The first thing I did today, which I would have done whatever the weather, was to go down to the workshop during my morning tea break and pull the peel ply off the glass fibre. The weather is lovely again, by the way, warm and sunny but quite a lot more windy than yesterday.

So, here is the reinforcement with the peel ply removed. It has come out quite well this time.

You can easily see the marking on the hull through the epoxy and glass meaning that it has penetrated the glass fibre well.

The other side is almost as good.

And again you can clearly see the markings on the hull.

There were a couple of spots where the peel ply lifted after I'd closed up the workshop, this is the worst of them and you can see another small bubble on the upper right of the image.

These spots will need to be sanded carefully to ensure that there is no amine blush on the surface but apart from that, I'm pretty pleased at how it has come out. This will all be covered in another two layers of epoxy when I apply the copper epoxy which will further help to strengthen the reinforcement. That stuff is very sticky and sets like a rock.

I'm getting close to the point where Naiad is re-inverted and put back on the trailer. I just have to complete the keel bands, sand off any remaining organic matter, apply the copper epoxy where required, leave the epoxy to harden for a few days whilst I laminate the bilge runner supports and then over she goes.

Time to get back to work.

Once work was done for the day I continued on with the keel bands. The stem band needed an 8mm hole drilled in the right place to allow the eye bolt to pass through. Then the band was held in place by three screws and the remaining hold drilled.

The procedure was repeated for the two keel bands, without the 8mm hole but with a few screws holding the band in position whilst the remaining screw holes were drilled.

The keel and stem bands still need to have the edges ground off and the ends rounded before they can be fixed in place.

However, this part of the hull work is approaching completion. One small problem is that the screws really need a pilot hole that falls between two drill bits that I have. The 3mm bit is too large and the 2.5mm bit is too small. Still, with the exception of one screw they should all go in fairly easily and the odd one is in the same place as another screw so I'll need to cut it down and add some glue to the thread to hold it in place.

Still, for today that is the tasks done that I wished to get done.

Time for a cup of tea.