Fiberglass on Main hull

It took me a few days to get all the edges filled and rounded. Weather had again turned cold.






When we were promised a week of very warm weather, I made the push to get everything ready for laying the fiberglass cloth and pouring the epoxy.


Last Thursday, January 14, was the day. My friend Manfred came over to give me a hand. Though it was around +12 in the shed, it was pouring rain.
It took us about six hours to spread the epoxy over the cloth. I was so glad to have his help.

When we were finished, I left the lights on in the boat shed to keep some heat and I left the door open too.

I went back out after dinner and found the epoxy setting up quite nicely. I decided to use a small paint roller and put on a filler coat of epoxy. That went very quickly. When I was finished, I thought I would slow the curing so it would be ready for its next coat when I woke next morning. I closed the shed door but left no heat.

Very early next morning, I returned to find the boat was slick as fresh-caught salmon. I noticed the shed reeked of epoxy fumes too. I left the door open, turned on the exhaust fan and left the lights on too. I came back in the house realizing it was not uncured epoxy on my hand. Too greasy. A quick trip through the epoxy sites made me think of 'amine blush'. I had to go to work and didn't want to leave my door open, so I closed up and left some heat on. Six hours later, the epoxy had lost its greasy feeling and had gone to feeling more like curing epoxy - tacky like masking tape. Still smelled like it had not cured. I continued the heat and fresh air treatment for the following few days and was happy to find yesterday that the epoxy was no longer tacky and the shed no longer smelled.

I gave it a good scrub with hot water and an abrasive pad. When that was dry, I risked the sander and found it was ready. It did not gum up the pad. Hooray for that! I do have one small area that was gummy yet, but if that doesn't set, I can easily cut it out and refill.

Every project has its tense moments. There seems to always be a 'fix' even though I may not know what it is. Good training for the next phase of the build and good training for sailing too. Calm down and think. There is always a fix.