Repairs to Hull Damage and Blisters – Part 2

Filling old thru-hulls, blisters, and damage on Pilgrim’s Hull is progressing.  We have now filled in all the areas initially ground out for repairs.

Portside under head after initial round of applying 1708 cloth

I employed a 9” grinder with 36 grit paper to begin fairing the repairs. The larger surface area grinder lessens the likelihood of dipping an edge and removing unnecessary material.

Portside under head after initial grinding.  The area on the right, old thru-hull holes, require additional cloth. 

A couple of the repairs were shy of the original hull surface.   Any area required more than 1/8” of additional material to fill I chose to build up with layer(s) of cloth.  These areas included the old head thru hulls, a blister just port and forward of the keel, and a sizable strip of the large repair portside under the cockpit.

Repair on portside under cockpit requires an additional layer of 1708 cloth in the outlined area.

Above - Area circled in black ink required one additional layer of 1708 cloth.

Below – Area after applying new cloth.

Repair on portside under cockpit with additional layer of cloth applied.

I’m certain as we remove more bottom paint we will discover additional area’s requiring attention, but for now all the areas we have exposed are ready for the initial round of filler.

Looking down the centerline of the hull at ongoing repairs.

I will use a mixture of west epoxy and cabosil for the first round of fairing filler.