Parker 2830 Extended cabin updates:

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Again, fellas, your kindness is warming to the soul. Baby Grace and momma are home, and we are transitioning now to a three children household…now, back to the mission at hand:

The three batteries were previously mounted in the bilge compartment on a "battery shelf". I have ALWAYS loathed batteries in the bilge for so many reason. The three batteries (2 cranking and 1 dedicated deep cycling house) were moved forward beneath the cabin in a "secret compartment", so I wanted to clean all the old screw holes in the bilge.
I ended up removing all the screws, back filling with UN-thickened injected epoxy resin, then fairing with formula 27 and rolled gel coat onto the tray: 3 coats.








Another priority for me was to have a cushion fabricated for the "galley drop down table" that spans the two benches: with a blanket and pillows, this makes for an amazing entertaining, play area for the children. I tested it out with my two oldest babies: Jack and Samantha. They gave two thumbs up.





As promised, here are the completion pictures of the forward cabin window covers to keep the N/NE sunlight out of the cabin. Pleased with results, though "linen" sunbrella color would have POPPED…but, still happy with the gel white.







Finally, I need some input on my live well schematic. What do you guys think of this plan? Any inherent concerns recognized? I'll be plumbing and installing this live well this week.

 
And here's a sneak peak of the cockpit nonskid gelcoat with griptex added: I decided to do the cockpit in two stages: 1st stage was to do all the periphery deck, let that cure then go back and do the center hatches. I had to break it into two timeframes in order to reach the area to roll and to remove the prep tape before curing…

The results are in, and I'm very pleased with the 1st stage results: I ended up mixing 100 ml's of Parker white gelcoat with 15 ml's of acetone, 5 drops of hardener (MEKP) and 20 ml's of griptex. Mixed it in a cup, poured it into the rolling tray and rolled it out. Once it was tacky to touch, I rolled ANOTHER layer of gelcoat on top with NO nonskid added: it helped to

a.) make the appearance more homogenized and
b.) lessened the aggressive peaks and troughs of the griptext. This is how I will also finish the center hatches (hopefully later today): start to finish, here you go:

Prepped with 120 grit DA sanded, then vacuumed, then wiped with acetone, taped area off and rolled: I removed the prep tape before the gelcoat cured to minimize over rolled adhesions.



















 
well guys: pretty major hiccup...the gelcoat on the cockpit w/ nonskid is not curing... I did it in two parts: the outside 2/3'rds then the middle section of hatch covers. Life (as you know) has been super busy, and I was rushing to get the job done to get home w/ my family...I had to mix 4 batches of gel coat to keep it potable... One of the batches got too much acetone for thinning. So, now we are 40 hours out on the lateral sections and 24 hours out on the middle hatch sections, and it's still tacky...ugh...

So, I ran the boat out of my covered slip and set her out on a protected finger pier to bake in the Florida sun for 24 hours as that 86 degree sun may help the final kickoff and cure. It's 95% cured...but that last dang 5% won't.

I may be looking at removing all this gelcoat from the cockpit floor and redoing.. This time, more precision with the recipe and NOT using acetone but I did buy a quart of DuraTec that I will use to thin it and add some "hardness" to the gelcoat. Even if this outside sunlight works, I am still going to top dress one more coat of gelcoat on the cockpit WITH duratec...the stuff is the bomb. So, standby...

Final result was super stella, but I'll get even better results w the duratec high gloss additive for final coat. Notice my dang foot prints on the bottom of this image?? I'm an idiot...[emoji35]



Sitting outside "cooking"

 
I used MEKP as a hardener/ catalyst and the gelcoat was "with wax" from Parker Marine Industries. Due to using the waxed gelcoat, I understood that no PVA was necessary.
I'm going to use the duratec, and that should make the difference.
 
Just left the boat this morning: It worked: Pulling her out her comfy shaded slip into the 86 degree baking sun kicked that last 5% into a cured state: she is hard as a rock!

So, now I'll finish the last topcoat w/ duratec high gloss additive 1:1 ratio to gelcoat, Parker white gelcoat, and MEKP at 2%…. Then, the cockpit should be good for 1/2 decade or more! Standby for follow up images of completed nonskid project.
 
Thanks, Jim and One-kid-diver [emoji6] :Really pleased w topcoat laid earlier today w "duratec" additive ... Now I can finally get started on the livewell install.

 
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