Thursday, October 2, 2014

Fiberglassing the hull

With the hull bottom filled, sanded, and edges rounded over I could proceed to apply fiberglass.  I purchased 50" wide fiberglass, which I believe is the widest that is generally available.  Even so, this width is not wide enough to cover the hull bottom and both garboard panels, so a seam is needed.

I determined that I could lay the cloth on the hull so the seam would run through the middle of the centerboard slot, reducing the amount of overlap that needs to be faired and smoothed over.  I covered the remainder of the hull with a leftover piece of a narrower width left over from a previous kayak project.


After trimming the edges I started saturating the fiberglass.  Rather than using a squeegee this time, I used a roller to apply the epoxy.  This worked well, was very controllable, but was somewhat slow.


Job done.  Here you can see the overlap seam aft of the centerboard slot.  As it turns out, this will be near the skeg that is installed later, so any unevenness in the seam will be fairly unobtrusive.  Another reason to run the seam here vs. down the center of the hull bottom.


Here's where I ran the seam in front of the centerboard, minimizing the amound of fairing I will need to do.


I also applied cloth to the bow and stern transoms, and overlapped that onto the hull panels. This was a little fussy, as I had to cut away around the hull strake laps.


And here's a shot with the first coat of thickened epoxy on the cloth, and the 2nd coat of epoxy on hull panels 2 and 3.


After I finish filling the weave of the fiberglass, the skegs get installed, and then paint.

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