Some sanding of the 'bilge' where I had filled the gaps in the divinylcell? (core cell), that was a pain in the butt because I had to stand on saw-horses while leaning over rough un-finished un-sanded nasty edged fibreglass over-hang from the bottom edge of the core/hull. This made sanding rather unpleasant. It took almost 2 hours (by myself) to get the fibreglass in place (I couldn't physically reach the middle of the hull for about 2/3 of the length). That wasn't much fun at all. Then I started wetting out the fibreglass with a paint brush in the bow, then a 100mm wide roller, then a 100mm roller with a 3ft handle extension to get to the middle of the hull, all this while leaning over the same old nasty fibreglass edge from the bottom of the hull.
I got epoxy up my arms, on my bare feet, somehow in one armpit, across my entire stomach even though I was wearing a shirt, and luckily I even managed to get some on the fibreglass cloth.
We now (well by tomorrow morning) we will have a structural boat shell, meaning both sides (bottom first and now the inside/top) of the core have been glassed with 450gsm bi-axial fibreglass -- strong shell.
It took me about 4 hours by myself to lay the fibreglass of the inside surface. It was a heavy lay-up because I wasn't trowelling the excess epoxy out as I went. On the other hand I wasn't laying on the epoxy excessively in the first place so its all good. Used approximately 12kg of epoxy, could have probably got that done to 10 ish over the 18 odd square metre surface area so again I'm not too concerned with the excess epoxy.
I have finally washed all the epoxy off myself, and left all the epoxy on the hull. I have actually developed a reaction to the particular epoxy I normally use so I have a rash on my arms and on my stomach along with the scratches from the nasty fibreglass rough edge--but I am a happy boy because the job has been done and is looking good and I don't have to do it again!
Next job is to get some structural frames in place. The 'Choozys' build has been pretty slow, by my standards, to date and that probably isn't going to change too much. I charged through "Shazza's" build very quickly and got in the water and had some fun. What Shazza lacked was a few creature comforts and a couple of things, like the keel lift well and interior layout, it could have been better if I had taken more time.
"Choozys" will be getting some creature comforts in the way of a better interior layout, a big nice shaped cabin roof that will take me quite some time to build from strip plank cedar or similar and some nice rounded edges here and there etc etc.
The next stage of the build, gluing in the structural frames, actually dictates the cabin length, width, and shape so I have to come up with the shape I want now even though the cabin itself wont be built for quite a while.
It took me about 4 hours by myself to lay the fibreglass of the inside surface. It was a heavy lay-up because I wasn't trowelling the excess epoxy out as I went. On the other hand I wasn't laying on the epoxy excessively in the first place so its all good. Used approximately 12kg of epoxy, could have probably got that done to 10 ish over the 18 odd square metre surface area so again I'm not too concerned with the excess epoxy.
Next job is to get some structural frames in place. The 'Choozys' build has been pretty slow, by my standards, to date and that probably isn't going to change too much. I charged through "Shazza's" build very quickly and got in the water and had some fun. What Shazza lacked was a few creature comforts and a couple of things, like the keel lift well and interior layout, it could have been better if I had taken more time.
"Choozys" will be getting some creature comforts in the way of a better interior layout, a big nice shaped cabin roof that will take me quite some time to build from strip plank cedar or similar and some nice rounded edges here and there etc etc.
The next stage of the build, gluing in the structural frames, actually dictates the cabin length, width, and shape so I have to come up with the shape I want now even though the cabin itself wont be built for quite a while.
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