PoppyCock looking like a boat should

Poppy is now looking much better. After sticking the deck down I had to wait until the glue hardened before I could do anymore work, however at the time the weather was quite mild so it didn't take to long.
The next job was to trim the inner comming edge to the frame to make a nice slightly rolled edge. For the most part I used a wood shaver and sandpaper but for the tight corners I used a jigsaw. I did try to trim a fairly wide overhang with the jigsaw but this was a mistake; I tried to take it too close to the frame and ended up cutting into the frame very slightly! fortunately it doesn't look obvious. After that I stuck to using the wood shaver.

Because the new deck uses 4mm ply the gunwale sticks proud of the deck by a few mm so my next job was to shave the guwale down to the deck without gouging the deck! For this job I wished I have a plane but I couldn't find mine! I thought it was in the garage somewhere but I'm blowed if I know where it is. I made do with the wood shaver again and it seemed to work ok.

Finally I need to sand the deck to get a nice clean surface ready for he first coat of resin. This took a while and I was never very happy with it but I reached a point where I knew it would not get it any better. So I cleaned it with thinners a couple of times and then coated it with Epiglass epoxy resin. By now the weather had dropped the temperature somewhat and I was concerned abouth the prospect of blomming but mercifully there was only one very slight patch.

Here she is with just one coat applied already looking like a boat should. (picture taken by my wife)

I have now applied a second coat and she looks pretty good although there is a little bit of blooming particularly on the transom but I'm not so worried about that as it will be covered by the mansheet traveller.

Here she is after the second coat. Not to bad. I can see loads of mistakes and what I should have done.

The worst thing is the seam down the foredeck. The picture is kind to my workmanship but now I know why often the foredeck on boats have a middle strip! Its because trying to get a nice clean seam is not easy!

Oh well it is my first attempt at redecking a boat and at least I have achieved my primary objectives which were to stiffen the hull and improve the deck. Quite probably I have also reduced the weight of the hull a little into the bargin.

I have a bit of work to do yet. The breakwater need to be fitted and she needs a few coats of varnish as well but I shall probably leave that to later as I really aught to start work on Wild Goose to get her ready for the season which starts mid March with the coaching day at Aldenham this year (it was at Hunts sailing club but has moved for some reason)

Fortunately Goose need only one major repair which is to the Kingpost block. so I shall resume work on PoppyCock sometime in March when I should have completed the work on Wild Goose.