I took the risk that the thunderstorms forecast would not hit our building site until after the grey two pack polyurethane topcoat was sufficiently cured. The first coat had already been sanded back to remove runs and insects so all I had to do was a final wipe clean and apply the last topcoat. It was a warm day so the paint was touch dry pretty quickly but a couple of drops of rain did fall from one passing cloud and put a dot on the paint. There was nothing I could do but dab the couple of drops off the surface, remove the masking tape and go away for a coffee. The masking tape came away from the hull leaving a very crisp line and the coffee was a good mid morning pick me up. There were a few spits of rain in the afternoon so I worked away on the chart table and electrical control panel area. After a lot of procrastination I finally drew up my electrical panel. Today I cut it out from 6 mm plywood. It is certainly a lot easier to fit without the deck in place so by tonight I had it fitted and the cleat for the panel hinges epoxied in place. The painting of the keel is finished up to the stage where I need to do the filling and fairing. As I mentioned in a previous post the heat distortion from the lead filling was more than I expected but after a little filling it will be a very fair keel. Looking back to where we were twelve months ago I was laminating up the last of the keel floors prior to adding the cross keel reinforcing pieces.
The Didi 40 Cr boot top stripe with the masking tape removed
Stern view of the grey boot top stripe on our Didi 40 Cr
The primed keel for our Didi 40 Cr ready for epoxy filling and fairing
Flashback to a year ago when I was laminating the last of the keel floors