I made a paper template and transferred it to the fiberglass as before and laid it down smooth in the hull.  My friend John came over to mix epoxy batches as I rolled and painted it in.  We used 3 8oz batches and 1 4oz batch to finish.  I struggled to lay down the epoxy evenly but it always seems to be uneven no matter how much I try to brush out the overly wet areas. 

August 17, 2007 Glassing inside

There is a lot of prep work to do before glassing inside the hull.  This part is glossed over in the book, but it's important.  First I mixed up 3 ounces of liquid epoxy and painted the inside of the watertight bulkheads.  I shortened the bristles of a disposable 2" brush for this and it works very well.  Since compartments will be sealed up it is important to fully seal them to prevent wood rot so I carefully painted up under the inwhales and the inner edges too.  All this will be covered, so it can be messy.

Before glassing the inside the seams need to be filleted with epoxy thickened with wood flour, this helps the fiberglass form over the curves.  I masked the seams off to 1/2" wide along the bottom (green tape) and less than that for the seam between the #1 and #2 planks (blue tape).  I also laid down tape along the bottom of the #3 plank in preparation for laying down the fiberglass.

After the epoxy in the fillets firmed up I removed the tape and sanded the fillets smooth with 120 grit on a rubber backed sander with 2" hook and loop sanding disks.

I just have to trust that a few more light coats of epoxy will smooth it all out.  After the epoxy has hardened up a bit I cut the glass to the bottom edge of the #3 plank and removed the excess with the tape.ed the excess with the tape.

August 18, 200Glassing inside

When I applied a second coat of epoxy to fill the weave of the fiberglass I deliberately pushed epoxy into the gap above the #2 plank to fill the joint there.  I rolled on the epoxy and then brushed out the bubbles with a brush, but the texture still looks uneven and "watery".   I'm not enough of a perfectionist to sand it down to smooth and re-coat it, but I will sand off the rough spots before proceeding.