Monat: Januar 2023

That’s it, the entire hull is now covered in three layers of glass fibers!

Instead of adding a layer of peel-ply I covered the freshly laminated part with filler. It looks a bit like the icing on a chocolate cake. I will later cover the rest of the hull with a thin layer of filler as well, so I can sand it down to a smooth final surface.

Laminating took more time than I had originally expected. It’s mainly mixing the resin that takes long. Next time I will look for more people to help me. Then I can have a dedicated mixer, while the others apply the resin and lay the glass.

The final three layers on the stem.

As a pre-step to laminating the hull I added a little filler at the border of the glass-bands to get an even surface. The bands are quite thick and I didn’t want to risk getting air bubbles under the laminate.
We need 3 layers of 360gr cloth. The Idea is to start at the back and move forward with every cloth width by 30cm. So we are sure to get at least three layers everywhere. I drew lines across the hull every 30cm to get it right.

Then we started laminating. First we did the transom and the first two strips of glass (1/3 and 2/3 of the cloth width) around the hull and covered everything with peel-ply.
A few days later we continued. We got to about halfway (evening always comes too soon).

We had to work quickly, because we use a resin with fast hardener (west system 105 with hardener 205). We have to use a fast hardener because of the low temperature in our shed (12-15°C), most other resins need higher temperatures to cure well.

Before we continue we just have to remove the last two strips of peel-ply.

I started with the laminating. There have to be 600gr on the chine, so I used two layers of 300gr glass band (and a layer of peel-ply).

I had to put four layers on the bottom chine.

One side finished, peel-ply removed. Still wet and with peel-ply on the other side.

I did 8 layers of 160gr on the bow (leftovers from a previous project). Had to improvise with the peel-ply, it is less flexible than the glass so I cut small strips to get around the bend.

Reinforcements for rudder and daggerboards on the transom.

And here’s the hull with all the reinforcements.

Now I start preparing the glass for laminating the hull. I have 360gr glass so I need three layers to get the 1000gr required.