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.