Sailing Little Grace 2012 video

Here is a video of our sailing adventures and the places we visited with Little Grace in 2012.

Cleats for the jib/genoa sheets

When I obtained Little Grace the cleats for the jib/genoa sheets looked like this.

As you can see there was a plate of aluminium bent up at the aft end under the clam cleats. It seems reasonable to assume that it was intended as a retainer for the sheets once they were cleated. The implication being that without it the sheet could be accidentally released. Apart from being ugly the system seemed to undermine the quality of quick release the clam cleat provides. 

In addition there seemed to be a drawback in the use of clam cleats if someone was single handed at the helm. Concentration would be required to locate the slot when sheeting that might not be available in a tricky situation, when the action itself might be difficult. As a consequence of these considerations I fitted horn cleats before I launched Little Grace for the first time in 2010. 

I had become accustomed to these on bigger boats and had seen them fitted in photos of other Alacritys. My logic was that getting turns and figure of eights around a cleat while concentrating on something else and holding the tiller with the other hand should be perfectly possible. It was but the system had its drawbacks. Firstly it was apparent that the time it took to uncleat could be a drawback in a tricky situation, such as being overpowered. Secondly I could see that whoever was crewing quickly became bored with cleating and nucleating O,X,Os on short tacks. Given the nature of the boat I realised I had to think back to my dingy sailing days for these dynamic lines rather than my big boat days. 

 

The obvious alternative that would provided quick cleating and release was cam cleats, which I had on my dingy and have used on Little Grace for the light wind sails. However, the cockpit combing is not very wide so fitting would either have to be at the wrong angle for the line from the winch or inside the cockpit combing facing back up towards the winch. The wrong angle was a non starter and fitting them inside the cockpit would have meant that valuable backrest space or, when lounging, leg comfort would have been compromised. The system would also have the issues of alignment associated with the clam cleats and fitting fairleads would prevent handing the line to and from the winch.

One of the benefits of horn cleats is that they can be used across the cockpit if the heel of the boat makes it prudent to sheet on the windward side, which means crew weight does not have to move to leeward to uncleat. Additionally the line can be handled with ease from an uphill helming position.  

As a compromise between the need for quick release and the other requirements discussed above I settled on jam cleats. The video below shows one being used across the cockpit for another reason. No this is not a new version of a lazy sheet; the rest was well deserved.

The video below shows the port cam cleat (for the light wind sails), the jib sheet cleat and their positions relative to each other and the winch.

Cruising Chute

In the spring of 2011 I collected a new spinnaker and a code 0 cruising chute (drifter) from North Sails. They proved to be a good investment in 2011 (not) because Little Grace did not make it to the water when refurbishment had to stop due to the projects of converting our barn, so the horses could live at home, and starting our own veterinary clinic from scratch.

You can imagine I was keen to try the new sails this year and in a previous post I wrote about a test of the running rigging (see A - Z of Refurbishment and Ongoing Improvements in the panel on the left). However, don’t imagine a scenario where this keen sailor now goes out with the single minded intention of sailing an appropriate course in the right conditions to test the new sails, oh no.

Little Grace is berthed about an hour and a half from where we live and since she has been back in the water we have used her for weekend cruises. This has meant that any test of the sails has to fit in with the passage plans. The passage plans themselves have to fit into parameters such as getting the boat Friday night, getting to our destination so we have time to relax, enjoy it and giving the dogs a chance to stretch their legs on Saturday. Then getting home on Sunday with enough time to sleep before work the next day. 

The criteria for testing the sails within the passage plans was light winds in the right direction and enough sea room to get out of trouble if it all goes pear-shaped; it never happened. There have been light winds in the wrong direction aplenty. On the rare occasions it was on the beam or aft there was not enough sea room or the leg was too short.  Instead of returning to harbour at the end of our trips on the light wind sail friendly dying sea breeze, as had been my expectation from the normal conditions, we have had a reef the main or sailed at near hull speed under headsail alone. Except, of course, when the wind has been against us and we have had maintain a long tack to windward in the last leg. Even on one of those occasions we did it under headsail alone, just to prove the boat could and she can, very well.

The last weekend was just the same. I prayed for the light winds that had been forecast to be where we needed to reach at the beginning of our shorter than usual passage plan. The wind should have come from the west but the main island caused it to back to the south and it was a case of pinching to keep our southerly compass course down the east side of the main island and then going west, with the wind on the nose, when we got to the corner.   

