Capt Tonio,
When the weather changed, surprised and embarrassed once more at how blinding fast the seasons pass on by, had this Urge, man - you have no idea - to work on the topsides, befor the bloddy tent got blown apart again.
Eyeball to gelcoat, I've covered 1/2 the sides in microsphere brownie mix. Done the batten thing, made the vertical pencil lines, traced the puddles therein to fill. Measured and mixed. Filled and waited, longboarded endlessly and did it again.
Coming close to something like fair curves. Have a 3 foot board now made from closet pole, 1/4" lexan, carpet tape and a great anti-static 36 grit 3" wide sanding belt. Awesome stuff.
Missed this weekend in the cycle because the chocolate didn't bake in the 30 - 50 degree temp. Put it on late and it didn't set in the freezing overnight. Got up to 60 today and it attempted to harden, but didn't.
The topsides is a major project. The whole boat between the imprinted bulkheads fore and aft, and the imprinted stringers up to the rail has to be faired. My fairing is essentially a valiant attempt to plump the sides out to only vaguely what the Master's lines are in the Manual. When I laid the fairing batten horizontally on the hull, a new set of hollows showed up. While either side of the boat have not equal unfairness, both had a double dipper, requiring extra fill, just forward of the compression bulkhead in that difficult area where the flare of the bow is changing into the vertical sides at mid section. It is hard to read the transition with the eye, so much is happening.
Remember Geoff had that weird dip in Uhuru's hind quarter? No dip in 338's - but her tight little curved port quarter had a hollow 1/4" deep, while the starboard side is pretty much ok.
Airhead, I haven't persued. It would be really cool to have a working composting toilet aboard. They did say that they were working on designing a shorter model. And eventually 338 will have one. Tho it's hard not to be persuaded by Jim Baldwin's enthusiasm for the Lavac in his Triton. We are a flush it down the drain society, at all levels, I'm glad we have the humble portopotti as an alternative.
As you know I've been trying to find a contrasting color and more cremey epoxy paste to continue with the next step, something to fill scratches etc. WasteMarine had SplashZone and some one parts - nope. I wanted to check out Svensons again. So, went way the hell over to Alameda. What a great place the store is, what a relief! Didn't smell of plastic fenders, wasn't a chandlery morphing into a OSH.
They had Interfil by Interlux in a 1/2gal kit for $60. Read the cans, looked like it's ok. Take to boat, cut the cans apart, read inclosed miniature pamphlet. Way at the end, on the last page, it says:
Must be washed with water after each use.
(Expletive) (Delete) If Interfux thinks I'm ever using a single product of theirs on 338 they're crazy. I feel Insulted. What kind of jerks market a filler that has to be washed befor you put the next layer on - and even befor you sand it??? You guys really put up with disrespect like this? You and I know they could make the better product
and still overprice it.
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