So here's the week in review. In my last post, I had the coaming roughed in. The next step was to trim it down to the right height - 3/4" - and sand it down. In the pictures below you will see the deck sanded as well.
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Coaming trimmed and sanded.
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From the aft - showing Bomar deck plate. |
I decided to go with a full glass cockpit riser and lip using the wood as a base. I used 1/2" polystyrene foam Home Depot as the mold.
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Foam tacked in place with hot melt glue.
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To make the first layer of glass easy to fit, I went with short pieces run vertically.
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Vertical glass! |
I used pigmented epoxy on the coaming.
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Glass wetted out.
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After the first layer of glass epoxy. Excess not trimmed. |
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After three layers, the excess was trimmed. A light sanding as well. |
After 10 layers of glass and epoxy, I determined the whole unit was stiff enough. I feel compelled to point out that in the middle of this job there was a potentially "fatal" hiccup to the whole thing but it all worked out in the end. (Thank gawd that golden horsehoe is still firmly in place) In a nutshell I wanted to round the coaming but decided to do so AFTER I had three layers of glass down. A careful rounding using a rasp would have been more prudent but in my haste, I took a saw and proceeded to hack away - rather crudely, I must add!!. It was looking pretty grim for a while but it actually worked out very nice!! I now have a nicely shaped, i.e., rounded, lip on my cockpit rim!!
Between the jigs and reels, the coaming took me from Sunday to Thursday to complete. With the coaming done, I did the final sanding on the deck in anticipation of glassing.
I almost had second thoughts about the Black Pearl being All-Black Pearl at this point. Seeing the deck all sanded and contrasting so nicely against the black hull, I almost decided to leave the deck "au natural". Discussions with Cheryl ensued. Cheryl loves the look of the wood and suggested that if I left the deck unpainted, at least people would know that the boat was a stripper!! I was not entirely convinced. Read on to see the verdict . . .
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Cockpit coaming with foam removed. |
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Foredeck sanded. |
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Sanded deck ready for glass. |
Good Friday was the day for glassing the deck. I laid the glass on the deck and the
Shroud of Turin immediately sprang to mind. If I lifted the glass would the image of my boat be forever seen on it?? I waited for the lightening bolt to strike me dead!!
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The Shroud of Paradise |
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The Shroud of Paradise - foredeck! |
I made my final decision and the images below show the outcome. The Black Pearl will be just that -a full-on black boat!!
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The "Oreo" boat!!! |
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The All-Black Pearl!!
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I've now got three coats of pigmented epoxy on and after one more will determine whether the boat is ready for sanding.
Thanks for dropping by,
Sean