Kaimusailing

I went to Webb Chiles new blog, at http://self-portraitinthepresentseajournal.blogspot.com/, and found the link to his tracking device, https://my.yb.tl/gannet, and looked at his track from New Zealand on the way to Australia. I was showing it to the woodworker in the woodshop and he said, “Is he trying to get hisself killed?”. I think not.
.
I will be Webb’s age in another half decade or so, and I am self conscious about hobbling around when I’m achy, which is most of the time. He is a hero, in shape, and showing us that the dream of sailing the oceans does not die when we pass middle age.
.
Back to earth, in the boatyard, I continued to work on my fairing technique on the skegs. On the starboard rudder, which has a new rudder head, bolt holes had to be drilled, oversize, and the tiller arm mounted with the bolts, and the bolt holes filled with epoxy/silica. This time consuming job wasn’t too difficult, and I had some of the epoxy mix left over. It was a semi thick slurry of “glue hard” which is my mix of 4:1 silica:milled fibers. I thickened it further with microspheres and began spreading it on the surfaces of the skegs.
.
Previously I had gone over the skegs with the orbital sander using some borrowed sandpaper from the stiff upperlipped Brit next door. So kind. I had ordered a bunch of that sandpaper after he showed me how it worked. I had posted some time ago that he was arrogant, but after a few months of boatwork, side by side, I’ve come to like him and appreciate his sense of humor.
.
The thing that really hit me hard was the amount of work he and his wife were doing, completely disassembling their French catamaran, and preparing it for a first class sprayed on paint job. The fellow who was going to do the paint job had instructed them how to prepare the boat, and it was so far beyond how far I would be willing to go, that I joked about how it was more difficult to achieve my “workboat” finish. Then someone said to me, “No, they have to paint it themselves, the guy who was going to do it is too busy.”
.
They say that a great paint job is 99% preparation, so I expect the Brits will come out of this with a great looking boat, and some satisfaction that they did it all themselves.
.
Meanwhile, I was unhappy with my fairing work. The port bow job had very obvious flaws in it, and I left them there, so I could look at it and be reminded to do a better job next time.
.
The skegs were so bad. I had tried to add another fairing coat a while back and had to just throw it away. I had mixed it too stiff or let it get too hot and it made a mess. The throwaway blob of fairing mix was of course chocolate brown and looked like a dog poop. I had to grind off my last attempt with the belt sander, which left some more work to be done. The leftover bolt bedding mix with added microspheres was spread over the skegs. I was using a Hawk brand plastic painter’s edger, but you could cut something out of a plastic bottle that would do the same. It is too pliable to put on the mix when the initial fairing work begins, but it works very well with an almost fair surface that needs little depressions filled. I was happy with the result.
.
In the heat of the day I realized that my bug screens which had fallen apart, needed to be rebuilt with something stronger than hot melt glue. I mixed up some epoxy and put them back together, bit by bit. There were clouds coming in. It was hot and humid. Thunderstorm conditions. I finished up and scurried down below with lightning, thunder, and rain coming through. Without the bug screens I had to close the boat up and soon I was boiling in the humidity. It did cool down after a while though.
.
It is time to test fit the rudders again and make sure the layers of fairing allow enough room. The photo is of the Brit’s boat and the structure that they are erecting for a shade. Good idea.