In theory there was a short section of the route where there was just enough water to leeward after we had to bear away into a channel to go north again. It was there and the video below shows the result. On the return journey it was back to a reef in the main and the number 2 genoa being ample to maintain near hull speed.

I set the cruising chute from the foredeck, raising and lowering it at the mast. At the beginning of the video you can hear the engine running in neutral. It was on standby, just in case; after all we did not know if the sail would fit because it says Hurley 20 rather than Alacrity on the bag, yet alone if I would get it to go up cleanly. There was not that much room to leeward and what there was got narrower. As it turned out the sail is perfect, as you would expect, and all went well, which is a surprise.

Code 0s are favoured for cruising boats because they are made of stronger material and have a luff and cut that gives greater windward potential than other spinnakers. Given the changes in wind direction due to the islands this last point is an asset; the video shows it. The apparent wind meant we were just on the edge but we only had to bear away a little to both stay very close to our compass course and allow the sail to fill and show the potential of things to come. 

An old photo I used to explain the pulpit dimensions to North Sails when ordering the cruising chute. You can see the hole use to secure the strop above the bow roller in front of the forestay fixing.

For the technically minded the tack is fixed to the deck, a strop attached in front of the forestay in our case because of the pulpit. The strop is attached where there is a hole that seems to have been intended for a pin to secure the anchor above the bow roller. The luff on our chute is loose and tape, as opposed to wire.

Battery

I have updated the Under the companionway post to show the position of the battery in relation to the rest of that area and the use of the step in particular.

Handheld GPS Holder

Although the handheld GPS is very convenient to use, actually holding it when helming is not convenient, particularly if the conditions are tricky. Of course, these are they very times when having the GPS loose in the cockpit is rather risky.

Until now we have put the GPS in one of the halyard bags when it is not in use and had to retrieve it each time it is needed.  This caused my constant anxiety that the day would come when, at a time I forgot to be anxious, it would get entangled in a line and flipped overboard, even though the lines are stowed in the elastic either side of the bags rather than in the bag themselves.

For some time I have considered how to keep the GPS safe and on view all the time, so whoever is navigating only has to glance at it to get the information they need. I have seen one boat owner use a standard boat mount next to the companionway but I think the odds are that if we used one it would be garroted and the GPS catapulted to Davy Jones’ Locker.  If not that fate, I or the dogs would catch it under our feet when stepping into the cockpit.

My first thought was to adapt a holder for a handheld compass and mount it on a washboard. I did not get round to mounting it because I hesitated to compromise the integrity of the wood and invite it to rot. It is lucky that I did because in tests we found that you can’t see the GPS screen if it is at the level of the first washboard and having the second one always in place is not an option. A hinged flap that folds back into the cabin, as others have done, was a possibility but I was reluctant to invade the domestic snugness of the cabin with boaty things more than already necessary.

Back to the drawing board

Tuulia identified the sensible place to secure the GPS.......

............which initiated a new design challenge.

A winch handle holder with the front panel and a hole to allow fitting cut away. The hose  inside causes the GPS to sit at the correct angle.

A perfect fit. The holder is kept in place using a keyring purchased at a chandler that opens like a claw. The wrist strap is also attached at this point, so there are no more anxieties about the GPS abandoning ship.

Although the positioning is a little inconvenient for anyone using the companionway it is more than made up for by the advantages.

Under the companionway

Like most small boat owners and the owners of larger boats for that matter, there is an endeavour to optimise the space available. Here you can see how the space under the companionway is used on Little Grace.



The flare, in a handy position protected from my big feet by an overhang, is white. The black round shape you can see is the back of the Whale pump, which is accessed from the cockpit. The rescue line is held in place by a fire extinguisher holder.

The step is also the cover for the battery and a convenient place to stand a water bottle when poring water from the tap at the bottom. The step and the bilge access have Treadmaster on but the rest of the sole is varnished for ease of cleaning. The fire extinguisher and fire blanket are away from but within reach of the cooker and, like the other things here, can be accessed by reaching in from the cockpit.

When Little Grace was purchased she had a water tank under the cockpit with an external inlet. The tank was condemned for use as storage for drinking water and in its day its weight, when full, must have altered the trim of the boat in an undesirable way. Added to which filling it up would have meant getting alongside where there was a hose for drinking water.

