A good week being by myself again after having to have no apprentices anymore

Although it has been a short week, a lot as been achieved, The bottom of the Morgan Giles 30 as been sanded down and the next coat of Gelshield has been applied so that it can be painted over for the next five days to complete the treatment. Also the last of the plywood was laid to complete that job and filled and sanded down and now the decks on the Finesse 24 are now being sheathed with epoxy and matting and when completed will be primed and then deck painted and all the deck fittings will be re-fixed and then the rubbing strakes and quadrants will be screwed and plugged and varnished up. So all in all a good week.

Sheathing the deck of the Finesse 24 begins with the aft deck section first

The aft deck being laid down, it was the easily place to start has it was fairly flat and good place to start 

With this done the rest can be fitted up to this panel and overlapped on it of the ends of each section 

So the Morgan Giles 30 turned grey after being green

The first of five further coats of Gelshield 200

Green 

Grey

Green

Grey 

Next time it will change back to Green before turning Grey again 

The big sanding is now done, now starts the painting of the Gelshield treatment 6 coats of epoxy paint and a final coat of epoxy primer

It is now finished the big sand and the painting can start over the next six days, one coat a day and then it final coat of epoxy primer 

So it begins, the big sanding off of the filler on the bottom and then the Gelshield treatment

The big sanding off job has begun with the first of the big sanding to get the most of the filler flat and then the fine sanding to finish off this stage  

It is good job it is at working height  and not a motorboat which would be on the ground a lot lower 

The final panels of Plywood fitted to complete the new deck and thefirst coat of thinned varnish on the top plank

The last panels fitted to the foredeck and just needs the screw holes filling and fairing and then put a radius on the edge of the deck and then can start sheathing the deck

The top plank now getting its firat coat of thinned varnish, the first of six going on over the next few days

After a good sanding after removing all the old varnish it as got back its original colour  

The colour is a lot better than the faded varnish the boat came to the yard at the start of the refit

The next big job is to sheath the deck and then refit all the deck fitting back on to the deck over the next few days 

All the first layer is glued down and screwed down in position and three quarters of the second layer is glued down as well

The first layer is now glued down and screwed in place 

The second layer is now also glued down apart for the fore deck section which will be made and glued and screwed down 

All the edges along the top plank are now trimmed and planed to the correct bevel along the top plank to get a radius router bit to put a radius along the edge so that the sheathing will roll over the edge and glue down on to the top part of the top plank to seal the outside edge of the sheathing while the inside edge will have a clean edge for the sheathing to go up the cabin side 

The Finesse 24 deck coming along well with most of the second layer glued in position and getting trimmed

The second layer of marine plywood now glued and screwed down and now the second layers are getting glued down the side decks 

The port side now as two layers as far as the fore deck area 

As does the starboard side as well 

Starting to trim the outside edge and then plan the correct angle on to the router the rounded edge on to put the sheathing over and down the side to go behind the rubbing strakes 

The front part is fitted and now just the piece between the forecabin and the Samson post to fit and then the second layer can be glued down on the foredeck and then the deck can be sheathed 

Refitting the first layer of Marine plywood to the deck of the Finesse 24

Fitting the panel, the aft deck panel 

Fitting it round the cockpit and to the top of the transom

Then came the starboard side deck panels 

All glued down and ready to trim the edges when the glue as cured 

The port side repair well underway 

Repairs to the port side top plank

It started out as a small repair that grew in sides 

In The end it became 24 inches long and over half the plank deep

Now got to the end of the rotten plank and noggins 

Repairs to the port side top plank where water got in and rotted the area round one the stanchion bases

Marking out the area to be repaired

A second section further aft where a piece of the plank is missing

A major step forward with the Morgan Giles 30 the first pair of bulkheads being Glassed in position

The second bulkhead now fitted in position and ready to Glass in position after the second bulkhead was trimmed in the centre to fit the first bulkhead that was glassed in position last week

Clamped in position in the centre and braced against the hull with a clamp that was reversed to push apart the centre and force the bulkhead against the hull to make a good fit 

The first of 8 layers of glass fibre matting to be pull on both sides of the bulkheads

Tomorrow the area under the side deck to the deck head will be glass in and then the other side can be done and then the doorway can cut in the bulkhead. 

Once that is done the second set of bulkheads can be fitted and glassed in position 

Also today the Finesse 24 aft and side deck panel were dry fitted to the deck beams and the under sides were epoxied as request by the yachts owner before they are screwed and glued down into position