Today I glassed one of the side panels. Using 50" cloth I had plenty of width to come up over the chine shelf a good 8 inches. This means that each shelf has 3 layers of glass under an additional 2 layers provided by the bottom cloth and the side cloth. I'm very happy with how fair the hull is and with the quality of the sheathing. The Basic No Blush epoxy is doing a fine job. I will cover the last side then apply epoxy to fill the weave on all the exterior surfaces of the boat.
I covered the other side of the bottom with glass tonight which means I just have the two sides of the boat to do. I'll have to add additional layers of epoxy to all sides of the boat as well as the transom to fill the weave of the cloth. Before I do that though I'll have to get the keel strake bed on. I'm going to put on a piece of wood from stem to just a couple feet shy of the stern to use as a bed for the keel strake. I'll have to post some photos of that when it's done.
There are 5 basic panels I have to cover with epoxy and fiberglass cloth,
1) transom
2 & 3) both sides of the bottom
4 & 5) both sides of the boat
I've got the transom done and tonight I did one half of the bottom. I'm using 50" cloth so it overlaps both the center seam and the chine shelf seam. I really like the way it's going on and the boat looks great. I'll need to fill the weave of the cloth on each side after it first goes on. If I can do it in less than 24 hours I won't have to sand. I've already missed the window for the transom. I'll try to get the section I did today filled tomorrow.
Just an hour of sanding tonight. I got the keel seam and most of one of the chine shelves sanded. There was not enough light to do more. I know this is no racing sailboat but I just can't help but make it smoooooooooth. ;-) With just a little bit more sanding tomorrow I'll be ready to glass one of the bottom panels. The west system 407 filler I'm using with the Progressive Epoxy Basic no-blush II sands very well. I've been real happy with this epoxy.
Yesterday's fairing was hard enough for me to do a bit of sanding on the transom and put cloth on back there. I came over the sides and bottom about 2 inches. It looks real good. Next I'll do the bottom, one side at at time. If I do one section a day I'll be able to keep applying epoxy every 24 hours to avoid extra sanding. Each section will then need a fill layer as well. I have about 3 gallons of epoxy left. I'm thinking I better order some more just in case...
I spent a couple of hours today fairing all the taped seams prior to glassing the hull. I first hit all the edges with my Makita grinder/sander/polisher and then went back with epoxy mixed with fairing filler. The trick is to not put on too much because you'll have to sand it all off again. You need just enough to hide the tape seams under the final layer of glass. I did the keel seam, chine shelf seams, every scarf, the bow and the transom seams. Now I just have to wait a couple of days for the epoxy to get hard enougy to sand well. That means that next weekend I should be able to get the final layer of glass on.
Next steps:
1) Bottom strakes
2) Splash Rails
3) Finding a trailer
4) Roll-over Party
Today I taped the transom and the chine shelves. I also laid in a section of 24oz cloth on the aft end of the hull right at the transom. Renn says this area takes quite a beating so it's beefed up now. I laid down a sheet of 24oz roving, 6 oz matt and finished it off with a layer of 6oz cloth. I squeezed out as much of the epoxy as I could and all three layers are stepped so that the whole thing is pretty smooth. I'll have to do some grinding on the bottom edge of the transom to get it sharp again but the whole thing will be pretty strong and should take a lot of punishment before allowing any real damage to the wood back there.
I got 30 yards of 50" cloth for the bottom and sides. This way I can overlap the bottom panels by several inches on the center line and still bring the cloth down to overlap the chine shelves as well. I just have some fairing to do around the tape seams and the scarf joints and then the boat will be ready for the final layer of glass.
I spent some time today taping the center of the boat forward of the scarf and the last couple of feet up to the transom. Next, I'll tape the chine shelves and transom, then spend some time faring the tape before the bottom cloth. I'll also need to make sure I have enough cloth to do the job. That's 9 yards x 4 sheets of 40", 6oz.
I've noticed that I get builder's block sometimes. This is like writer's block only you just stare at the boat and can't seem to take the next step. I've seen this before with other projects. I wonder if others experience the same feelings. The solution is to just start in with a small task and then keep going.