Finished with the fiberglass work!!!

I started at 8;30 this morning and worked till 5. I have been putting in two hours every night after work. This was where I did my grinding and adding new glass and running the vacuum pump. I didn't need any of that today! I was skimming and long boarding along with a little palm sander finishing. My vacuum bagging was crude. I bought a pump from Harbor Freight. I ran a flex tube to a jar lid, another ran out to the area I was working on. The area was surrounded by a special tape that is just putty in tube form. I lay a piece of drop cloth over that and had the tube run through it. I kept duct tape handy for leaks and did my lay up. I press the plastic over it and start the pump. If any epoxy got in the tube, it was pulled back to the jar. I just threw that piece of tube away. I would usually put up two layers of glass per vacuum set up. I tried to do it with out the pump, but it always filled with huge bubbles. No good!
Anyway, here is the finished repair. Most of the area is the actual fiberglass, I kept the skim coats very thin. Next up is a primer coat and then a polyurethane paint job. I will spend some of Sunday, cleaning up and hauling my tools home.

before....

 After...a Picasso
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 I opened up a strip to the port side of the mast but it was dry!
Anyway, the mast and the hatch have been completely blocked. The balsa core was exposed at both locations, creating my little nightmare.

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 Behind the hatch is a fitting that has to be re-drilled (two actually!) They have been filled with solid fiberglass, no core at all. In the bottom left, you can see one of my test cores. I have drilled a few under the sides, to my surprise, the core is plywood.
 I found a damp spot over the TV. It has been open for a month and is dry. It is  near impossible to get everything 100%. That said I think I have turned the tide, There is always something to do, something to fix. There are a few boats in the yard with wet hulls. That is a death sentence, it is the reason I always insist on buying boats with solid hulls.

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A couple of more shots. hopefully, I will have a picture of the finished product next week.