The old water tank was removed and we use the 10L cans you can see, which can be carried to the source of water if necessary. The water inlet is now used for the fuel pipe or capped when the boat is unattended (Open story in new window).

As the water bottles are portable they can also be used as movable ballast, namely moved to the cabin sole between the cooker and the Porta Potty to bring the trim forward when pushing through waves. If you click here you will see a cutaway in the edge that retains the cabin seats at the aft of the cooker and Porta Potty boxes. If the water is moved forward a wooden strip, normally kept in the quarter birth, is placed in them and therefore across the cabin to restrain the water bottle and anything else placed in that area. This arrangement has only been used once so far but in terms of practicality it worked well.

There is enough space for the addition of bottled water or soda. Although this can easily be stowed elsewhere there it is both secure and easy to access. The Clear pipe is from the electric bilge pump, which is located under the bilge access hatch you can see in the first photo.

From the shape of the wood behind the separate and removable step that fits over the battery, you can see that the water bottles are very well restrained and not likely to move from their position. (Click here to open a photo showing the basicstructure in a new window)

The switch for the Whale hand blige pump is located on the port side, you can just see it in the first picture. Whereas the electric pump is centered under the cabin sole each of these pipes goes to the glassed in and painted keel heads, which are lower than the rest of the bilge.

Rigging for light wind running and reaching sails

Here is the setup for the drifter and spinnaker. In these videos you can see the arrangements in the first test of the gear using a poled out genoa rather than the drifter or, in the case of the pole, the spinnaker - one step at a time.

In the first video you can see the arrangement for sheeting to the quarters. The Barton blocks clipped onto the cleats normally live clipped onto the pushpit so they are out of the way when the cleats are needed for mooring. The turn around the other cleat, that also acts as a fairlead to the cam cleat, is deliberate and there is room for a second turn if needed.

In the second video you can see the rigging for the pole, well at least the principle. When rigged for the spinnaker the downhaul for the pole will be the white line that you can see in the clam cleat (in the vieo it is rigged as a downhaul for the genoa). The red line will be replaced by the halyard for the spinnaker that will be rigged via the double standup block you can see the foresail halyard rigged through. The uphaul for the pole is bungee cord that is clipped onto a D ring attached to the mast just within my reach. This means that only one line has to be adjusted to change the vertical angle of the pole.

Rigging the mainsheet to windward to centre the boom

One of the limitations of the Alacrity often commented upon by owners is the fact it has a horse (the metal bar in the videos below) instead of a mainsheet track. At least one owner has installed a track but the construction has to both go over the tiller and remain strong throughout its length; not the sort of engineering I want to take on, especially as the benefits may be limited in comparison to the effort involved in the installation. That said a track makes it possible to bring the mainsheet to windward in light conditions to improve performance when beating or reaching.

As a compromise I have found the use of the line shown in the videos below to be easy to rig, very effective and easy to release and bring across as Little Grace goes through a tack or, if necessary, once the tack has been completed.

The cooker, porta potty and chart table

It may seem a bit strange to talk about the cooker, porta potty and chart table in the same post but in addition to their separate entities and functions together they become one.

This is how things looked when I obtained Little Grace.

The cooker (obviously): There is no wood under the base plate of the grill to save some weight.

In the space under the cooker there are two washing-up bowls, one inside the other. They just fit through the top of the opening at the front, where I have cut a recess on the right to allow the lip of the bowl to go through. They rest at the bottom of the unit, where there is a plywood base. This means that they and what they contain are secure when we are on a port tack. 

Domestic things are kept in the top bowl and the dinner sized plates live in the bottom bowl.

The chart table: This is just the right size to hold the chart books that are standard here. There is a fiddle and non-slip matting to help hold them in place.

The porta potty (obviously): As you can see the controls are accessible. The unit's hinged lid means the porta potty is used in location. Note that if its use requires that Little Grace is hoved to we will make sure we are on a starboard tack. 

With the lid closed the unit becomes a handy table.........

...... or a handy seat, which is at just the right height, given the low headroom, for working at the chart table. And so the separate units make up the whole.

Also see new stove.

An error of judgment and a neat trick when blown on

I promised that there would be mistakes to learn from on this blog. I have kept quite about them so far but here is one that occurred last weekend.

