Pretty much as soon as breakfast was over I finished my cup of tea and went down to the workshop to view the results of yesterday's labour. The first thing to do was to pull off the peel ply.

Looks good. Not too shabby.

The other side, however, oh dear! It has not bonded to the hull at all.

It pretty much came off in one piece. Not good. Not good at all.

So what is the problem? There are three possibilities. Firstly, the epoxy just doesn't bond well to the copper epoxy. Secondly, the pumps are blocked up with solidified epoxy resin or hardener resulting in an inaccurate mix ratio. Thirdly, the epoxy is too old.

I discounted the first one since the epoxy didn't bond to bare wood either. The third option was also discounted since the shelf life of West System epoxy is measured in years. But I am getting to the bottom of the containers so perhaps it is time to discard what is left and start a new pack. The most likely reason for the issue is incorrect mixing ratio. So, I have ordered some new pumps for the unopened epoxy I already have and I'll postpone the any more epoxy work until they arrive during the week.

In the meantime, I have to prepare the hull surface again. Despite my thought that it is probably not due to the copper epoxy, just to be safe I decided to remove it were the fibreglass is to be placed. My word, that stuff is hard. This is the result of one side and it took most of the morning to get it to this stage.

That should do the job.

Time for a break before starting on the other side.

To be brutally honest, I just couldn't face working on the other side of the stem today so instead I decided to continue the work on the keel bands. First up was the skeg.

As you can see, it has come out quite well.

Then I worked on the other bilge runner keel band and this too came out well.

Although I have screwed these to the hull, they are only dry fitted for the moment. I'll take them off when the remainder of the keel bands are also done and bed them with a decent sealant.

That's all for today.

Time for a cup of tea.