Bottoms Painted / Last Coat of Primer

I'm hoping the end is near for all of the sanding I've been doing. The bottom is painted with six coats of VC Performance Epoxy by Interlux. I bought a gallon kit but a quart kit would have been plenty. This stuff goes on very thin. I recommend roller only for the the first three coats and then roll and tip the final three. This knocks down and fills the orange peel that accumulated during application of the first three coats. Now, I wet sand (without going through the paint) to 800-1000 grit. The result is very smooth. I'm hoping to have top coat on sides of boat finished by New Years.

Deck is Primed, Installing Rudder and Hardware

More Recent Progress on Mist

Eye Spy! This photo shows progress on the rudder blank, companion-way, keel trunk, hatch panel, and fairing the deck.

The rudder will be of the cassette variety. The lower third is tapered. Overall length is 60". I will be laying up the cloth and vacuum bagging it soon. Then I'll be fabricating the cassette.


You may have notice that my two young daughters haven't been in the blog's photos recently. They don't like the dust and have been involved in their own activities. At least they have been leaving notes here and there for me to find.

Mist's Bottom and Sides are Fair

I've been spending a lot of time sanding and I am really happy with how smooth the bottom and sides of the hull have turnout. 

 

I rolled and tipped three coats of epoxy with graphite power additive.  I really like the black too!  I figured the color will give me a good indication of how smooth/straight the hull is and hide the pencil markings on the final layer of fairing compound. A majority of this epoxy will be sanded off at a later date when I final prep for primer and paint.  Now it's time to layout deck hardware and fair the top surfaces.  This should go faster than the time it took me to fair the bottom. I can hope!

I'm Back to Work on Mist

Fairing the hull sides of Mist has begun.

I've had quite a delay in finishing the hull. I had major abdomen surgery a few months ago and am surprised at how much my stomach muscles hurt while sanding the fairing compound. This job may take even longer and for certain I'll be much stronger when I do get to the priming stage. BTY, just prior to smearing fairing compound on the both sides of the hull the boat's weight was 320 pounds.

Hump on the bottom

 Upon looking over the boat bottom I noticed a hump between Frame 89 and 110.  It was noticeably unacceptable when a batten was placed across the top of it.

 The cause of the hump is my failure to pull the center-slot in the bottom panel all the way together way back when I stitched the hull together. Above is a photo of the slot taken from the inside of the boat.

For the fix I cut the joint from Frame 89 to 110 and pulled the bottom down
(the boat is inverted right now) with a few windlass.  See photo below.

 The hump has been pulled down to create a fair line along the bottom.

After the glue cured, the hull is a lot more fair.

Bottoms-up!

Fabrication of the cradle. It's placed right above Frame 89. 

The aft support is right above Frame 169.

 Mist is set aside.

Assembly of the cradle.

All Chiefs and no Indians.

 Three guys on one the stern and me on the bow??

Not the easiest way to carry it.

Turning Mist around and pulling her back into the garage.