Nearly ready for paint...

I got loads done today, nearly five hours on the boat, which is pretty incredible for a week night.

I started by sanding round all runners to smooth of the fillets I'd run and get rid of a couple of minor dribbles. Then I made some seat risers. The plans say to glue the seat in, but I'll leave mine mounted by screws to the bonded-in risers. That way I can take it out to recover it should the closed cell foam I plan to use for a cushion start to break up. It will also allow access to the area underneath, which if starts to deteriorate would otherwise go undetected. I screwed these risers into place and sanded down the interior to provide a key.

After dinner I went back out and had a monster session with the epoxy. First up I bonded in the seat risers and screwed them down until the resin sets. Then I primed out the entire interior to seal the wood. Some areas under glass tape was already done, but the centre area of each panel and the lower and inner edges of the inwales all needed to be done. Finally, I mixed up several big batches of low density filler to fair in all the tape edges.

All that will need a couple of days to go off before sanding, so if I do any building at all tomorrow (Friday) it'll be starting to make the paddles. They're $80 each in the shops, and I reckon I can make all 3 (one for this kayak and two for the tandem that is to follow) for less than that. On the other hand I might just kick back and have a beer or two, we'll see.