Tedious little winter projects

In anticipation of the upcoming boating season, I've shifted my focus somewhat from the Zip back to the Utility and getting it ready for the water.

One of the changes I'm making is to relocate the battery from underneath the foredeck to underneath the rear thwart. This is to make it easier to use my trolling motor, but also for improved overall convenience. (It was really awkward to pull the battery out from under the deck to charge it.)

To that end, I've been varnishing the new battery tray, as well as the removable bracket for the trolling motor. They still need a couple more layers of varnish, but they're getting there.

The new battery tray & trolling motor bracket.

Since these are fairly minor, secondary pieces, I haven't bothered straining the varnish for them. I've simply been using the Pettit Captain's Varnish right out of the can with disposable foam brushes. I've found that these work MUCH better than the cheap disposable chip brushes, as they apply the varnish evenly & don't leave bristles stuck everywhere.

I've also been cleaning up some of my earlier workmanship.

When I built the Utility, I left gobs and globs of epoxy to cure everywhere throughout the interior — especially along the floor battens. These spots are rather unsightly, and I've been cleaning up some of them a little at a time. 

Here are some progress photos of the latest area I'm working on. This is at the aft of the boat, near the spot for the new battery tray:

Look at that messy epoxy job! (At least I know that floor is glued down solidly.)
You can also see chip brush bristles stuck in the paint.

Here, I've sanded away some of that mess.

Re-coating the exposed wood with epoxy.

In some places, I had sanded through the paint and underlying epoxy to the bare wood. Since this area is prone to collecting water, I needed to re-coat those spots with epoxy. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was for cold temperatures and rain for the entire coming week... all due to start the following morning.

I didn't want to risk that exposed wood getting wet, so I quickly applied a thin layer of Silvertip epoxy and pulled the cover over the boat. That was at about 4:30 in the afternoon. By midnight, the boat cover had snow and ice on it.

I have long been impressed with the System Three Silvertip epoxy, and its ability to cure at low temperatures and high humidity. However, the mid-to-low 30's — outside in the rain and snow — was pushing it a bit. I'm anxious to see how it did.

So far, I haven't been able to pull the cover off the boat. It's been raining nonstop for days.