This is pretty funny: I knew that It was just a matter of time before I did this, as I’ve almost done it too many times in the past. No, that stuff in my hand isn’t a blob of hair gel – it’s a full gob of epoxy resin. My hand cleaner is a jar with a pump on it, and it sits right beside the epoxy resin can which also features a pump. Ya – you got it. I squeezed out a full squirt of epoxy resin right into the palm of my left hand. I was just about to smoosh it in with my right hand when I realized what I had done.

I was emailed some photos from the Ironman Arizona photography guys, so I’ll add these to my race report:

I gave my self a deadline of April 28 to have WiTHiN-24 completely finished and ready for the water. So, I got back into the shop today. I made two longitudinal bulkheads for the rights and left hand side of the seat. The area between the bulkheads and the gunwales will be filled up with expanding foam. This will provide some perimeter decking to shed splashed water, and to give the side walls of the kayak a bit more structure. Right now I can support my weight with both arms on the side walls and they flex out a bit. With the new perimeter decking on, the side walls won’t flex at all.

I measured the exact shape of each bulkhead by taping small cardboard tabs to match the curve of the hull, then cut out Styrofoam, covered with two layers of my fiberglass roving, whetting out with epoxy resin, wrapped in plastic stretch wrap and placed under a flat board with weight on it to cure. Tomorrow I’ll glass them into place, then fill up with foam, and round the top. I might cover the top with a strip of fiberglass also.

It’s been snowing non-stop for two days here in Calgary! I need to start recumbent training, but I also need to fully recover from Ironman, so the forced rest break is probably a good thing.