Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit to them
Bruce Lee
Back in the mid ’90s I was at the Perth Bus Station coming home from school and there was huge queues, disgruntled commuters and frazzled drivers. Clearly the bus timetables had come adrift at some point. Then, like mana from heaven, a voice spoke loudly and clearly over the intercom for all to hear “Sorry for the delays folks. There’s been a colossal fuck up here in the office and we’re attempting to put it right to get you all home in time for dinner.” Pure gold!
So on another fine day in mid-March Chris and I went down to the boat for a simple activity of cleaning the interior of the boat then applying an epoxy fillet to the bow interior. Firstly we neatly folded up the fibreglass sheets, placed them on the side of the boat, thinking that we’d use them soon enough, and then vacuumed out the interior.
Now we turned out attention to the bow. The intent was to create a strong, wood coloured epoxy fillet down the interior to strengthen the bow. Here at Team dubl duck we’re using the West System for our epoxying needs. The 105 epoxy resin, the 205 hardener (used on a 1/5 ratio with the epoxy) and for the first time the 405 fillet blend wood flour.
The instructions were fairly simple. Mix the wood flour to create a smooth peanut butter or putty consistency then dispense using a plastic bag….
Well, you’d think we’d have learned by now to be cautious. Nope – straight into it like kid with a sugar bowl. I mixed the wood flour into the epoxy giving it a god-awful dark brown colour, tipped the dubious mixture into a bag then squeezed our the fillet onto the bow. Did I mention it was another 35*C (95*F) day?
What a colossal fuck up that turned into. The colour was waaaay too dark for the wood and, worse still, the fillet started cooking while we were applying it. Smoke started appearing from the bubbling fillet. Both Chris and I looked on in horror hoping that our efforts weren’t about to become a charred rubble of shattered dreams. Fortunately the smoke dissipated after a few minutes but it left behind a air pocketed affair that had hardened beyond redemption. In fact, it looked like Poseidon himself had stepped out of the sea, dropped strides and shat down the front of the boat before returning to the ocean, laughing at the folly of men.
We were devastated. We still had to put two similar but smaller fillets against the transom in the stern. Tears impeding my vision, we used the left over epoxy from the stern to attempt to fill the holes in the poo streak at the bow. The transom fillets weren’t so bad but the bow was totally wrecked.
With heavy hearts we closed the doors to the container and left. It took me over a month before I’d return to the boat. Chris, the legend that he is, went back a fortnight later and spent the day sand papering the fillets. “Friction and Time”. Its little wonder that Chris is now battling a spate of bilateral tennis elbow.
Join us next time when the build actually starts to turn a corner. No, really, it does 🙂