Day 7 & 8 — Finishing up minor issues on the decking, transom and keel

Once I got the tape off of the deck, it was clear there were a few issues to deal with. First, I needed to trim a bit of the excess or overhanging veneer strips with an X-Acto blade to get it roughly flush with the side of the hull. The tape also pulled some of the grout out between the veneer strips. This was expected and all gaps will be filled prior to varnishing. Remember, I am putting a toe-rail all round the edge of the deck, so I am not concerned with how the veneer is cut or how cleanly it matches up with the edge of the deck, as it will be covered by my ¼" wide rail:

Unfortunately, some of the ends of the veneer, particularly where cut to points as the deck curve intersected the ends of the strips, did not hold with the epoxy. I should have had more at the edges. I will have to through an extra step in the process for getting these ends secured with epoxy. Though not shown in the photos, I just used a scrap piece of veneer to spread a bit of epoxy under the loose pieces and secured them with tape:

I also needed to shape the veneer for the transom, as I have shaped the transition from deck to transom as a curve, instead of a square intersection. I soaked the veneer piece in hot water for a few minutes and rigged a simple jig to hold the piece in shape while it dryed:

Here is the transom:

Here is my veneer being test fit to the transom:

I applied clear epoxy to both surfaces and then pre-thickened phenolic epoxy as normal to attach the veneer:

Once the transom was in place, I taped it securely and made sure it was in good contact all around. I also used a pair of sharp scissors to trim the transom veneer while it was partially taped in place:

I also needed to glue in the corner pieces in the companionway, which I had left out earlier. I let them overhang, epoxied them in place, taped them down and trimmed them once dry:

I decided to add a bit of epoxy to the bow at the deck. I was not happy with its shape so the epoxy will enable me to reshape it to my liking:

Here, the tape is in place to hold all the edge veneer pieces that needed more epoxy:

 As I may have mentioned on a previous day, some areas of the ballast needed some additional epoxy. I filled in those spots:

These spots needed more as well:

It may be hard to see, but there was a low spot all around the gap between ballast halves, I filled those in as well:

It looks like there is a lot more epoxy than was needed, and there is. I wanted to be sure I had plenty to work with so I could avoid a third re-work:

On the next day, I sanded everything. Unfortunately, I only show the sanding of the ballast in progress - or perhaps fortunately, as there is not a lot to show with sanding:

I also drilled out the holes on the deck, one for the mast, one for the backstay, one of the forestay, two for the shrouds, and six for the sheet guides. That's it for these two days.