Plywood skinning of the stern section is now complete , so now adding the fiberglass outer layer .
Such a shame to cover up shaped plywood , it looks so pretty , oh well , only the fish'es would have noticed anyway .
I,m still working on my own so have had to work out an appropriate sequence for the fiberglass operation , to start with I cut an appropriate length of glass ( 400g biaxial ) from the roll ( 5 meters in this case ) and roll it onto a length of pipe . After mixing up a batch of resin/hardner ( 1.2 Liters ) , using a paint roller I make an initial resin coverage of the plywood area to be fiberglassed , I prefer the wet system of layup as it helps hold the cloth in place . Taking the cut cloth I then proceed to roll it over the wet resin taking care to stretch and position it correctly , the resin easily holds it in place and this normally works out quite smoothly . Mixing up more resin I then continue to wet out the cloth fully ( but not too much resin as there is more to come ) .
Time for Lunch ( man has to eat )
Once the resin starts to get really sticky , its time for the Peel ply to be added , I mark out the locations of each piece of peelply on the hull to make it easier to apply a thin coat of resin to the appropriate location , the peelply operation takes time so I do separate pieces rather than the entire section at once , Next job is to mix enough resin for a couple of widths of peelply and apply a thin coat to the marked out area's . During Lunch ( got to be organised ! ) I have cut the peelply and also rolled it over a length of pipe , using this I apply the peelply , stretching it out as I go , then using some plastic flat edges I stretch out the peelply as much as possible , working out any excess resin ,then repeating this peelply operation until the entire area is complete .
Three or Four hours later when the resin has gotten hard , I then trim off any excess cloth etc , its better to do it now as its too damn hard when fully cured .
This is the external side , did it first as it only has partial coverage ( split skin on this side ) and its easier as only 900 mm of cloth width its used , did this one yesterday so I've already removed the peelply .
Did the second side today , its larger and uses the full width of cloth ( 1.27m ) , its still got the peelply attached .
As you can see , its a bit tight in the garage ,should have built a bigger one !! ( garage that is , the boats big enough as it is !! )
Next chance I get , it will be fiberglassing the bottom of the boat , it will partially overlay the sides as well so we end up with two complete layers of cloth on the chine area .
