Upside up again - fairing and finishing

With the centerboard slot gasket installed I completed turning the hull right-side up again.  I grabbed a couple of the stands that were under the building jig and screwed parts of the jig side panels to them to make a stand to raise the hull off the floor, and it sits nicely on the skegs. I expect to put similar cross members on the boat trailer for support there.

I had noticed while installing the centerboard slot gaskets that the uphaul line for the centerboard was not going to line up as I expected with the hole in the front of the centerboard case, being an inch or so too low.  Not sure how I messed that up.

I decided to fix that by routing the line out of the back edge of the board vs. the top.  That position comes around higher when the board is raised.  I bored the new hole.

And filed a rope channel.  On what is the front face of this photo you can see the old hole filled in with epoxy.  This should put the rope close to the right height when the board is raised.

With the hull upright I proceeded to trim and round over the top of the rubrail.  Always satisfying to make curly shavings with the plane.

Here's a view from the bow of the result after routing off the corner and doing some sanding.

And then I worked some more at fairing the deck/cabin joint.  This was necessary because of the fiberglass tape that I applied on the exterior to strengthen that joint.  I iterated a couple times on this and then decided it was good enough.

I also finished up the fillet and fairing of the top of the mast trunk.

And then I could move on to paint.  I had done the cuddy interior and the floor while the boat was upside down, so now I continued with the seats and seat backs on the inside, and the deck, cabin and roof.

I was second guessing my choice of color for the deck and cabin roof until I layed out the sail for a color comparison.  The sail and the roof/deck are in the same color family and should look good together.

Here's what things look like after two coats of paint. 

And here's a view towards the bow.  It's fun to see the finish going on.

I've got at least one more coat of paint to apply, and will need to be a little more careful at the line where the two colors meet to get that looking good.

Next up I'll be laminating the top trim for the seat backs.  That will add about 3/4" more height to the seat backs, and I'll be able to put a generous round over on the edge for back comfort.  I'm planning to have the top 2 inches wide to make a comfortable arm support.  Stay tuned for that.

Rolling the hull and prepping for fiberglass

Now came a moment I'd been anticipating for a long time - rolling over the hull.  To prep for this I got 4 hefty eye bolts and screwed them into the ceiling joists.  After removing the four screws holding the boat to the jig, I looped my big cargo straps under the hull, ratcheted it up, and removed the building jig.

I resisted the urge to climb in and sway around and pretend I was at sea...

I was able to roll the boat pretty easily, while my wife watched that the front strap didn't slip off the bow.  The hull didn't really spin freely in the straps - I had to lift and slide.

When it was completely upside down I placed a couple sawhorses under the seats after measuring to ensure they were tall enough to keep the cabin roof off the floor.

These straps quick release rather than gradually lowering, so we worked this by me supporting the boat, my wife releasing the strap, then I would lower the boat a bit and she would tighten the strap again to support it.  It took a couple iterations, switching from one end of the boat to the other, and then we were securely on the saw horses. About a half hour process overall.

With the hull upside down I could clean up around the ballast tank drain.

And trim off the ends of the centerboard case. 

And fillet the hull panels and fill in the garboard/hull bottom joint with thickend epoxy.

After that cured I gave that joint a generous round-over,

And also rounded over the hull panels where they join the bow and stern transoms. 

And routed a round-over around the centerboard case opening.

I finished up by sanding the hull in the areas that will have fiberglass applied, to remove any rough spots.  

I feel good about getting past this step of the process!