Fibreglass and Epoxy Work

Last Friday, I started early and worked until dinner time.  I knew it would be a long day of applying fibreglass cloth to the base of the boat then sealing it with epoxy.

The plans call for a layer of cloth on the whole bottom panel and two strips of cloth on the seams.  I epoxied the cloth on the bottom panel, allowing the cloth to drape over the edge onto the bilge panel.  I then laid a strip of cloth over the wet epoxy/cloth on the seam.  Two layers of cloth were applied to the seam between the bilge panel and the side or top panel.  Two layers of cloth were epoxied on to the join between panels and transom as well as the long seam reaching forward to the stem of the boat

The work took a long time as the epoxy was cooling as the day went on, plus the boat was cold, making the epoxy stiff and hard to work into the cloth and the wood.  As well as more time, I am sure the work took a lot more epoxy than if I'd done the work in a nicely heated shop.

I have quite a bit of fibreglass cloth left over from other projects and wanted to use that instead of buying new.  However, as soon as that cloth was cut, it started to unravel.  Perhaps because I have folded and refolded that cloth so often, it had loosened and it came apart willingly.  As my gloves got sticky and the epoxy spread around, the cloth seemed to catch and fray at an accelerating rate.  By the time I got everything in place, I had great bird's nests of cloth stuck to my boots and gloves as well as sprouting like fibrous anemones from the bottom of the boat.

I have attached one picture of the cloth draped over the bottom panel, ready for epoxy.  Pictures below show the boat after an hour with the grinder.  Final pictures were taken just now, after I applied more epoxy and filler to smooth the edges of the cloth.