Glassing the bottom of the deck went fairly routinely-I used the dookie-fill technique again, made the usual mess, and had an average number of drips come through to the other side.
I tried the fit of the deck on the hull and was astounded-it almost fit! The difference was only no more than 1/4" at worst. Still, I used spreader sticks to widen the hull a little.
I spot-glued with thickened epoxy, since there are some minor gaps. When the tape is removed, I'll do the whole joint with dookie.
I usually tack a 2" strip of 4 oz. glass to the inside of the joint before tacking the deck on, and saturate the glass later. The main problem with that technique is that it seems to take an enormous quantity of epoxy to saturate the glass down the length of the strip, and then it always wants to form a puddle in the middle. This time, I saturated 2 strips of 9 oz. tape, about 8" long, and applied them to the joints. It looked a very long way to the ends of the boat from the cockpit opening. I can do shorter strips in the bow & stern after the hatches are cut, if I want.
The deck glassed, with my friend The Osprey. I must have improved at fiberglassing, because this seemed faster & easier than ever.
I disassembled the box beam, and made two sawhorses, once again putting my Thule racks into service. The box beam had a tendency to disassemble itself, since its very heavy, and only nailed together with 4 d nails.
Sanding. It always seems like there is a very thick coating of epoxy everywhere, but I always manage to hit the fiberglass a few times. Figured something out: the 'blotchy" areas are where I'm sanding through multiple coatings of epoxy. They seem to wet out o.k. under varnish, however.
No matter what tools or techniques I use, sanding is still a tedious, messy job! ;)
I glassed the exterior of the hull today. I decided not to include a photo, because it wouldn't show much.
I learned a few new things about fiberglassing:
Warming the resin in a hot water bath helps it spread more easily, and it seems to saturate the glass faster.
Instead of struggling to make the glass fit the stern, I cut a "dart" and folded the ends. Makes things much easier, wonder why I hadn't tried this before.
The secret to avoiding ripples! Apply resin in an even coat, and skive off the excess as soon as the glass is saturated.
I gave the roller another try at one point, and gave up on it. I think that it only works well if a saturation coat has been applied to the wood, otherwise it just wants to lift the glass off the boat.
Instead of multiple layers, I decided on two strips of 10 oz. glass at the only places I've ever had a problem with abrasion: the bow & stern. it looks like they're going to need a lot of epoxy to fill.
I put a strip of 4 oz. glass over the 10 oz. to smooth out the job.
The skeg box opened. I think that I did this before glassing the hull last year-this time I did it after glassing the hull, and it seemed to go easier. I cut it a little deeper than I really wanted to, but this time, it looks straight.
I decided to sand the hull down to #220 wet paper before glassing the deck. I figured that it would be work, whether I did it now or later. I tried Nick's technique of using a doubled sheet of sandpaper, with no block, and it worked rather well. Sand, scrape, R.O.S, repeat, until its done.
