another shot looking forward ....

Preparing the hull sections:


The inner starboard shell is seen here hanging from the rafters of the shop about 10 inches shy of the final resting place. Since I opted to use the foam strips where the bulkheads meet the hulls, I've got a fair amount of scribing, fitting and trimming to do before I invite my friends over for a big cake decorating icing bag, bonding party.........( come to think of it, I need to make sure that I cut the internal access holes in the forward bulkheads so I don't accidentally bond one of my friends into the forward compartments by mistake)



now mixing the epoxy........


bagging the epoxy in preparation of application to the bulkhead edges.....




oops.................

fitting the inner starboard hull section

After a few hours of winching, strapping, grunting, pulling, pushing and pouting......I managed to wrangle the inner starboard side hull section into the general position over the starboard side hull section. From here, I'll spend some time lowering, marking, cutting, lowering check fitting, re-marking, raising, cutting and trial fitting things in preparation of bonding the two hull sections together.

more inspections....

Tang is seen here inspecting the high density foam section of the starboard bow bulkhead. The stem bulkhead is glassed in on the inside and has only been rough cut for now on the outside. From this section forward, will be solid foam shaped and glassed over to form the bow stems.

dragging the inner starboard side hull half

My inner starboard side hull half had to spend a little time in the cold sitting outside by itself along the side of the shop. I glassed it inside and out and decided that the peel ply would prevent any real UV damage. Since it only had to deal with the low winter time sun of the Pacific Northwest, it didn't seem to be any worse for wear.

Todays challenge will to use three chain hoists, straps, levers inclined planes, rollers, ropes, come-alongs, ratchet straps, and mental telekinesis to position this hull section over the outer hull section that is waiting in the mold.

Starboard side bulkheads

Here's Tang walking the plank beside the outer starboard side hull section. I ran this plank along the center line tops of the mold forms to create a convenient walkway.

starboard side aft bulkhead

The aft bulkhead is shown here after being bonded in place. This is the last of the main hull bulkhead installs.

pre-fitting the starboard Mast bulkhead

I'm fitting the mast bulkhead on the right. Again, I set the bulkhead in place then use my sharpy marking tool to give me a 3/4 in. offset mark ( same thickness as the optional foam strips) then I lay the bulkhead down flat and use the saber saw to cut the line. After that, the bulkhead fits perfect on top of the tapered foam edge strips.

two layers.....

I use a small roller to spread epoxy on the seams then apply two layers of DBM1708 tape with a 3/4 inch offset. This tape is easily worked into the fillet/epoxy mix and once in place, I cover the join area with strips of peel ply.

setting the bulkhead in place

I slathered plenty of filler on the hull, placed the foam strip down, slathered more goop on top of the foam strip then slid the bulkhead in its' place. A quick once over with a bondo spreader that has a 2 in radius edge on it helps create a nice smooth corner that can then be covered with 6 in. wide DBM1708 fiberglass tape.

marking the bulkheads

Since the foam strips are 3/4 in. thick, I made a scribing tool with a piece of scrap foam and a sharpy pen. Once I have my mark, I cut the excess off the edges of the bulkhead with a saber saw fitted with a carbide grit blade. ( I mark both sides because the hull is not always at a right angle to the bulkhead and when I make the cut, I set the saw blade at an angle and try to cut to the lines on both sides of the bulkhead ) Since I use plenty of epoxy fill when I make th join, it dosen't have to be perfect.

fitting the foam strips

I use a heat gun to form the bulkhead strips so that they will conform to the shape of the interior of the hull.

installing bulkheads

Here's a photo of the forward bulkhead join detail. Rather than bed the bulkheads directly against the hull foam, I decided to place "optional" foam strips between the edges of the bulkheads and the interior hull locations. The white goop in the join area is a mixture of epoxy, aerosil and microballoons. It serves as a general fillet material and insures that all edges are fully bonded.

Nothing like a saturday morning in the shop

.... here's a little clip of some of the layout and prep work that I did before laying down the reinforcing areas inside the starboard side hull. I used a sharpy pen to mark where I intend to lay the glass. One interesting outcome of doing this is that the marks show through and can be used for reference later on.

miles and miles of peel ply......

Your looking at the interior starboard side deck and cabin reinforcement areas. The darker sections in the middle of each reinforcement area is uni-directional glass. These areas receive extra glass so that structural loads can be transfered into the bulkheads. All areas shown are covered with peel ply so that when the time comes to bond in the bulkheads, strips of peel ply can be removed as needed.

I'd rather roof a house in New Orleans........ in the noon day sun ........in august; rather than sand fiberglass so I don't mind using miles and miles of peel ply.

TIP of the day

IF you are careless enough to ever get epoxy on your skin, apple cider vinegar can be used to clean uncured epoxy off skin.

and if you can stand it, take a small sip. A little bit of vinegar is supposed to be good for you.

Confederate soldiers were also known to have kept a small bottle of vinegar with them at all times for medicinal purposes.

peace, love and understanding....

It's good to have a partner that let's you use the kitchen sink to warm up your epoxy.

interior glassing of starboard side hull section

So I tried a different method and it seems to have worked out better for me.

Rather than apply peel ply in separate 90 degree sections, I decided to cover the roll of glass with a roll of peel ply at the same time and in the same direction. ( from stem to stern)

Here you can see the resulting lower glassing job of the interior starboard side hull section. I've overlapped the upper run three inches down the full length. Although it takes a little while to get the job done, I lay down about a five foot section at a time by applying resin to the foam, rolling the 24 oz. triaxial glass down over the wet section, rolling resin on top of that, then I start the roll of peel ply on top of that and using a "bondo" spreader, I work any excess resin out towards the direction of travel. Repeating this process one section at a time gets me down the entire length of the hull in about 4 hrs. Working things down this way lets me go at my own pace and if I don't want to finish the entire length, laying down 40lb. bags of wood pellets over the stopping point insures that the glass/resin stays flat against the foam until the next day ( or evening if its a "work " day).

Creative Scaffolding

Your looking towards the bow of the interior of the starboard side outer hull section . I had to use some creative scaffolding techniques so that I could work the peel ply over the epoxy and 24 oz triaxial glass. If you do this, make sure someone knows that your working in the shop otherwise, the neighbors may find you stuck to it like fly paper or those horrible sticky mouse traps.

You'll also notice a stack of 40 lb. bags of wood pellets to help persuade the other days transition to lay flat. The plastic bags won't stick to the saturated peel ply so I should be able to lift them up and have a rather seamless transition from two separate days of lamination.

the actual laminating process

here's a low quality picture of my progress......turns out I accidentally had my camera set on "macro". Regardless, after I smooth on a thin skim coat along the full length . I then use a half width roller and take my time rolling on resin over a section the width of my peel ply. Then I start rolling my glass down over the wet epoxy. I then roll another layer of epoxy over the top of the glass then cover the section with peel ply. ( running cross ways and overlapping it an inch over the last section) ........I work the whole section smooth with a rubber spreader and then I'm ready to roll back the glass a little bit and start the next section. I repeat this over and over till I fall off the end of the transom.......unfortunately, I ran out of B side so I had to stop mid stream.

skim coat the foam before laying down the glass

Before I lay down the glass, I have found that I can create a better bond with my corecell foam if I first give the foam a skim coat of epoxy / microballoons / aerosil .

Here's my recipe for my skim coat :

300ml B side
600ml A side.........mix with drill mixer

then mix in the dry stuff :
* 2000ml aerocil ( fumed silica;wicked stuff don't breath it)
* 1000ml glass microballoons

It ends up being like fluffy white cake frosting and the aerosil keeps it from running.