles 30 other than the epoxy filler is curing off on the decks , one major jobs is to make a custom shaped GRP water tank to fit under the new bunk in the main cabin which is a custom shape that the owner as design to make the best use of the space in the main cabin. there is going to be a fair bit of brainstorming of ideas to best workout the best way to make the plug and then make the tank to as close to the maximum size available to fit inside the space available to fit the new tank.

Some of the other jobs in the workshop that need working on, the Picnic boat and its ongoing refit which is at a stage where major parts are going into the boat, such as the plywood fronts and tops for the aft seating, an engine box surround and top, plywood sub deck which after they are laid down will have a thin mahogany laid deck glued over the sub deck which will have white seams. Other jobs on the picnic boat are to fit the fuel tank and make the aft locker into a usable space. The space under the two remain thwarts will be made into lockers as well. After the floorboards are made and fitted down in place. Then there will be the engine alignment and finish fitting the stern tube and making the keel to fit round the external part of the stern tube to protect it from damage.

Once all the work is done of the boat, it will be time to repaint the boat in the owners colours and modify the trailer to fit the new underwater design of the boat. However, that is a few months into the future before we have to think about that stage.

The another job in the workshop is the 8ft. GRP dinghy which now as the major hull repairing done. There are a number of small grp hull repairs that still need to be done before any painting of the outside of hull. Other jobs on the dinghy are to make a new aft seat/buoyancy locker, make a new centre thwart as the old thwart was missing and a new pair of gunwales and inwales and rowlock blocks to fit the new rowlocks in and finally a new pair of oars made to fit the dinghy. When the boat is finally finished off and it is painted and varnished, then the deck fittings will be fitted and then the dinghy will ready for the new season.

Other work jobs in the workshop is to do grp repairs to a Mark I Lotus Europa while its owner is working on chassis. The grp repairs are in a number of different places all over the bodywork so it is going to be interesting work.

So the first few months of the year are going to be busy.

The first part of the sanding the foredeck and down both sides decks to as far as the cockpit

The old chain locker top needs a little more filling apart from that the rest of the foredeck just a bit of fine area filling 

The side deck have flatten off quiet well and just a bit of fine area filling needed in a few places 

The same with the port side deck 

A bit more sanding after the second filling of the areas which were not filled on the first round of filling 

Just the cockpit and the aft deck to do and back to filling and fairing again, however, this time not so much filling to be done.

 

So the sanding keeps going on

The decks are getting smoother and the places that need extra filling have shown up now the first fillings have been sanded back level with the base deck level

A new tool is making the flatting off a all better as it covers a better long area and is good at flatting larger areas 

Good progress being made along the side decks

 

So the fairing of the deck begins

The first part of the deck fairing is getting the high parts of the thickened epoxy down to a reasonable level all over the deck with a DA Sander and then board sander the rest until you get an even surface

A long thankless task working on your knees 

Using a vacuum to keep the dust levels down to a minimum 

 

Starting to fill and then fair hull

 The main areas for filling are the areas round the fixing bolts for the glassed in chain plates 

Then the other areas are scratches and holes in the gelcoat where the boat as be knocked in the past.

Just few in the bow area on the starboard side  

and in the area under the counter in the aft end of the hull.

 

Other projects in the workshop getting a make over in the run up to Christmas

The picnic boat foredeck with the capping to be half lapped over the plywood and so the edges of the plywood are hidden and the edges of the plywood are sealed under the gunwale capping 

The aft end now looking more like a picnic area with the seat framework in place and now that needs cladding with plywood on the fronts and plywood lids made for the tops so the seats can be used for storage when it is in use.

The 8ft. dinghy now turned over so that the bottom of the hull can be sorted and any damage repairs before it is given a coat of hi build epoxy paint to seal the surface of the GRP hull

 

Filling damage in deck of the Morgan Giles 30and then the sanding back can begin back to a fair deck

Clean the deck down and then mix up the epoxy and filler powder and apply to the deck 

the foredeck

Port side side deck

Starboard side deck

Another angle of the aft end of the fore deck

Forward end of starboard side deck

Cockpit seats and aft end of side decks 

Then finally the aft end of the cockpit seating area and the aft deck

Then the fun starts with the sanding down of the filler to get the deck smooth again before painting it again with a second coat of hi build epoxy primer.

