Work Day 19

It has been far too long since I have made an entry. But I have been working none the less. This last 2 weeks, considerable progress has been made on the boat. The Cabin: I sealed in the floor and finally secured the cabin. Well so I thought, the rainstorm came right after I sealed it and proved pretty well that it was not as sealed as it could be. It was obvious in the front and rear gaps on the floorboard that there was water leaking in. This became evident when I pushed the boat under a tree for shade and head what sounded like 5 gallons of water trapped beneath the floor boards. It was confirmed when I stuck my hands down the forward bilge and found the seal there was broken as well. The prospect of ripping up the floor again was not exciting. So I chose to drill two holes on the starboard side at low points. Drain out all the water with a shop vac and then seal it up from the top down. So far my strategy has worked. One of the drilled holes is completely dry now, and one is still leaking a little. I am drying them out for two weeks right now. I bought some special caulking to seal all the forward and rear gaps on the floor boards. The other major concern was the side wall since it was potential leaking source as well. So I took the fairing compound and sealed the entire wall up to the floor board. This proved to work, but the sanding was going to take a long time if I wanted to get the wall flat. It is still a work in progress. I realized I needed to take care of the painting outside first then put up the mast, then seal the cabin with a proper fabric cover. At that point I can pick back up on cabin work.