December 5, 2017
During the week I will be finalizing the balance of the filling and fairing work to be done prior to the primer coats to be laid on the deck and cockpit. I will also be finishing up the last few remaining spots in the cabin that require fairing work before I can apply the cabin's finish paint. To that end, I moved quickly across Joule, both the interior and exterior, and water-washed the previous sessions cured epoxy. I then grabbed the sanding materials. First up, I hit the repair made to the outboard edge of the v-berth (starboard side), and brought that surface to fair; I then followed that up with the few remaining areas on the cabin liner overhead. I discovered a couple more spots that require some attention, but I should nevertheless be ready for the weekend's primer coat sessions.
I also sanded the remaining spots on the cabin sole; all on the forward section, and just filling pinholes and a slight depression.
I turned my attention to the exterior, having wanted to take advantage of the sunlight I had to accomplish the interior work, and worked my way around Joule's hull, sanding a few topside spots that were a combination of ever-so-small chips in the gelcoat or pinholes. I used the RO sander with 320-grit pads for this application.
Finally, I made my way forward with 320-grit strip paper and a firm longboard for the foredeck fairing. There were some pinholes here that required fine fairing compound, but also a couple very slight dips both to starboard and port of the centerline. I spent most of my time here, and achieved good results. Using the best tool in the tool bag for sanding - the human hand - I could still feel very shallow depressions, and so spread a thin layer of 410 Microlight across these spots. Tomorrow, I will come back to finish the foredeck, as well as hit the couple places on the interior liner.
Total Time Today: 1 hr