In the week or so since I last reported here, I have done a few things. I finished painting the inside of the boat. I have chosen to keep the deck and interior an off-white colour. See if it shows up in the pictures. Once that was done, I was quite excited to replace the decks! That meant sealing the side tanks, so I also replaced the first pieces of hardware. They are the plates that support the two side stays. The are mounted on the forward end of each side tank and they required nuts on the backsides. I epoxied and screwed the largest deck pieces in place then used the air nailer to secure the side deck pieces. No twist to those boards. Latest thing was to invert the boat so I can get to work scraping the paint from the ugly black hull. The first few panels shed paint like leaves in autumn, but I have also encountered some patches where the paint sticks like grim death! I have used a heat gun and quite a few applications of stripper. Takes forever! The port side of the boat looks like the paint is in better condition. How to find out if it is solid enough to just paint over. Comments?
