This is definitely not my favourite task, and it brought back memories of hours and hours spent grinding and sanding fillets to a decent finish.
So this time I determined to work a bit smarter. I would use Peel Ply to cover the wet epoxy and some sort of roller to achieve a good shape and minimise sanding.
First I sanded the sides of the hood to give the epoxy a good bonding surface.
Here is the starboard side, sanded clean.
I filled the drain holes with a plug of BluTack and marked their location. The fillets will cover the holes so I will have to cut them out later. Somehow.
After some thought I decided to use a length of plastic pipe of the required diameter to press the filet into shape under a strip of Peel Ply.
Here is the pipe.
It has an outside diameter of 42mm, which seemed about right.
Then I made one fillet at a time, not rushing to complete a large area before the epoxy went off.
Again, voice of experience.
I had a lot of problems with the keel fillets through trying to do too much at once. They are no longer visible now the boat is right side up but those on the hood will be, so they have to look good.
I made some fillet mixture and applied what looked to be the right amount, and smoothed it roughly into shape with a filleting tool.
Then I laid a strip of Peel Ply along the fillet and used a brush to help it soak up the resin.
Lastly I used the piping to press the fillet into shape under the Peel Ply.
It went surprisingly well.
I did the starboard side first. It looked like this.
There was a lot of squeeze out on the forward half of the fillet which will have to be sanded off, but the shape looked good.
The second fillet on the port side went better. Here it is.
We will see how good they are when I pull the Peel Ply. Fingers crossed...
That is the final piece of structural build on the boat.
From now on everything is about painting and fitting out. What an amazing feeling!
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