It’s official. I hate sanding. Filling, sanding, filling, sanding, sanding some more. Some months ago I decided that I wanted a clear carbon boat. That all seems fine until you sit down and try and actually do it …

Ideally your boat would come out of the mould, and all you would have to do is give it a polish and away you go. Well it simply isn’t like that. On my boat there were two main concerns, pinholes in the carbon weave, and some areas on the chine that didn’t mould properly.

Normally that isn’t an issue as a couple of bog wipes later you are ready to paint. Except when you want to finish clear, as any filling you do must also be done clear.

So with about 40 hours of filling and sanding behind me, I am reasonably happy with the hull finish. I can still find faults in it, but if I actually want to go sailing this season, I need to stop sometime.

Anyway on to some photos:

Before

After

In case you are wondering, yes that is a new workshop. In the last three weeks we have sold our house and are now renting in a new place. That is another reason why there hasn’t been an update in a while.

Oh one more thing … Mark Thorpe is a master boat builder. To get his boats with the clear finish that he does takes a LOT of skill and/or hard work. There is a reason why the bottom of the Bladeriders are painted red, and there are no clear Prowlers … time.

My boat also has a name “Teknologika”. Now where have I heard that before?