The morning today was wet and it rained on and off for the rest of the morning. I had hoped to get the keel bands finished today but unless it dries out this afternoon I'll not be able to complete the two long straight sections. The ends of these need to be rounded off, as do the uppermost corners. I can do this but if the metal gets wet then it will need to dry out before I fix it to the hull.

The repairs to the bilge runner seem to have come out quite well. This is the top...

...and this is the inner side.

Unfortunately, the weather remained too wet to work on the long keel bands but I fitted the others anyway since they were either ready or could be worked on in the workshop.

The stem had one screw that would not go in, the one where the hole went through a bronze screw in the stem. Not too sure what to do about that one. It also had a screw that went round on me but it was far enough in not to matter until I need to get it out, of course.

The middle of these three is the odd screw. I cut it down so that it didn't touch the bronze screw underneath, so it's not really holding the band down at all.

All the keel bands have been bedded in Sikaflex 291i, a marine sealant. Although it looks like I used a lot, this is not the case. I put a fine bead of sealant on the wood and then screwed down the band which then squished out the sealant as you can see. Once the sealant has cured I'll trim off the excess with a sharp blade. I did try to clean some of it up with a blade but it just smeared out a lot. 

The skeg band went on easily despite the right angles bends ato both ends.

This is the other runner but looking at the photo I think I have missed the end screw on this one. I'll check tomorrow.

I drilled the pilot holes and mounted the antenna mount (too many mounts in that sentence but I'm too tired to fix it) and it looks okay. It is only dry fitted for now as I need to see if the shroud can be fitted in place with the mount there or whether I'll need to take it off in order to get the shrouds on.

The mount itself has slots instead of holes which allows it to be moved a bit should the backing pad not be quite in the correct orientation.

The antenna goes on this this. I think I'll cut down the white tube a little as it is a bit too long for this application.

The end of the antenna sticks up further than I thought it would but cutting off some of the white tube will reduce that.  bit. Not that it matters too much as the burgee will be a lot higher that this. Once I finally fit the AIS I'll probably use some thin string to tie the antenna to the eye in the mast band which will stabilise the aerial greatly.

So a reasonable day despite the damp.

Time for a cup of tea.