A month ago the interior of Passion XI was looking tidy and the hull paintint was progressing well. Since then I have finished painting the topsides and attempted to finish the deck. Wet and cold weather has slowed the deck progress considerably. I was able to get the central part of the deck completed by turning on a heater inside the hull. Enough heat was trapped in the deck plywood to enable the two pack polyurethane to cure but at the extremities the low temperature and wet weather conspired to dull the finish. I tried five times to get a gloss on the bow section above the anchor locker but no matter how early in the day I finished painting it was not early enough to keep the gloss overnight. I think I will give up on this one and either do the best to buff up the five layers of paint or wait till summer and do a gloss coat in the hot weather.
Inside the boat it seems disorganised. Many of the floor are up while we run electrical cabling. simultaneously I am running services like shower pumps, transom shower unit, manual bilge pumps heads, shore power and the engine exhaust. Every service has unique challenges, For example the shore power services required a tiny triangle infill so that we had a flat surface to mount the switches and the transom shower cut out cut partially into a stringer which necessitated a compensating doubler. These need gluing into placee and epoxy coating to match the hull interior finish and protect the new timber.
With many efforts to get the two pack polyurethane finish at a high gloss I had many batches of mixed paint where there was some left over. Rather than waste the paint I have applied it to the underside of hatches where it has given a classy finish. It enabled me to finish the mast base panel without having to mix up special batches of paint.
With the mast base panel all shiny and the anodised alloy base sitting in storage I used some quiet time on Sunday to carefully position the base and drill the four 10 mm diameter holes. I measured the hull from both the bow to the mast step and from the hatch in mid cabin forward. Having reconciled the dimensions I drilled a tiny pilot hole to check, then two then four and all perfectly in position fore and aft and port and starboard. The full size holes were then drilled and the mast base positioned so I could mask off the deck ready for the non skid paint. Today I completed the exercise by epoxying the wooden sub base in position and sikaflexing the alloy base on top. These were then through bolted to squeeze glue from the lower join and sikaflex from the upper one in one operation.
Our closest neighbour is away for a week so on Friday I power planed the rudder blanks down to the aerofoil shape. The two halves are well enough planed to join to the rudder stock but if time permits I may sharpen my trusty block plane and fair the surfaces a little more.
The hatch garage is sort of completed. Again I used left over two pack polurethane to coat the top and while it is a fair finish I may do two more coats for an improved finish and if I have more left over I might paint the unseen underside just for mildew resistance.
The head holding tank is well under way. I have trial fitted it for the pipe routes and now need to install some cleats around the top to finish the top. before the top is fitted the interior will be glassed with epoxy and the inlet, outlet and overflow conections installed.
By my next post we should have made good progress with the electrics, the gas services and the plumbing. Perhaps we will have some light running off the shore power.
