Polish a coprolite

Last night, during a fit of enthusiasm I decided to roll my sleeves up and do a bit on Ciao Bella.   In the scheme of things I have decided to do the minimum to get Ciao Bella back on the water this year.  This means starting with the hull as once that is done she can happily sit on her mooring.

The first job was to wash the hull down with Oxalic acid which makes short work of the brown stains which don't seem to be shifted by anything else.   The topsides although clean looked very dull so I spent a bit of time with some cream cleaner and a polisher.   This hull is never going to look like it's just come out of a showroom but it does now look presentable.

The next job was to sort out the cracks at the top of the rudder and fill in the old holes from the lower pintle bracket. Water has clearly been getting into the rudder foil and causing corrosion.  In the picture below you can see a rust streak running down the side of the rudder.

I used my trusty Dremel to chase out the cracks and remove old repairs which hadn't worked.  I then gave it a good slosh of Acetone to clean the area and help the resin to bond.  I mixed up some resin with Colloidal silica to make a filler mix.

I then put some masking tape around the edge to make a dam, otherwise the resin would just run out and dribble down the side of the rudder :)  I had read in 'Fibreglass boats' by Hugo Du Plessis that Polyester Resin is not waterproof and although epoxy is better it is still not waterproof and depends on good post cure to achieve that. He goes on to say that 'Good Polyester is better than mediocre Epoxy'  With this in mind I will be over painting with enamel paint once the repair has cured and shaped.