April 22, 2018
Even before breakfast!, I was out sanding the Dhows and prepping for their 3rd coat of primer (Interlux Primekote). I hand-sanded the hulls with 120-grit paper, and once completed, headed back over to the shop to mix a pot of paint. While the paint base and hardener were chemically reacting, I vacuumed the hulls and then followed that with a thorough wipe down with a solvent. The 3rd coat went on without issue; breakfast followed.
After breakfast and a cup of coffee, I headed back out to the shop. The first order of business was to fill some of the damage on the blue Dhow's middle and forward seats. I mixed a small amount of epoxy to wet out the areas that I needed to fill (gouges and cracks). With the mahogany sanded and cleaned with a solvent-laced rag, I wet out the areas with the "neat" epoxy, thickened the balance of the epoxy with West System's 403 microfibers and filled the damaged areas. I clamped the two portions of the seats that had cracks and then set them aside to cure. The seats were in fine enough condition to clean, repair and varnish.
I moved on to the daggerboard trunk supports. The white Dhow required a new one, since it was being converted to a sailing Dhow; the blue Dhow also required a new one, as its db trunk support was broken into two pieces. I selected a scrap piece of teak that would enable me to pull both db trunk supports from it, and then began laying out for the cuts.
In a few passes on the table saw, I had two blanks from which to construct the trunk supports.
I took an angle off the aft-end of the old support (more of a cosmetic cut), moved the table saw blade to match the angle, and then cut both pieces. I then took the angle off the new daggerboard trunks since the supports would mate to their respective trunk - more to come on that.
I arrived at the lengths of the horizontal supports, marked them at the width of the daggerboard trunk (2"), and then removed that material: I ran a jigsaw down the length of the trunk support, stopping at a point where the aft-end of the trunk would rest. I then drilled a hole for the jigsaw and remove the interior portion of the trunk support.
I grabbed the bevel and transferred the angle I had taken off of the db trunk to the trunk support. I clamped the trunk support onto the work surface, and removed the material using a fine-tooth saw.
A test fit of the daggerboard trunk support showed a bit of sanding left to do, and after a couple additional test fittings, I had completed the desired dimensions.
Next, I softened all of the exterior edges with 80-grit and then 120-grit paper.
With a thorough vacuuming and wipe down, I moved into varnishing the skegs and the daggerboard trunk supports with Epifanes clear varnish, thinned by roughly 25%. All vanished pieces with receive 5 coats through the project.
The first coats will be thinned more so than the subsequent ones, which will enable good penetration of the varnish into the wood.
With the first coats of varnish complete on the skegs and db trunk supports, it was time to get back over to the Dhows for their 4th coat of primer.
As I had done for the previous coats, I hand-sanded with 120-grit paper, vacuumed the hulls, and wiped them down with a rag dampened with solvent. The 4th coat went on without issue and prior to the impending rain.
Total Time Today: 6.5 hrs
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