A turning point in the project for me was when the new port stern was attached to Reach. Its permanence made me feel like we had made it half-way towards a major goal being accomplished. We even celebrated over a yummy fried chicken lunch (can't beat Guatemalan pollo frito).
Once the stern was attached, the final effort was focused on finishing work. As you will have gathered by now, to fill and fair the stern and make all of the lines and joints seamless takes much more talent that it might seem for this to come out looking "factory" built and not just an "add-on". From what we've seen in other yard projects, this is what these guys are really good at.
Most importantly it takes a keen eye. At first one could detect the more obvious high and low spots in the stern join and where curves were a little wavy. These lows needed to be filled with pieces of fiberglass and then the highs sanded down to match the rest of the hull. This entails lots and lots and lots of iterations of sanding...
The holes used for internal glassing also needed to be filled back in.
This was done with an ingenious trick of gluing a fiberglass plug a little bigger than the hole, bringing it flush with a stick and wire, which is removed and then glassed over.
Alas, two new permanent holes were added to serve as the vents for our dorades, designed to provide engine airflow. Noé and Mark conceived of a curved cut-out and Mark shaped it to give a smooth "combing box" look. These should now be water-proof air vents and will replace our former clam-shell vents that stuck-out on each side of the original hull steps.
Next the finer finishing took place. At this stage I had a difficult time seeing the highs & lows. This requires sanding with random orbital sanders followed by long sanding boards over long stretches of surface area, so that you don't over-sand new divots into concentrated spots.
Thin layers of filler and "detection" gel-coat was applied so that you can take care of any little rough spots and subtle low points to get a flawless, smooth hull following wet sanding in water with fine-grit sand paper.
Mark wanted to use a colored gelcoat (black) for this step, where once you sand out all of the visual color you have achieved a smooth surface, but the guys thought this was crazy.
The curves made finishing all the more challenging, but all of the complex shapes were perfected with plenty of skill thanks to Mark ~ he really outdid himself here (plus sanded off his fingerprints!).
This stage requires perfectionism for sure, yet it's amazing what you can see on a finished, shiny surface in certain sunlight if you don't get it right. Imagine a little ding or wave on your shiny car door in the right light.
Soon enough we realized that the turning point for others was different. Saul & Dony were found taking their own cellphone pictures of the new stern once it was fully faired and smooth. That seemed to represent the point where they felt the culmination of a job well done! I'm sure Noé felt the same as he even took a few well-deserved days off to attend his daughter's wedding in the city.
A few days later, the half-way point was reached for Mark when he started work on the next stern. For him, the turning point was the transition when he could now focus all of his attention on the starboard hull, knowing that the port stern was now in great shape!
