Hit the Deck!

Finally - it seems like years - I've finished the bottom of the boat. All fastenings changed; screw heads filled; painted; faired and painted again.

OK, so theres a few small areas to do where the jacks are. I can move them in a week or so when the primer has hardened, but they're small beer compared with working on a whole side.

Now to concentrate on the topsides while the British summer is here: The windscreen frame needs cleaning back to bare wood and requires some repair work before painting. Then its finishing the cabin sides, some filling still to do, then painting.

And then its the new Teak deck.

I've been umming and ahhing over using a fake teak for a couple of years. There are about a dozen or so variants from Flexi-teak to Aikona to loads of others. I decided to wait and see how others got on with the stuff. I didn't like the soft ones as they don't support deck fittings too well and crush easily when the sister-in-law turns up in stilettos. Then some of the guys started to report massive movement with the hard fake teaks due to temperature fluctuations.

All in all it looks like real teak will have to be the answer. So now to decide whether to go down the WEST Epoxy and 6mm thick planks or a more traditional layup with 10mm thick planks on a flexible adhesive.

Decisions decisions...