Today, we glassed the bottom. Well, first we ground/sanded the places where the bottom glass laps the side glass so we could get a smooth transition and a good mechanical bond, but that’s pretty trivial. Except for the itching.
Anyway, the glassing went pretty smoothly, though it’s tough to reach all the way to the keel without leaning or climbing on the hull. Glassing the first half was easy since I could sit on the other side of the boat, but the second side… well… I’d have to sit on wet glass!
Fortunately, we have a gantry crane. And some scrap plywood. And some lifting straps. And a modest disregard for personal safety. All of which leads to:
This worked pretty well, all things considered. It was a bit challenging to keep from spinning wildly when you really put some effort into the squeegee, but after a little practice it was controllable. By the end of the day, the bottom of the hull was glassed and the weave filled:
I can’t begin to explain how gratifying it is to see this thing glassed. It’s just awesome.
On a vaguely related note, any notion that puce would be a good color to paint the hull has been completely invalidated by the present aesthetic. Ugh. Microballoons should be a different color. It’s time to get this thing faired, primed and painted.
Tomorrow we’ll sand the portions that are now glassed in prep for fairing operations, and hopefully glass the transom as well. It’s a bit comical that we’re glassing a 2.25″ thick transom with 18oz glass, but that’s what the spec calls for. It’s beefy transom.
On a side note, wetting out 18oz glass and filling the weave is INCREDIBLY resin intensive. We’ve probably used 5+ gallons of epoxy in the last two days. This is an expensive process.
-Ben