This evening the epoxy went off very quickly because of the heat. We mixed up some micro balloons, fumed silica and epoxy resin with a drill motor and paint mixer till we got something a little thicker than peanut butter. We then squeegeed it on the taped joints. It is the equivalent of high performance body putty. After this hardens enough, maybe tomorrow, I will start sanding and smoothing to get it ready to cover the entire hull with the synthetic woven material, the Dynel on Weds night. Micky and Jeffrey were here and we got quite a bit accomplished in a short period of time.
We also mixed up some faster setting epoxy and glued three sheets of marine ply together to make the skeg that Hno. Astorga cut for us. We glued them together and then screwed them with some stainless screws until the epoxy hardens. We will then pull the srews out and the holes will be puttied later. The skeg gets laminated aft on the hull. We'll sheath the hull before the skeg goes on. A bunch more putty will make a nice transition with the skeg to the hull. The microballoons make it easier to sand and they assure the putty will be lighter than water, so it adds to the buoyancy. This is all of the structural work on the external seams. Next Weds night we will have the entire hull covered with the Dynel. After that, we will paint several coats of epoxy on to the Dynel and then we can paint it. The boys want red and white and red and white and green. The various national colors for Peru and Mexico respectively. Maybe we will name the boat the 'Prandall', after our friend Paul Randall. We all miss him. There is a fast sailing catamaran named the Prindle so the Prandall sounds like it could be the name of a fine boat.