It was already mid afternoon because torrential rain kept us from setting out earlier. That’s the way we planned it so it was OK; no frustration. Having tacked our way south for 3nm at a rate that dropped 1-2 kts in wind that dropped to less less than 2 kts and sometimes nothing as it backed, we decided to put into a visitors’ berth for one of the cafes that blossom in Finland at this time of year.

On arrival we found the two outermost berths on the cafe's floating pontoon were occupied but there were mooring rings on the jetty it extended from. The water was pretty shallow so I nosed in gingerly. The bottom looked to be covered in silt but the jetty seems to be built over what is charted as a submerged rock and there was no telling how much soft stuff there was to cushion the blow if we touched.

We had just come alongside when Tuulia said it felt as if we had “bumped”. When it came again I felt it too. In the last moments before tying up the echo sounder had stopped giving a reading. Its sensitivity range starts at 1m, as per the factory setting, so I guessed the depth was one meter. I quickly retrieved and used the lead line, which is kept with all those other things that may be needed in a hurry. As expected we had 1m of water all round. With a draft of .55m I was wondering, in a positive way, if we would be OK to stay, given that the Baltic is non-tidal and the Alacrity is designed to be able to take to the ground. Wrong!


At that moment the wake of a powerboat  came in. It had recently passed with all the consideration of one of those German cars driven by people who seem to think they own the road and the rules don’t apply to them and it felt like we  bounced off rather than touched the bottom in each of the troughs. Time to leave and move to another small jetty we have tied up to before!

This was the moment some well meaning but rather drunk Swedish speaking Fins decided to engage us in conversation and pass their opinion as to our predicament. They also offered to walk Little Grace back to the outer berth as it was occupied by their boat and they were leaving. However, I did not like to the look of the corners of the jetty and pontoon as these were joined together by a small bridge some 2 meters away from the edge we were attached to and would have to be walked along. So once our helpers finally relinquished their hold of the shrouds and stanchions I got Tuulia to drop the last line onto the deck and made way.

Tuulia stayed on the pontoon as we had agreed that she would walk round and take the lines as I came in at the other jetty. Our helpers had shown that they were not a danger to Tuulia’s safety, in fact it proved quite the reverse because in their fogy state made worse by the language issues they were concerned that I was leaving her behind on a more permanent basis. Anyway, we carried on regardless and they left in high spirits and full song.

Tying up was uneventful but the chips at the cafe were not up to the standard we so fondly remembered from 2010 . Nontheless they were warm and the stop gave the dogs a break and the trip a feeling of arriving at a destination to return from.

Back at the boat we found the wind had picked up and was pinning us onto the jetty. Springing the stern out was the textbook option but I wanted to try something I had read about on my Kindle in The Complete Trailer Sailor by Brian Gilbert. It may not be anything new to people used to using a transom mounted outboard on a small yacht but I am more familiar with bigger boats where the technique isn't an option, so I was keen to give it a try. In truth I tried it a few weeks ago but there was no wind, this would be a true test.

Tuulia sat on the foredeck, she could have come up through the hatch if conditions were poor, and waited by the bow line, which I had changed to a slip through a ring ashore. I added an extra fender to the pulpit and I removed the stern line and the spring. As predicted from the lack of tension on any of these lines Little Grace remained pinned alongside. I motored back until the bow line tightened, angled the rudder and outboard away from the jetty and increased the power. The intention is that the boat swings out from the where the bow line is attached ashore like a pendulum, a feat made possible by the fact that an outboard can be angled in the direction of travel. The stern came away but Tuulia indicated that the bow was still pinned to the jetty, so I increased first the power and then the angle and we came away. Tuulia was then able to slip the bowline as we backed away. It is a neat trick and worth practicing but it took higher revs from the outboard for a longer period of time than springing off.

The sail home was one long tack at 3.5 to 4 kts, according to the GPS log. Yes the wind, now a steady minimum of 2ms, had swung right round. I was able to stay inside the 10m contour all the way by luffing up in the minor gusts.

Jiffy Reefing

While we were nearly becalmed I took the opportunity to video the newly completed jiffy reefing system. The video is at the end of this post.

I wanted to be able to reef from the cockpit/companionway but did not want to bring more lines onto the coach roof and risk reducing the ability to move about the deck without tripping over something. The solution I used was to keep all the lines on the boom based on the excellent example (click to view in new window)  in the blog for "A Silhouette called Misty". You can see the setup and the fittings I used on Little Grace in detail in the video at the end of this post.

