As part of our series tracking the construction of C54 for Alan Hicks, this week we’ve got an update from Mark White who has just completed the fairing and finishing of the centreboard for the new boat. Mark has kindly sent us the following notes and photos to help us understand what goes into preparing a new board.
Pic No 1 shows the board as it arrived with an oxidising primer added after casting, the leading edge was a 1 cm flat in places on the leading edge, so I had to grind this to shape and coated the bare metal with vinyl ester resin.
Pic 2, I applied a 300g csm (chopped strand mat)around this so I could build up the edge and that also helps with future knocks that can be repaired easily.
Pic 3 Specialised vinyl ester coating applied as a natural coating, this helps identify low and hi areas of the board.
Pic 4 & 5 show vinyl ester putty that’s been applied and sanding & shaping that has been completed.
Pic 6 shows another layer of specialized vinyl ester coating that is applied to the board for final faring.
This final series pictures shows the board in its finished state after a series of compounding to a smooth polished state.
Brightlingsea One Design 
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