Update

The interior continues.  I have everything torn out that is coming out.  Sometime in the future I may replace the decking of the forward V-berth but it is not in horrible condition.  We'll see if the aft plywood overlay is not difficult I may replace the forward material.  The bulkheads and stringers glassed in will stay.  The weather was great this weekend for January.  Friday I long boarded the fore deck and I have it quite smooth.  There are a couple of brush strokes but I don't want to sand through the gel-coat.

 The fore deck repair is now complete and the overlapping plies are complete on the interior.  Overhead glassing is not my favorite but I'm getting better at it.  The preparation is time consuming and the placement and bagging is critical to success.  Getting a good seal on the butyl tape is challenging in this weather because of the cold surface no matter what the heating of the interior.  The high temperature outside this weekend was 50F probably in the 60s in the sun.  The plan is to cover the foredeck repair with Raptor deck.  A childhood dinghy sailing friend Danny Keseler owns Quantum sails in Seattle and started a company called Raptor decking.  Not only will the Raptor decking be the grippiest deck around it will be the best looking.  The decking will cover any imperfections of the repair.  I could spend a lifetime sanding and buffing it out just to add a covering to it.  The plan is to use the smooth Raptor decking in the cockpit.  This will make the seats comfortable on the knees while distributing point loads.

We went to the boat show this weekend to get pumped up for this coming summer and Jilann and Emily had fun.  We looked at a Beneteau 25 to get some ideas on the interior.  Other than looking rather cheap the layout and size was big.  We walked away thankful for the Ross, there is no comparison.

Emily cruising around a puddle at the Seattle boat show.  We had to do this twice, she had a blast.

I installed the main hatch today after final interior glassing of the fore deck patch.  I'm using teflon drawer guide tape as the runners for the main hatch.  I used some fuel hose cut to 3/8 of an inch long to replace the missing bumpers both in the open and closed positions.  The mechanics of the hatch feel perfect.  It is not too slippery so that the hatch will slide in and out under way, just sticky enough.  All screws sealed with 3M 4000.

I outline below the way to set up the laminate in the garage on a piece of cardboard in order to glass overhead.  This has worked well for me.

Step 1:

Hot glue bagging material to cardboard, install valve, and butyl tape leaving the wax paper in place.

Step 2:

Install breather cloth using hot glue gun.
Step 3:

Add peel ply.

Wrapping paper makes for nice templates.  It's cheap, durable, and has a nice grid pattern on the back to keep things straight.

Step 4:
Wet out fiberglass and lay in reverse order on peel ply.  Carry out to boat.  Peel off wax paper from butyl tape and lift overhead press into position, pleat bag as required then hook up to the compressor.

Routering pockets in outboard motor mount for clamps.  I used a hole saw set to a depth of 3/8" to make the pocket outline then used the router to remove the center material.  This worked well.  All of the teak is varnished thanks to Jilann.  We used six coats of Epifanes varnish and the last two coats we used a badger hair brush and tack cloths as well as a fine mesh strainer to remove any impurities of the varnish.  I think this is the secret there was no way away from the micro bubbles using foam brushes no matter the brush angle or pressure.  The varnish is curing right now but looks awesome.  Pictures to come.

Until next time, thanks for following.