I installed the system I use for the leech, at the aft end of the boom, back in 2010. In this photo you can see the cleat for the second reef of the leech (excuse the tatty ends of the reefing lines - the boat was thrown back together that year). The other side is identical and the reef is achieved by pulling the line tight and securing to the cleats. You can see it in the video below; this time the second reef is hidden under the sail but all will be made clear in the video at the end of this post.

I decided to simplify the aft end in this way because, when reefing, I bring the boom to the center line and can reach the aft end while standing in the cockpit. As reefing the leech is done after the tack and halyard is on the starboard side of the coach roof  there does not seem to be a downside. Once reefed I add an extra line through the clew and around the boom for extra strength.


Until now the system for the luff at the fore of the boom has been the reefing hook that came with Little Grace when I got her. I was not able put the hook in place without going to the mast and that did not make sense because the halyard had been run back to the cockpit by a previous owner. But, for now at least, I will keep it as a backup. I can adjust the gooseneck slide on the mast from the companionway by standing on the edge of the port and starboard cabin seats; I have protected the paintwork accordingly. Note that the gooseneck fitting on the boom is the one that came with Little Grace but the boom itself is new (2010) because the old one was bent.

The video below reveals all.

The Tiller Clutch in action

Here is a video of the Tiller Clutch in action while I took this and the video below. 

A simple downhaul

It turns out that I have spent a lot of time unnecessarily thinking about how to create a downhaul for the headsail. All the advice I have found suggests a turning block between the headsail tack and the forestay but the Alacrity, or a least my Alacrity, does not have a fixing point that allows this. I had come up with all sorts of ideas but I waited until the boat was back on the water to try them because my previous, albeit brief, attempt when little Grace was on the water in 2010 did not work out. This was because 1. the route I tried to use back to the cockpit via the stanchions had too much friction and 2. the block I tried to use kept falling over and snagging when the line was slack.

I spent last weekend on the boat catching up with those things I had not managed to finish before moving Little Grace to her summer berth. I had just finished the new jiffy rigging at the fore end of the boom and had a lot of leftover very slippery 4mm line in my hand when an imaginary line from the cleat for the pole downhaul, through the appropriate bullseye to the bottom of the forestay and use for said leftover appeared before me.

When rigged for the pole the line will go from the cleat via the bullseye to a block just behind the hatch. The uphaul for the pole will be bungee cord attached to the mast. The system used to work well on the GP14 dingy I once owned and as the forces on the Alacrity are relatively low it should work on Little Grace too.  Anyway, it occurred to me, as it had not done before (doh!), that if conditions are such that the genoa is poled out the downhaul will be A unnecessary and B useless until the pole is removed and the downhaul can be brought back to a cleat on the mast. Of course, the headsail will have to come down if the spinnaker or unstayed drifter go up but these will be in light conditions and someone will have to be on the foredeck anyway, so they can hand the jib or genoa too.

I wanted to try getting Little Grace in and out of her new berth on my own so I combined it with motoring out of our little harbour and upwind for 1.5 nms, then turned for home and set the small jib. The jib is so small the foot passes in front of the mast. When the time came the downhaul worked as perfectly as it had when I tested it head to light wind at the berth.

Unusually there was a ship coming up astern and as it is a narrow channel charted as a shipping lane I did not hang around to do more trials. However, it seems that in an emergency the downhaul will work OK at any angle to the wind. In the test in F3 I tried it on the run with the sheet still cleated, which was efficient but not pretty. To bring the sail on deck neatly it will be necessary to round up into the wind, especially with the number one or the genoa.

Captain Grace at the forehatch - but also note the bowline attached to the first hank and that the line simply turns on the same shackle the strop for the foresail tack is attached to.



The slipperiness of the new line may be relevant to the effectives of the system and I may have to replace it every year or so. But this type of white line (it may be the same type used for starter cord for outboards, which is what I used for the jiffy reefing at the aft end of the boom two years ago) is very cheap compared to other types of line.

And we're off

Final preparations

24nm to go

but 15 minutes in, turn into the guest harbour at Goat Island

To pick up Tuulia and the dogs, and get a coffee from the bar :-)

We're back!

Up up and away, heading for the water.

At last it's over - the refurbishment done.

Little Grace was back in the water on Thursday and it took another two days to finish things off, well most of them.

A lot going on

There's a whole lot going on......

