December 2016

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy whatever you're into.  Solstice was a few days ago and we're in a new year.  I'm hoping for some warm weather next week to lay up half the hull with fiberglass.  Yes we are expecting warm weather almost in the 70's.  The warmest is over Christmas where my wife and I are obliged to spend this wonderful weather indoors eating and drinking.  I'd rather be working on the boat or enjoying this wonderful weather out doors.  Well, that is how it goes.  I have received the fiberglass necessary to encapsulate the hull.  Well, I think I have enough, I'm starting to think that I did not buy enough but I have a contingency plan.  I'm splitting the formidable job into two parts anyhow; the port and the starboard side.  I'll access the need to purchase additional glass once I lay up the starboard side and buy what I need.  It should not be too painful.

I spent the entire day and a bit of yesterday cleaning the shop and getting the dust off the hull.  I also was concerned with dispensing a 80 pound roll of fiberglass.  I was counting of using the angle of the bow to my advantage, so I did not want to cut 50 foot lengths and lay them up.  I wanted to be judicious as possible.  Remember, I'm on a tight budget.  To that end, I built a vertical dispenser using some scrap lumber, a lazy Susan, and some 3/4" black pipe I had laying around.  I really did not want to roll the fiberglass out onto a table or the floor.  I want to keep the glass as clean as possible without any possibility of snagging or warping the weave.

So this is my dispenser.  I used a 25 X 25 inch base made out of fiberboard.  I added 2 X 4's for feet and to give  some depth to insert the pipe.  I had a lazy Susan lying round with 1/4" plate aluminum riveted to one side.  It was from an old project that was abandoned.  I drilled a hole in the aluminum so the pipe would fit down the middle.  I drill a 3 inch deep hole in the center of the fiberboard so that it went almost through the 2 X 4's to receive the pipe.  I cut another square piece of fiber board (13 X 13 inches) with a hole in the center so that it fit on top of the lazy Susan.  Now the 13 inch board freely swivels.

This was much easier than I anticipated.  I laid the roll of fiberglass on its side.  Slid the 3/4 inch pipe through the center.  Added the 13 X 13 inch plate, lazy Susan, and then the 25 inch base.  Then I used the black pipe to leverage the whole contraption vertical.  It was much more stable than I anticipated and the fiberglass should pull right off without having to roll the mat out on the floor.  You can see the end of the Starboard bow to the right of the roll.  We are almost ready to tack the glass in place.

I've also worked out how I'm going to hold the glass in place while I roll the epoxy resin on.  I'm planning on hanging the cloth in place using brads nailed about a quarter of an inch into the hull and let the cloth drape naturally.  I can clip the heads off so that only about a quarter of an inch remains to hold the cloth and apply the second layer of cloth again hanging it on brads.  The clipped brads will interfere minimally and once the second layer is draped I'll press it onto the clipped brads.  All the brad heads will then be clipped short.  The epoxy can then be rolled on.  Once there is enough epoxy to hold the cloth in place, the brads can be removed.