Welcome back aboard good old Spiffy—our 44ft hurricane-damaged Antares 44 catamaran project boat. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been using our leaky deck hatch openings as an excuse to get more reps in with mold making and polyester layups, and in this episode the goal is simple: make one last deck ring so we can start the new year leak-free… yet again. The big headache I wanted to solve was gel coat alligatoring (those squiggly wrinkles I kept getting between coats), and the fix was changing the process—spraying gel coat so I can build thickness evenly and not rush the second coat. After laying up the same glass schedule as last week and popping the part the next morning, the new deck ring came out perfect—no alligatoring, just a little trimming and cleanup. I also dig into my real-world pros and cons of polyester vs epoxy: polyester is cheaper and plays nicely with CSM in tight corners, while epoxy wins on shelf life, water permeability, and secondary bonding (and yes, I’ll still reach for epoxy below the waterline or for structural tabbing). Back on the boat, I bed the rings down with sealant, enjoy the surprising amount of light coming through, and call it: Spiffy is leak-free again. I also squeeze in a quick CNC test cutting polycarbonate for a friend’s dock box covers—good practice for our future big window job—and give a candid update on our due diligence for a potential 9-acre property to finish the refit.