Obviously I’d completed all the fillets I could before I glued the foredeck in place but that still left the deck stringers and joint to the stemhead to do and they are a bugger, frankly, if I’d been any bigger I’d have had to employ the services of a young boy to have got them done but as it was I managed…just.

As I said it was just plain awkward but with a lot of contorsions and the use of an epoxy mixing stick taped to a length of wood I got the job completed to an acceptable standard, mind you I don’t know if I’ll be able to move tomorrow!

One casualty today though was my ‘Dremel’ tool. It’s flexy drive and a small flap wheel sander were proving perfect for preparing some particularly awkward corners but it suddenly stopped working and I then realised that in my efforts to reach the work area I’d been lying on the tool and blocking the airvents so it had overheated. I think it’s dead but to be fair it’s already done stirling service. I can’t afford another one though so I’ll just have to make do

In Head First

Tight Fit

I decided to start small and tackle the bow end of the starboard hull first. I’d checked back on my blog to refresh my memory about the masking tape method that Scott used on his Tiki 26 ‘Element’. It’s simple but really worth while, basically you run masking tape down each side of the area to be taped, overlap the bi-ax tape onto it whilst applying the epoxy then, once the epoxy has hardened up a bit, run a sharp blade down the inside edge of the tape and voila! nice clean neat edges.

First of Many

My Glassing Roller

Unfortunately I’d only got some cheap paper masking tape but it seemed to work OK but the next lot I buy will be better quality, Scott used the blue stuff which is also easier to see under the glass and epoxy. Anyway after thoroughly wetting out the wood I applied the 150mm glass tape and bedded it down using a natty metal roller that I bought at the Beaulieu Boat Jumble back in April. It’s got thin vanes running across the width that do a great job of pushing out the air and wetting the tape out.

Considering how long it is since I did any of this tape work it all went surprisingly well though and I got both side of the foredeck done before calling it a night.

The weathers turned big time this week, only just made double figures today