I was on the road for quite a bit of the last three weeks, so progress has been depressingly slow. I did some odds and ends of fibreglas work, and spent quite a bit of time preparing the canopy for assembly.

I also spent a lot of time trying to resurrect my ancient iBook laptop which finally died, but it looks like it had a major failure. So, I went out and bought a new 12" PowerBook G4. Very nice machine, but it take a fair bit of time to install all my software, and restore the backup from the old iBook.

Today I was finally finished prepping the canopy for assembly, so I screwed up my courage and got Terry to help me. I was quite afraid that it might crack as I pulled blind rivets that hold the plexiglas to the frame, but it all came out OK. I only did the rivets around the plexiglas - I'll do the ones at the bottom of the skirt tomorrow morning.

I wanted some sort of sealant to go between the plexiglas and the fibreglas canopy skirt to make the joint watertight. Some builders use Pro-seal, the same stuff that is used to seal the fuel tanks. But I had had enough of that messy Pro-Seal, so I looked for another solution. Some builders use Lexel, but I couldn't find a local distributor.

So, I ended up using a marine product that is designed for the installation of plexiglas windows on boats - Sikaflex 295 UV. The only downside of the Sikaflex is that it only comes in one colour - black. I laid a small bead of it between the frame and the plexiglas (except around the canopy bow at the front) to provide a bit of cushion for the plexiglas to ride on. I also put a bead between the plexiglas and the skirt. I'll buy another tube and cut the tip very small so I can run another very small bead along the edge of the canopy skirt.

Here is a close-up of the front of the canopy, showing the canopy bow and the canopy skirt