I have a many small tasks to complete on Passion X before she will be fully finished and today I tackled a few that needed some epoxy undercoat. I had already made up intricate backing pieces for the bolts holding the bowsprit. These had been shaped and painted and now needed to be epoxied inside the anchor locker and finished off with a final coat of epoxy. An extra coat of epoxy was added inside the bolt holes to lock out the water. As I worked away in the confined space of the anchor locker I noticed the area where the latch was fitted was unpainted so it received a coat of clear epoxy and a couple of coats of white epoxy wet on wet to seal the edge of the plywood. This is a really strong area of the boat as I put a 12 mm ply doubler on the hull side to carry the load of the bowsprit and two 12 mm ply doublers on the deck side to compensate for the hole in the deck for the lid of the locker. It is no coincidence that it looks like a J122 anchor locker including a matching latch.
The surplus epoxy primer/undercoat was used for a few tiny touch up jobs and to coat a section of backing ply inside the vanity in the head. It has been unpainted since March but the head is so dry that the piece of ply was as new. Now it has a couple of wet on wet coats of white epoxy to protect it.
When we first launched we were getting a little salt water into the head. After a bit of investigation the source was found to be the outlet for the sink. Passion X is a light boat and heels to 30 degrees in a breeze. At that angle and with wave action some sea water was pulsing up the drain. When racing I now turn the outlet valve off and that has solved the problem. An alternative would be to put a right angle outlet on the sink and lead the hose towards the centre of the yacht but the extra distance is quite small and I suspect water would still pulse up the pipe in a big seaway.
The tiller was manufactured the day the yacht was lifted out of the back yard and with not a lot of spare time before launch it received just two coats of clear epoxy. I sanded it back and gave it another coat today but the rain came before the coat was fully cured so it might be a rinse and repeat task for later in the year. We have modified the angle of the tiller from the plan by gluing a hardwood wedge to the underside where it fits into the stainless steel head. This lifts the tiller and gives more clearance for the knees of the crew.
Following up from yesterdays disappointing race I re positioned the first reef line so that it is fixed to the boom behind the slug on the boom bag. We will now be able to flatten the foot more when we have the reef in the main. Both the first and second reefs come to the boom next to boom bag slugs and I will have both moved soon to give a bit more room to adjust the foot depth when we are reefed.
I am annoyed with myself for not fixing this issue sooner. Almost as annoyed as setting the No 3 jib last night instead of the No 4.