Step Back and Admire Your Nearly Completed Hull - Again

I've used this title before, way back when I'd just completed stitching the hull together.  It's hard to believe we're pushing 7 years ago at this point but who's counting.

I finished up my third week of training today and am full up on government fiscal data codes.  The joys of 500-19___y1130000-WHA-5789-5789yy310001-2112-3124!  Luckily I had help on the exam today.  Meet Twix, my familiar.  Working from home isn't too bad.

In between bouts of 'glass I'm trying to get my garage in order.  We have a relative who rents from us who by and large keeps the house in great condition but the garage is just an overflow of... I'm not really sure what's in there.  So after a visit to a big box store who gladly accepted my $200, plus 3 hours of finger-breaking work, I got some shelving units to try to organize this insanity.

That's the easy part.  The hard part will be to actually downsize this stuff through any means necessary.  And of course there's still the other 3 corners of the garage to deal with here.

Speaking of corners, I sized out the 6oz 'glass that'll run along the chine.  This lays over a well-cured 4oz section.  One issue I didn't anticipate is the 6oz doesn't really cover up a lot.  It's only about 4 inches wide and only about 3.5" of that is usable.  Throw down some frog tape as a border and you're basically at 2.5" which is barely enough to do anything.  Yes, size matters!

It took a lot of finesse to get this right, more than I expected, which is par for the course by now.  I was also surprised how much epoxy the 6oz took over the 4oz.  It's easily double, maybe even triple the amount, to fully get this down.

That's a little cause for concern as I'm running through my MAS epoxy pretty quickly and I really, really don't want to spend more money on more epoxy.  Not only do I still have to do the transom, I still have to "fill the weave" for the entire hull and the cockpit.  But I really don't have a choice as I want a strong, secure boat, and the best way to do that is to add reasonable 'glass where it's needed most.

Speaking of reinforcements, here's another section, another 3 feet or so.   I'd originally planned to run one long, continuous chine but it will be far easier to do this in small sections over time.  There will be a small area of about 4 inches along the chine which will not have 4 layers, just 3, but I'll call that OK.  (Note: the 4 layers are from overlapping 'glass during the initial 'glassing, plus the chine reinforcement, plus the 6oz strip.)  I had this prepped to take any extra epoxy after finishing up the bow.

What's that?  Finishing the bow?  Indeed -- behold, the last of the big 'glassworks!  (minus that annoying triangular area again.)

It really is the last of it as any 'glass from here will be touchup work and wherever I need or want some extra reinforcements.  Of course this isn't the last 'glass I'll do.  It's a wooden boat after all, so I expect to do a lot as long as I own the thing.  But no more 24 square feet to wet out before my cup melts in my hand.