More 80 grit Sanding

Many more hours of sanding on autopilot over the last couple of days, using my Metabo orbital sander (not random) & I thought it was looking pretty good. I had about a quarter of the boat left to do when my good mate Rick (the shipwright, who owns Shapes Shading Solutions & has been an absolute godsend to me on this build) popped in to loan me a proper, industrial strength, variable speed, random orbital sander. I had asked him to just order some paper for my own random orbital sander, but he figured it was just a DIY (non-industrial) type & therefor not up to the task, hence the loan. Here's a photo of his random orbital next to my normal orbital sander.



What a machine. It worked so much quicker & left a much nicer finish, even using the same 80 grit paper. In no time at all, I'd finished the last quarter of the boat and gone right back over the rest again to clean it all up just that bit more. She's now been sanded back as far as I dare with this grit & I'm loving the grain that's been revealed.





The only thing letting the whole job down is the poor finish at the bow & stern, which are now paper thin & definitely can't be sanded any further.



As I was fortunate enough to have Rick at my place, I showed him my progress & asked him for his ideas as to how I might possibly still achieve a clear finish. He agreed that it would be criminal to cover up all that timber and, after mulling it over for a while, said the best option might be to paint a feature strip up from the painted waterline, along the keel edge & sweeping up parallel with the stem, effectively covering the stuffed up bits. This makes lots of sense & I reckon that's just what I'll do. I'm thinking it will look pretty cool if I can integrate some sort of Polynesian pattern/design into it on either side of the bow/stern.

So now I have to fill the slight hollows at the bow/stern, in preparation for fiber glassing. I'm going to try using the Bote-cote glue/filleting powder, so late this afternoon I set up a bit of an experiment, utilising the failed test panel from before. Basically I just stapled a handful of planking offcuts, forming a hollow. I also rigged a piece perpendicularly, so I could see how it goes with forming the fillets for the inner stems, bulkheads, etc.



I started out trying to be all scientific & accurate with measuring the epoxy, hardener & fillet powder, but in the end, it all seemed very random & "pure arsework". Still, it didn't look too bad when I was done.



So now, depending on how this turns out, I'll probably use this stuff to fill the crappy hollows in the ends. I'm also hoping to source a long sanding board, so as to make sure the sides are nice & fair. Then the whole lot gets a final sand with 120 grit & will be ready for....wait for it.... fiber glassing. I'd better hurry up & get that second fiber glassing test panel done.