Lower Coaming Strips Sanded, Toggle Holes Drilled

Yes, I'm going slow with the lower coaming pieces as they tend to be something that the eye is drawn to and I want them to look good. Normally you would just glue them down and be done with it. However, yesterday I ran a small fillet of thickened epoxy around the bottom of the strips. Today I cleaned up those strips with some sanding and then painted on a coat of epoxy. Looks good!

The clamps stayed on because it's only been 24 hours and the shop hasn't been that warm. I want to leave them on for another day just to be absolutely sure that it is cured before I release the clamps and let the epoxy take the tension from the strips.

I also drilled the 1/2" holes for the hand toggles. It's always a challenge to get the holes in a visually appealing position, and then it's another challenge to drill the holes without having the wood on the other side blow out. This time I had minimal damage but there is still some that I may have to clean up. I tried to sand them a little bit and then coated the insides with epoxy. Tomorrow I'll sand them down some more and see what I need to do to clean them up and make them presentable. I think I may need to round over the edges of the holes.

NOTE: The reason I can drill my holes now is because I already filled the ends in an earlier step. The manual has you wait until the boat is complete and do an "end pour".

Here's the bow toggle hole...I'm not totally happy with the placement, but too late now. Can't undrill it!

The stern toggle hole... Not super happy with its placement either, and I hit a bubble so had to fill it with thickened epoxy. It should be OK.

Peace!

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