 

Breathing new life into an old dinghy

Now the structural repairs have been done and the hull is now in one piece again the other work can be done to bring her back to life. 

The hull repairs where the hull was spilt have been re-gelcoated and fibreglassed over the areas to restore the hull strength and a new keel infill has been glassed in position 

There were a few places around the top of the hull which needed reinforcing and that was done at the same time

Now it is the turn of the outside of the hull to get sorted out with a number of areas that need a bit of patch repairs and the hull will get a couple coats of hi build epoxy primer and then a complete repaint and then the gunwales and seats will be refitted and in the case of the aft seat a new seat will be moulded to replace the damaged aft seat which was taken out earlier in the restoration.

The areas which need filling and fairing with epoxy filler.

 

The Morgan Giles 30 undertaking a colour change

The Morgan Giles 30 before it was painted with Epoxy Hi Build Primer and after being wiped down with Panel wipe to degrease the surface to ensure the primer adheres to the surface

Halfway round the boat 

The port side now coated with the epoxy primer 

The forward end of the Starboard side 

Then the aft end, now just got to let it cure off and then start the marking out of the areas that need filling and fairing 

Preparing the hull for its first coat of hi-build epoxy primer

After all the hull was sanded back to a good keyed finish it was time to wash the hull down with panel wipe with virgin paper towel to get rid of any dust on the hull surface.

Making sure to clean the area under the toe rail and along the waterline to ensure both areas are clean and free of any contamination. 

 

Making replacement Hardy Fishing 20 rope fender support rails

Having cut the rails out of a board of Mahogany it is time to plane and sand the rails 

With all the rope fender support rails, I plane a flat edge to help stop the edge from breaking out and it helps the edge from breaking when in place on the boats hull

 

Hand planing the rails as this is the best way to get a smooth finish on the faces of the rails 

The hardest job getting the top edge on the hull clean of sealant so the paint will adhere to the hull

The hardest job is getting rid of the sealant off the top of the hull under the toe rail so that when the boat is painted with Hi-Build epoxy primer it adheres to the hull

Masking up the toe rail to protect it from being marked while cleaning out the sealant 

The same treatment along the boot up line, masking the hull up to protect the Gelshield epoxy treatment on the hull.

 

Back on the Morgan Giles 30

 Having had a week away doing my own boat in the North West of England, it was time to come back to continue on with the preparations for repainting the hull, having before I went away, I, DAed sanded the main part of the Hull to key up the surface of the hull to apply the hi-build epoxy primer too. It was time to sort out the waterline area and the toe rail region. The waterline was a straightforward job. However, the toe rail area was a different job. 

Because of the construction  of the deck to hull was a lip joint, that is to say that the hull as a lip that run the whole length of the hull and is 3 inches wide so that the deck/cabin moulding sits on the lip and is bolted through the flange with M10 bolts and nyloc nuts and large penny washers after it is bedded down on a sealant compound to make it watertight. It then had an aluminium toe rail itself bolted through the deck joint for good measure. 

This then left a gap between the toe rail and the hull which needs to be cleaned out so that when the epoxy primer is applied to the hull under the toe rail it will adhere to the hull and not be contaminated with any remaining sealant in the gap between the toe rail and the hull. 

So this is the job I am undertaking at the moment a bit of a slow however necessary job to ensure the paint adheres to the hull.

Once I have finished that job it will be on to the decks to apply thickened epoxy to the deck where there are areas of damage gelcoat which has already had a first coat of hi-build epoxy primer applied too, So that once the thickened epoxy as cured the whole deck can be recoated with the second coat of Hi-build epoxy primer and any small areas can be filled and fair until we have smooth and fair deck once more. 

So tomorrow it is back to the toe rail to hull joint and continue to clean out the gap until I have done the whole of the joint.  

The port side of the hull is now sanded as well, just the transom to do when the boat is pulled forward off the side of the workshop

A happy man now that the first sanding down is finished and the edges can be sanded by hand both top and bottom edges

Now the long hand sanding starts with sanding down the areas that you can not do by machine 

There is going to be a fair amount of filling and fairing to be done on both sides