Seven more hours of bonding

   23 April 03: Still bonding with the boat ... to the tune of seven hours more of sanding with the random-orbit sander. I'm almost ready to put on the primer; I still have to decide what to do about the fiberglass tape on the chine joints. There are a lot of little craters where the epoxy failed or something.

    My choices seem to be to put on a second layer of fiberglass tape, or to grind down the layer in place until the imperfections (and most of the tape) go away, or to live with it. I don't intend to put the time and money into a second layer of tape, and I don't want to lose the layer that's there, so I will probably just live with the result so far. When the boat is in the water, I won't see it, and the bead of epoxy on the inside will assure a water-tight hull, so live with it it is.

    I had intended to use epoxy to putty the holes left from screwing the sides to the temporary form, but I decided that the job was too small, so I'm trying 3M 5200 sealant as a putty. It went on fine. I'll need to put on at least one more coat of the5200, then I'll prime.

    While the putty is drying, I'm going to make the double paddle.

    Time spend so far: Add seven hours of sanding, for a total so far of 41 hours.

    Cost so far: Add $5 for sand paper, for a total so far of $166.12.