As I've recently stated, I remain in the midst of several simultaneous projects. Some of them have started to wrap up, but others will linger until warmer painting weather in the Spring. Here are a few update photos:
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| New backing plate and bolts for port forward shroud |
Photo 1: In order to repair the fiberglass damage to the port side hull, I had to fully dismantle the locker and remove all the teak facing. This allowed me to fully expose the backing plate for the port forward shroud, and I discovered that it was a bit undersized and had slightly compressed the fiberglass sandwich in that area. At least it wasn't aluminum, as others I'd found on Aeolus had been. I decided to reinforce the whole area with a sheet of 1/4" fiberglass I get from McMaster Carr. It is hard to see, but I rounded the edges off nicely to avoid hard spots. I then backed the sheet with a good helping of Epoxy thickened with Colloidal Silica to help it bond and conform to the irregular surface, and put it all back together with slightly longer bolts to account for the increased depth. Now, that shroud is so bomber that it is absolutely not a weak link in the mast system, and that is the goal for all hardware associated with the mast now isn't it?
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| New portlight windows from Mark Plastics in Corona, CA |
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