Still fairing away

Port side is coming along:

Cabin overhead fairing:

Supposed to be a nice weekend, should make good progress!

More bottom fairing

Here's a few pictures just to show progress.  This is Thursday evening after more block-sanding and patching:

This was taken today (Saturday morning), showing the results of Friday night's sanding and patching:

As you can see the hull is level again, this is so I could do the port-side notch coat:

Then I propped the hull back up again and block-sanded the starboard side and keel areas again:

You can see the patches are getting smaller and farther apart - yay!  Truth be told though, I don't think the keel area is going to turn out perfectly fair - but it will be good enough, especially for an area only seen by the fishies.

Trivia tidbit:   I have used nearly fifteen (15) lbs of phenolic microballoons to get to this point - obviously a lot of that ended up getting sanded off, and probably 1-2 lbs ended up on the garage floor as excess dust from the mixing process,

Bottom fairing

Notch coat sanded down:

Sanding the keel area was done by climbing on top then kneeling down - I couldn't reach much of it otherwise.    This was too bad since the keel area had a lot of areas that will be needing fairing attention and I don't think I did the area justice (yet).

First fill coat on:

A fly decided to donate himself as reinforcing material in the fairing compound:

The next day I got busy on sanding the above areas again.   This is where things get hard, dusty, and sore, and you just have to suck it up.   I climbed up on top and started sanding down the keel area....well, the hard-core attitude lasted about ten minutes - at which point I quickly decided that it would take forever to sand the keel area from above and started thinking of a way to prop up the boat at a better angle.    I decided that my cradles, turned on their side and cushioned with baby mattresses, would do the trick:

Note the 2"x4" scraps screwed to the OSB floor sheeting to stop the cradles from sliding.   This new position definitely allows better access and productivity - I wish I had done this to begin with.  Better yet I was able to do all of this myself; the hull is nicely balanced and not too heavy for one person to maneuver. 

This evening I did some more block-sanding and then put on another very thin fill coat (my notch & fill coats didn't work as well as I had hoped, but at least I'm headed toward a fair surface):

It's starting to shape up.   I still have the port side to do after this part is done, but one thing at a time.

First boat flip

Went back to work last week, so progress has slowed.    I sanded the aft-cabin area again today to a reasonable surface that I think is ready for primer (I hope), along with a few other areas.    Then it was time to flip the boat over and start on the bottom - no more waiting since I am starting to run out of summer and nice weather.

I wish I had some sophisticated cranes or whatnot to assist with the turnover, but alas no such luck - this was a manual job.    My nephew Daniel was visiting so of course I drafted him to help out (actually no coercion was necessary - thanks Daniel!).    This is after removing the cradles and sliding the boat over to the side of the tent:

Starting the flip:

We then slid the boat again over to the left, to have room for the flip.   I don't have any pics of the boat sitting vertical on the cabin-side since I was busy either running around or holding the boat.    Daniel was the "pusher" on the flip (and supplied most of the effort to be honest).    Once we had the boat almost on its back, I told Daniel to stay put (lol) while I took some pictures:

Once flipped, I cleaned up the laminate rough edges on the bottom of the boat, as well as some light sanding to scuff things up in preparation for the fairing compound.   I then managed to get a notch coat on the keel area and starboard side before dinner time:

You may notice that I'm not using the candy-bag method.   I have to plan these steps carefully therefore, because if I don't sand the notch coat tomorrow and apply the fill coat, I would then have to deal with the secondary-bonding issue (ie, would have to sand in between the notches).    So far I have had successful timing\scheduling throughout the fairing process and haven't had to deal with that.   First thing tomorrow morning I'll be out there sanding...