The chines are glassed! At long last, the chines are glassed!
Perhaps the biggest step since Week 29 when the work became an actual boat, sealing the joined plywood with fiberglass and epoxy was quite the milestone. I hadn’t actually planned on glassing anything on the boat when I first started planning. But having come this far, having put this much work into it, much more and much harder work than I thought it would be, I want to maximize the seaworthy-ness of this boat.
And it was a big learning step as well, given that I’ve never worked with fiberglass and epoxy before. But everbody’s gotta start somewhere, I guess. The biggest help was the manual that Raka has on their website. Great products and great advice!
I pre-measured and cut all the tape lengths before mixing any batches of epoxy, putting the lengths in labelled sandwich bags. I used plastic cups marked at an inch or so high line to make sure I was getting the right ratios of resin and hardener. I stirred the batches together for a count of 60 in a 1-quart mini bucket before pouring each batch into a wide flat tray (from Chinese takeout) to keep the batch cooler than it would be in the mixing pot.
I painted on a base coat of epoxy on each chine or seam with a 3″ paint brush, then laid the length of tape in place and coated over again with a little 3″ trim paint roller. Each batch lasted for the better part of half an hour, and I was able to finish the whole boat in four batches. Judging by the amount left of resin and hardener, I was using about 5 oz. of resin (and half that of hardener) per batch.
It was exciting, nerve-wracking work. But it’s gonna be so good for the boat.
On Sunday I worked a little to shape the lower lee board guard, with saw and rasp, to round the ends, which I imagine helps to transfer the load to the hull more evenly, and it looks better to boot. I had planned to cut the slot in the upper guard today, but I didn’t quite have time for that.
I also dug out the screws going from the outer hull into the vertical thwart supports, which screw holes I had filled last week as I was filling the last of the holes to be covered by the glass tape. I mistakenly also filled these thwart support holes, when I hadn’t actually glued the supports to the inside of the hull.
Next week is finishing the upper guard and attaching it and all the other finished parts, including the keel, now that the chines and seams are glassed.