......and in

but there is no time to explain because we will be back on the water on Thursday and there is a lot to do.

A - Z of Refurbishment and Onging Improvements

You can now use the A - Z of Refurbishment and Onging Improvements page to follow the refurbishment of Little Grace and the subsequent changes made to improve handling, performace and comfort on board without navigating through the blog archive.

(Now and in future you can click "A - Z of Refurbishment and Onging Improvements" in "Pages:Refurbishment and history" on the right to bring the page up)

 

I have itemised the various areas of the boat and put the posts about each of them in chronological order. However, there are things I have already done and taken photos of but have not had time to add. As and when I can write them up they will appear on the lists in the right order.

 

This list will also be kept up-to-date as and when new changes are made and I have time to write them up.

Painting Scheme

After finding a few small areas on the hull that needed a bit more filler and attending to them I removed the masking tape that had been on the hull for far too long.  I was a nightmare to get off and now the topside paint needs patch repairing at the waterline but there are other areas that also need attention.

Bizarrely I put new masking tape on the waterline ready for the next step, about which here is the work schedule.

Click to enlarge

The bootstrap will be painted with Trilux 33. The antifouling is Cruiser and the paint for the topsides is Toplac. They and Gelshield are all International products while Light Primer is a Hemple paint. I may put the Cruiser over the Trilux because Trilux is the harder wearing paint.

---------------------------------

Update:

• I found extra Gelshield in the paint locker, I must have bought some in 2011 I forgot about, so there will be 7 coats. Two green, grey, green, grey, green, grey, in that order. So much for the work schedule.
• I wrote to International Paints and got a very quick reply, as on previous occasions. They recomend putting the Trilux bootstrap on top of the Cruiser, that's the plan then.

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Hull

Before the first coat of Gelshield below the waterline was sanded with 180 paper using various power sanders and by hand. Any holes identified were filled and sanded off again. Then she was washed down with Supercleaner, hosed off and when dry cleaned off with lint free cloths and acetone.

After the first coat of Gelshield, the second coat was also green so she looked just the same.

After second coat of green and this, the first coat of grey, any pitting found was filled with Watertite epoxy filler. Gelshield is epoxy so the two should bond well.




Before the start of stripping down to and then repairing the gelcoat it had been my intention to use Primocon antifouling primer and I had purchased two tins to do two coats with, then I found the cracks (http://littlegracealacrity.blogspot.com/2011/06/cracking-up.html).

Given that I had two tins of Primocon it occurred to me that it might be a good thing to use them even if it is not strictly necessary. An e-mail to International paints confirmed that there was no downside and it would add to the overall protection.

Seven coats of Gelshield completed - this is the first coat of Primocon.

After two coats of Cruiser

Bootstrap marked out and taped. It took two peope to do this using a meter long flexible ruler. We markd from the top of the old boot strap to make a new bottom line. 15cm wide at the stern, so that the outer edge is at the very edge of the stern. 8 cm at the bow and 5cm when above the keel.

Three coats of Trilux 33 later here is the bootstrap before the strip

and the reveal

Deck, coach roof and cockpit

Much of this work was carried out concurrently with the work below the waterline.

Ready for the first coat of Light Primer on the deck and cockpit.

Actually the first coat of Light Primer (Hemple's epoxy primer undercoat) was applied in the summer 2011 before the project came to a holt, so this was the second coat.

Before painting, the deck, coach roof and cockpit was sanded with 180 paper using a rotary sander on the larger flat surfaces but otherwise by hand. Little Grace was then vacuum cleaned and holes that had been missed were filled with Watertite. This was followed by final sanding, vacuuming and then wiping down with lint free cloths and acetone.

The morning after the Light Primer was applied 1

The morning after the Light Primer was applied 2

The morning after the Light Primer was applied 3

Here you can see a coat of International's Perfection Undercoat, which was added after sanding with 240 grade paper. It was then sanded with 320 grade paper and cleaned with Tack-Rag. The edges of the non-slip areas have been masked ready for painting the shiny bits with Perfection.

After two coats of Perfection. Sanding between coats was with 320 grade and the dust cleaned away with Tack-Rag.

All the taping moved and two coats of Interdeck applied. The coats were 24 hours apart but it will take 2 - 3 days to be dry enough to walk on as the temperature is only just getting up to 10 c in the middle of the day.

 Tape removed after 36 hours

I will keep adding updates to this page until painting the outside is done.