Keels again........

Have spent the last couple of weeks finishing the port keel: much filling and fairing -be it at a snails pace due to the air temperatures, my attention has turned to the stubs and especially the rotten starboard one.

I started removing the gel coat the length of the stub and then around the three stud locations that are cracked i removed all the dead laminate, to get to solid, so much so that i'm almost through to the inside of the boat via the keel stub.

In some places i am almost through to the inside (4mm thick), of which the whole experience has been a bit daunting, but i've come this far, so i guess the next step is to get hold of a moisture meter and take some readings and go from there.

.........you're back in the room in 3...2...1

Its been awhile since i last posted as i have been super busy getting the hull stripped and cut back with an eye to prepping the boat for paint in the new year...oh and having to work for a living too........pain in the arse!

Anyway since i last posted all the cockpit joinery has gone; it has all been removed along with the skin from my fingertips as well (bloody sandpaper) and all the skin fittings and cleats.

I then measured the boottop line and recorded that in my note pad then set about removing it from the hull as i did with the gunwale stripe too, with 240/320 wet and dry.

Now this wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't forty years worth of paint on it, so after much cursing and successive trips to the workshop i eventually ended up getting out the big guns (namely a huge roll of 40 grit sandpaper) and used this combined with some water sprayed on the hull and paper too.

It came off a treat and the boat looks quite naked with nothing on it, so with that job ticked off its now time to get on with the keel stub repair work (after letting skin grow back onto my hands!)