Starting to get there....

My newly repaired IceFloe looked very nice sitting on the sand in the sunlight on a recent paddling trip:
(I was still sanding it down at the put-in!)

Sanding and deck lines

I did a bit more sanding this morning, particularly around the front hatch. There's a lot more hard work to be done with sanding paper, rubbing compound, polish, etc. but that can wait - I want to go paddling!

The decklines and backrest are mostly back in place, although I couldn't get some of the elastics back through the RDFs. I had missed a bit of damage to one of the RDFs, so that is now fixed with some orange gelcoat and should be finished off this evening. Thankfully, it's the last RDF that the decklines pass through. There's always a bit of gelcoat left over, so I used it to patch some of the remaining pits in the hull.

I have put airbags back behind the seat, to minimise the cockpit volume until I get a chance to fit the new bulkhead that I have planned. I'm also wondering about a crazy idea to dispense with the new bulkhead and glue a large dry sack into this space instead - if it is fixed to the hull then it would always occupy the space and keep the water out in the case of a capsize.

Some more thinking is needed about deck fittings; I want a deck mounted tow line but also want to have my spare paddle on the back deck. Some experimentation suggests that the cam for the tow line could go behind the hand pump but I need to play around a bit more to determine whether this is easy enough to access in a hurry.

Front hatch rim

I found time to roughly sand down the hull and some bits of the deck where I have patched the gelcoat and get the sharp bits off the knee tube. The ethafoam block footrest was dropped back into position.

Patches to the seam near the stern with some black gelcoat went smoothly. Fixing the front hatch rim in place using some orange gelcoat was more tricky. The main problem was trying to bolt the hatch rim back into place whilst wearing rubber gloves that were sticky with gelcoat. I'm sure that bolting down to wet gelcoat is going to give a pretty good seal though.

I tidied up the deck with some of the orange gelcoat, including the recessed deck fittings (RDFs) that I didn't do yesterday. The holes from the old deck elastics were also filled with this mix of gelcoat; this is purely cosmetic as the holes have already been fixed from the inside of the boat.

Knee tube

I did the final layer on the knee tube this morning. I used 250g of gelcoat with styrene to coat the plastic pipe with woven glass and fix it to the deck. I had a go at using some glass "tissue" to finish off the job but I'm not convinced that this was a good move.

I also put a coat of clear gelcoat over the repair to the front hatch flange, using some of the gelcoat that was left over from doing the knee tube. There was a bit of overlap that had to be trimmed off with a hacksaw and then sanded smooth before I could apply the gelcoat. The screwholes for the rim needed to be redrilled through the new material, which I did with a 4mm bit on my cordless drill.

There will be a fair bit of sanding to do, so I made a start on a few test places. It looks quite good but I'm going to have to do some investigation of rubbing compounds, etc. for finishing off the gelcoat. I have asked Knoydart for some advice.

This evening's tasks will be:
Sand down the hull where I have patched the gelcoat.
Sand down the knee tube.
Replace the ethafoam block footrest.
Patch the seam near the stern with some black gelcoat.
Fix the front hatch rim in place using some orange gelcoat.
Tidy up the deck with some more orange gelcoat, including the recessed deck fittings (RDFs) that I didn't do yesterday.