I spent many weekends during the winter months of 16-17 sanding, drilling and doing the body work to seal holes made by voids and other unwelcome surprises.
The wood that was on top of the cockpit coaming had been removed. The removal required me to slip a sawzall blade between the fiberglass and the wood trim and saw away. The bolts and adhesive just about made it impossible to remove the wood using any other method. The picture of the port side of the cockpit coaming also hints at the absence of the cockpit locker lid. These locker lids needed to be removed as well; they became their own project.
The cockpit had stereo speakers mounted aft within the cockpit. I am not a big fan of music in the cockpit for several reasons; 1) the magnetic field from the speaker may interfere with the compass and 2) listening to music although very enlightening and romantic in essence does oppose the safety rule of seamanship where one must always be alert by keeping watch with sight and sound -- eyes and ears --, and lastly, any big wave would have no trouble sounding out music while it crashes upon thy melodious moving it through onward to the depths of the cockpit bilge.With that said, I didn't want to take on another project of closing the speaker holes; rather, I left them open and will replace with speakers and decide to fix with deck hatches.
Performing body work on inside corners are always a challenge; there is the limited angle caused by the inherent restricted area. Dye bits on grinders, or drill is limited, sanding becomes more of a challenge to when trying to get the perfect angle on the void.The pictures on this post merely are examples of the early stages of prepping the cockpit for the refresh. After voids are examined for depth and length, filled, sanded and faired, the later stages of gel coat application would be served.
