More Fairing

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend. Kendell and I opted to stay in town, so I was able to spend another couple days in the boat shop. I am fortunate to have the help of a guy who lives here in Wilmington to assist in fairing. His name is Robert, and the guy is both a really hard worker, and someone who picks things up quickly. He has been a really great help, and I got him to help me both days that I worked on the boat this weekend. Between the two of us we put in just shy of 20 hours of sanding in this weekend.
Here are a couple pictures of Robert and I in the boat shop:

Fairing

Since waterboarding is no longer an acceptable method of torture for the US to get detainees to talk, I would suggest that they consider boat fairing. They could simply line up a bunch of boats, hand the detainee a sanding block, and have them start fairing--with the understanding that they can stop at any time they decide to start sharing their secrets. Believe me, they will talk.

As I was fairing the boat this weekend I found myself thinking, "How could I describe this activity to someone who has never done it?" Here's what I came up with:

Imagine you are driving down a highway; let's say Interstate 40 in North Carolina. But you aren't on the part of 40 at the coast that goes over the Cape Fear River and cypress wetlands, nor are you driving through the stretch in the mountains that snakes up hill through hardwood forests. No, you are driving on that stretch of 40 just east of Smtihfield where there is nothing but flat, manure-covered fields with a few short pine trees scattered about. Regarding the scenery, think Kinston, NC.

Okay, so you start off driving along this highway at mile marker 214. You keep driving, and keep driving, and keep driving...for 6 straight hours. The scenery is still just about exactly the same, and a mile marker finally comes into view. Once you are able to focus on it you see that it reads, "Mile 216."

"What?!! How in the hell have I only traveled 2 miles?" It is at this moment that you realize that your entire body is completely covered in fiberglass.

That's what boat fairing is like.

Here's a picture of the boat after 16 hours of fairing.

  

Primer Coat #1

So the paint process has begun. Pretty excited by the fact that I can see light at the end of the tunnel, but I also realize that there is still a ton of finish work ahead.

Before the paint could actually be put down I had to put a little more glass down on a low spot at the edge of the tunnel. I also needed to reglass the strakes in order to reinforce them. Of course, after the epoxy cured I had to grind all the edges down in order to avoid more fairing later. Also, Beau recommended using epoxy paint as the primer without thinning it. The paint went on super thick, and filled in some of the low spots, which will save on fairing compound later.

Here's the boat after I prepped it to be painted.

And after primer coat.

Ready to Start Fairing

The boat is flipped, and there are just a few prep items that need to be taken care of. Should be able to start fairing this weekend.