Glass!

Let me start by saying, this was an s**tload of work.  I didn't time myself but I think I mixed the first batch of epoxy just before 11 AM and finished around 6. Working non-stop.  To make matters worse, the battery in my phone died leaving me without music for the last hour.  I have few things to say about all this but will start with a before picture.

Fiberglass cloth is an amazing material. When I first laid it over the hull I thought I would have to cut triangular shaped cut-outs on the hull wall to get the cloth to sit correctly. I knew you could smooth it out, but I was amazed at the extent to which the cloth conformed to the hull.  I started with painters tape around the hull placed below where I will need to attach the trampoline rail.   I got the widest fiberglass I could find and thought it would reach the tape all around (or be real close).  Turns out I only needed the tape near the ends.

Doing the wet-out was WAY harder than I had imagined. The process appears simple but there is actually quite a bit going on at once. Firstly, the cloth moves in its weave, which is how it can conform to shapes.  So when using a squeegee to move epoxy around you have to be careful about the direction you are pulling. You always have to be pulling away from an area that is already anchored, either an edge or even better an area that is already wet-out. Simultaneously you have to completely wet out the cloth, but the cloth can hold quite a bit of epoxy, so you are going back for more very often.  I generally did well not snagging the cloth on my squeegee but was helped in this by the squeegee itself. I bought a very soft rubber squeegee.  I was further surprised by how difficult just wetting out the cloth could be. Going in, I thought there would be some capillary action and the glass would basically wet itself out. I have no idea why I thought this. The last thing the glass does is wet-itself out. You almost need to manually saturate an area to get it completely wet out, then squeegee out the excess is very particular direction and try to aim the excess (remember you can't pull any direction you like) for an area that needs more glue.  And you have to watch out for runs below the glass unless you like sanding. And not to paint this as too rosy you have to keep an eye on your past progress so you can pop any bubbles that arise. So with that rant out of the way, here is the after picture.

I am generally happy with the outcome, I have some weirdnesses going on at the the transom-hull wall edges and to a lesser extent at the bow. Nothing that can't be fixed with sandpaper, epoxy putty and liberal doses of curse words. Next step is a top coat of lightly filled epoxy, I'm sincerely hoping that is not as difficult as this was. Then I will spend a couple of days doing touch-ups and re-building sharp chine edges out of epoxy putty, that should be interesting.  Also I need to start signing up some friends for a hull-turning party this weekend.