fillets, fillets and more fillets!

Before I started work last weekend on the boat my friend Dan came over to see how it was progressing. We sat in the cockpit and drank some beers and caught up a bit while he chain smoked marlboro lights. It was our first "Boat Party!" I assumed he was holding his smokes away from the boat as his arm just disappeared over the side and only reappeared when he took a drag.

Well,.......SHIT!!!!!



Dan, if you read this...I love you to pieces, but no more smoking on the boat, man.



Had to happen on a part that had been wet sanded already. Sorry, Wahoo. I'll do better in the future.

Mom (Pam) and I got up bright and early last Saturday and got to work sanding the fiberglass we had laid the weekend before, so that the next layer will stick. We had planned on building up the keelson area some more and then hopefully finally get the keelson glassed in. However, we decided to work on fillets instead, mainly because we like making fillets, but also because the berth supports really need them. We also needed new weep holes in the berth supports. Weep holes allow the water that gets in hard-to-reach places to drain into the main bilge area where you can soak it up. Wahoo's berth support had weep holes, but they were just holes drilled through the wood. They were dark and eerie things that I never liked even thinking about. Seriously y'all, some parts of Wahoo have been just plain creepy. Old wood that is dirty and had a lot of moisture, etc. Ewww. So anyway, since we need to add some fillets to the berth supports we figured nice, new easy-to-clean weep holes were in order too.

Plastic is easy to clean, so PVC was the obvious choice. Picked up some half-inch pvc pipe at Lowe's that worked nicely.

New weep holes for the aft part of the berth supports.



I had to drill the original weepholes out to make them a little bigger so the pvc piece would fit. And I rounded the edges of the new pvc weep holes so when we add the fillet it will be a smooth transition from fillet to pvc.

Here they are before the fillet was added.



After I knew they fit okay we removed them and then coated the area with epoxy to protect it and then slid them back in.

And then the fun begins! FILLETS!

See how the weep hole blends right into the fillet? Yeah, I did that! :D



See all the lovely fillets!





HUGE improvement, both in terms of structural stability and also in removing some of the creepiness factor. The whole back of the boat is completely not creepy now. YAY!

Now, if I could just stop being allergic to fiberglass it would all be perfect. Seriously, wear protection if you near the stuff. We always use a respirator and usually a dust suit or are fully clothed. But last weekend I got in a hurry on one part and just threw some baby powder on my arms (supposed to keep the glass from sticking to your skin) and jumped in to grind for a minute. That was not smart. Fiberglass always itches, but this time it broke my arms out in hives. Yikes! So, I'm taking extra precautions to protect my skin before messing with the fiberglass grinding.

And now it's already Friday again and we're back at it first thing tomorrow morning. Not sure what all we plan to do but I'm taking a weekend off from all things fiberglass to give my arms a break. I think we will try to pull out the ports (windows) and reseal those. And perhaps wet sand cigarette burns off the boat.

Cheers from the boat yard!