Hull Finished & A New Top

After a week of working on it, I finally put the finishing touches on the hull damage. It took three coats of Marine-Tex epoxy to fill in the deep ones, and countless hours of sanding, steel wooling, and finally polishing. Sanding removed the gloss and shine off it, so I used a super fine #0000 steel wool to smooth down the sanding to a fine finish. After steel wooling for what seemed to be an eternity, I grabbed the orbital buffer and some of the Meguiars Oxidation Remover. It's a somewhat gritty polish, but that's what I wanted to start with.

Lesson Learned: keep head away from buffer to avoid splattering! even though it smells good, the taste isn't. Here's the final product, afer Meguiars Oxidation Remover, #45 Polish, and a coat of wax.
I'm pretty impressed!

She also got her new cockpit cover installed. I switched to a black cover for pure aesthetics, and it makes the boat look brand new!!




It was made by a one-man shop here in town called John's Marine Service. It took a while to get it done, but it's worth it. He designed the top to fit much better than the old vinyl one, added two poles in the rear for stability and rain runoff, and ran the top completely down to the fiberglass, instead of just to the windshield frame. Gives it a nice streamlined look. Total cost, $750.

Lesson Learned: If I need canvas work again, call outside of boating season. Prices are significantly cheaper, and according to John, "we're struggling for business in the fall". So I'll be calling him after this season about adding some snap-in carpet.