Big Glass Is No Fun

Today was some of the hardest fiberglass work I've had to deal with, and not just because it's been awhile since I've done it, but because it's a massive project with very delicate parts thrown in for good measure.

Let's start with a failed math project:  this is a 16' boat, shorter because of the curves and rakes, but let's call it 16'.  Each of the fiberglass large rolls is 4' across.  That means 4 sheets across should cover the hull if they don't overlap.  However, since the waterline is actually closer to 14', not 16', there should be plenty of 'glass to spare to overlap using the width-wise 'glassup instead of the lengthwise 'glassup.  Not so.

After carefully measuring everything, I tossed about 6 feet of glass over the top and laid it out as best I could in a dry fit.  This is a critical part of any 'glasswork and can save a lot of time later.  Once the dry fit is set, the frogtape goes down and I have a general outline of the wet out for this part.

 
But as I mentioned at the outset, here you can see I fell short about 6 inches; my thumb is where I wanted this to end, not where it actually ends.  The right half of this photo is the bow section.  I think this happened because I had too much waste at the transom, and then too much overlap in the second layup from the stern.  In any case, this will need a strip of 'glass and some treatment before I can "fill the weave."

It's not the end of the world, of course, but it does set things back at least a few hours and probably a day as the new application needs to set and cure and get feathered back in seamlessly.  But at least I know how to do that.

The other side looks like this.  Careful darts seemed to make this fit OK, except for the trianglar gap at the base of the keelnose block.

Annoying but fixable after this cures, just like I'll do at the bow.  I could leave it as is but I want a double layer here that extends least six inches from the centerline.  Like the other high-impact areas, this will also get a layer of 6oz fiberglass for a total of 3 layers.

Here are some examples of "fixes" where either I had to sand down to the wood again because I missed some epoxy bump, or just mis-measured and didn't extend the 'glass all the way aft.

After an exhausting couple hours fighting the 90 degrees and humidity, I got the hull done.  Looks good from these angles --

  -- but don't look at the other side.

This was.. how shall I say this delicately.. a complete sh&tstorm.  Things started OK, and then suddenly went awry.  At one point, the epoxy was so hot in my gloved hand I had to put it down.  The MAS epoxy stuff I have is supposed to be slow curing but I guess the air temperature accelerated everything.  This meant I had to go back and mix up some more quickly, and in rushing to get off the step, I spilled a bit down the hull, now forever marked by a dark river of hot epoxy.

And then for whatever reason I could not get the 'glass darts on the top of the keelnose block to take epoxy and lay flat.  It was like some cartoon kid stuck his finger in a socket and his hair shoots up.  Defeated, I did the best I could do straighten out the rest of the block except the very top.

So this, too, will need to be sanded flush, and then a smaller cut of 'glass will wet this down.  I'm not looking forward to doing this all over again on the other side, but I guess if I want to finish the boat, I don't have much of a choice.

The Glassing Begins - Port Side Epoxy Work

After a very long time trying to get the hull and rub rails just so, I finally started 'glassing the hull. This was a very, very long coming and something I'd been thinking about off and on for the last 5 years. Here is basically where I left the boat in the garage, and here is where the finish line is first in sight.

The manual calls for a long bit of 'glass running the length of the hull, over the keel, and just beyond the chine that separates the lower hull from the topsides. By long, like 14 feet long.  No way I wanted to do that. I'm sure many other builders have built very fine boats this way but my 'glasswork is rusty at best. I figured I could do a few feet at a time so decided to layer over the keel widthwise vs. lengthwise.

That said, I know that that second layer over the chine will provide some extra protection.  My plan is, once this first layer is down, I'll layer down a 12" wide fiberglass runner along the chine, and then 6oz 'glass right along the bend. That'll do. 

Some sanding required climbing up on the hull.  I couldn't resist a selfie while up there.  It's surprisingly stable but I could still hear the creaking below me as my weight shifted.  I also tried to keep my weight to the where the floorboards are so I didn't put a knee through the hull.

And then 'glassed both sides down with a little bit down the transom, about 3 inches.

A couple spots needed some filler.

All that work at the rub rails paid off as it stuck pretty well.

I let this cure a bit and headed for the bow.

And then wet it out.  The cut looks a little odd because that's how the 'glass laid flat.  I cut a couple darts and just let it settle like this instead of trimming it too much.

When I do the other side, it'll provide a second layer across the bow. Aside from the keel nose block, this area is probably going to get hit the most.  I'll finish this off with some 6oz 'glass. Bring on the logs!

I then went for the middle of the hull after the bow cured.  I first prepped the centerboard opening, laying a bit of frog tape along the inside-sides just in case.  Laying 'glass and epoxy over this makes me really nervous but there doesn't appear to be any other way to 'glass over this.

I then returned to the kitchen floor to cut the midsection 'glass.  The kitchen's been my secondary workshop lately.

So some great progress!  Port side is almost done, at least the first coat.  It got dark while in there.

That's more progress in a couple days than the last 5 years.  Here's to more progress this week.

Rub Rails Day 3

In what's a familiar effort by now, I spent a bit of the afternoon working on the rub rails.  Again.  Every time I revisit these, I find something else wrong with them.  And every time I find something wrong, I commit about an hour to fixing it.  Today was no different.

Today's session started by wiping down the entire boat with denatured alcohol.  The idea here was to kill any germs that might've grown in the grain and to also give a good wipe down from the last couple days of sanding.  Some parts really popped here like the rub rail laminations, giving a quick glimpse to what should be the finished product some weeks from now.

Most of the extra squeeze out from the original glue up remained, though. I'd only sloughed off the big stuff over the last couple midnights in the garage.  Fully awake and armed with a new, positive attitude today, I sanded away the remaining drips.  Looks pretty good! -- but also exposed serious voids between the laminations.

 

Careful readers will note I want not just a functional boat, but a comfortable, seaworthy boat fitted for overnight transits on the Great Lakes and the Caribbean.  And not just comfortable and seaworthy, but pretty, too.  The issue here is firmly cosmetic but as important to me as sail ratios and displacement.  I can't be bobbing around on something I didn't at least try to look good.  These voids are troubling, partly because the port side has not nearly as many issues, as this photo shows.

By the time I put these down,, I'd done the rub rails 3 times (I did the port side twice because it was uneven the first time), so I was over the learning curve.  I'd also discovered by then a way to pull the rub rails tight by screwing them from inside the boat.  Alas, starboard got short shrift.

This is a dilemma that has a couple solutions, none ideal.  Short of ripping them all off and slapping on some strips of pine (which I considered, believe it or not) I'm going to abandon my recent decision to pour clear epoxy in here and go with white filler.  I'd love to be able to do brown but there's already too much white and I think it'll look really bad with streaks of white then brown then white.  I'll nleed to be really careful here with the squeeze out as a mistake here could be awful.  The cure can't be worse than the disease!

The small fillet between the rub rail will also be white.  With white topsides I don't think it'll be too bad, but it will have a definite "bathroom grout" vibe which is not something naval architects ever want to remembered for.

All of this sped through my mind during the 90 minutes taking care of business here.  When I got to the stern, I then decided to trim rub rail flush with the transom.

 

I started with a small hand saw to cut away the bulkier parts, then sanded the rest down with 60 grit on the random orbital, shaping as time went on.  This wood is hard!  What I thought would be maybe ten minutes of work turned into 30 minutes of finesse.  I finally got the rake to where it needs to be but not without a lot of effort.  You can see the trapezoidal form the rail takes in a cross section.  I was done about 15 minutes later, thus completing a small task towards the finished product.