Smoothing the new finish

Well, I'm quite tired. I can barely make a fist. My forearms burn with every letter I type so I probably won't be too wordy.
All day I have been sanding and I'm about 3/4's done with smoothing things out. Boy am I beat. And I'm not doing the majority of the work either!
Meet the work horse:








I don't know how people got on without power sanders. Wear a dust mask because that powder will make you sick.

Anyway, after washing down the hull, I had to attack this fine mess:










That was gel coat damage that didn't reach the fiberglass. I had routed out the cracks with a Dremel then filled with gel coat. All of the excess had to be taken away. It's simple, dull work but it has to be done. Sand away until things are flush.










After a while, the new color will fade and blend in with the old and this should be hardly noticeable.


Now, let me show you how the bow is doing.


This is before gel coat:












This is after:










Much better, huh? She no longer looks like that annoying ugly bucktoothed kid that chased you around at recess wanting a kiss.


Things are blending well. I'll finish with this task then move on to making that finish sparkle by wet sanding. Somewhere in there I'll fix the bow handle. So, the plan is, aside from a "how to" on the bow handle, there won't be another update until I unveil her sparkling shiny reborn self with her sail up and ready to take off across the water.

Until then, these are pictures of places which had been damaged. Can you spot the repair?










Could you see it? How about this one:









Any luck?


What about these-


There was a big gaping hole here. Would you have noticed?









How about this one? Aside from the color mismatch, would this previous hole have jumped out at you?







I've got some work to do. I'll see ya again when my bow handle gets here.

"We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire...give us the tools and we will finish the job." ~Winston Churchill

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