October 21, 2017
I decided to continue working on the cockpit locker hatches given the progress made on both the starboard and port hatches - it was good to see them begin to take the simple yet familiar shape of the Cape Dory Typhoon seat locker hatch / lid. I began by removing the cured glass that hung below what would eventually become the bottom dimension of the hatch itself. I removed this material with an angle grinder and a cut-off wheel. As a sidebar, and funny story, I had previously been working with an angle grinder on another boat and was tired - having worked several hours through the Florida heat and humidity. I was working a piece of stubborn material that I needed to remove with one hand and in the other hand I held an angle grinder operating at high rpm. A quick slip is all it took to introduce palm of left hand to angle grinder in right hand! I snapped a photo of the wound and sent it over to a OBGYN friend of mine. His recommendation was, "meet me at my office within the hour," so I closed the shop for the day and headed over to have my wound looked at. Within a half-hour of arriving, my hand was sewed up in excellent fashion with a few stitches - I like to say that I've had an episiotomy performed on my hand. I understand now why the delicate and precise hands of an OBGYN are required and differ from some other specialists. One particular pre-cancerous area removed by my Dermatologist resembles more so a Captain Jack Sparrow-type scar than what is possible by a well-trained hand working the intimates of the female of the species. Alas, I have the potential for a great story....similar to the scene in the galley of Orca on the first Jaws film!
With the superfluity of material removed by the cut-off wheel, I switched to a flap wheel (40-grit sanding pad attached to the angle grinder), and proceeded to draw the dimension of the fiberglass in line with the dimension of the mold / template.
After removing that excess material and separating the molds from the cured fiberglass, I could not resist a test fit of the hatches...okay! I have something I can work with here!
The port-side cockpit seat locker hatch...
...and the starboard-side cockpit seat locker hatch.
After taking a few minutes to feel good about myself, I proceeded to water-wash the surface of the hatches and then sand them down with 80-grit paper to prepare the surface for the next steps. I vacuumed the sanding residue and solvent-washed the surfaces. I then painted out the underside outside perimeter and the entire top surface of both hatches, and then proceeded to apply thickened epoxy as a fairing compound to those same surfaces. The next step will be to water-wash and sand, and then finish by laying a 6oz cloth across the top surfaces. I will then fill and fair the weave of the 6oz cloth, while also glassing in supports from beneath. More to come!
I took time also today to begin to address the hole in the companion hatch - the slide hatch. I measured the laminate thickness to determine the measurement required for filling the hole with a fiberglass patch, as determined by the 12:1 ratio. The hatch thickness was laid up to 1/8", and so using the 12:1 ratio, this meant I had to create a bevel of 1.5" around the circumference of the hole to be filled.
The result for the top of the hatch...
...and for the underside of the hatch. I will likely get started with filling this hole in the next work session.
Total Time Today: 5 hrs
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