If I were cutting the wood myself, I would have used a full 8' section to cut the bow end of the bottom panels (or long enough to move the splice back into the straighter part of the boat). Those forward splices are just under a lot of bending stress. The woven splices have held up fine everywhere else.To avoid flat spots, we specify the lightest tape that can take the bending
GV17 Construction Started!!
Building: GV17 Built: D15
Pictures
I've started a gallery for this project in the Photo Gallery. Use this link:
http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.php?album=39
or click on NorCalBob/GV17. More to follow. My camera was "on assignment" while I was stitching the hull together (ok, I left it at work!), so we'll have to pick up with the seams taped.
http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.php?album=39
or click on NorCalBob/GV17. More to follow. My camera was "on assignment" while I was stitching the hull together (ok, I left it at work!), so we'll have to pick up with the seams taped.
Building: GV17 Built: D15
Today (1/31) I ground down my high spot from the repaired splice, sanded all the taped and coated areas (plus drips, runs and errors 
), filled screw holes and started laying on the outside glass- one half of bottom done. Hope to finish that by Tuesday, then shoot for fairing and rub rails next weekend. I should have my trailer by the middle of the month, and will flip her onto that once she's painted.
I posted a few more pictures in my GV17 Gallery.
), filled screw holes and started laying on the outside glass- one half of bottom done. Hope to finish that by Tuesday, then shoot for fairing and rub rails next weekend. I should have my trailer by the middle of the month, and will flip her onto that once she's painted.I posted a few more pictures in my GV17 Gallery.
Building: GV17 Built: D15
GV17 - Glassing the Hull (exterior)
Some notes on glassing:
As per plan, I tried pre-wetting the first piece of biaxial glass for the bottom of the GV17 (full length + transom). I rolled the boat onto the driveway, laid down plastic on the garage floor, spread epoxy on the cloth and let it wet out while I was squeegeeing and rolling a coat of epoxy on the hull. The glass went on pretty easily, with few dry spots and very little excess epoxy between the glass and the hull. Had to spend a little time chasing down wrinkles and bubbles, but not bad at all. There were a couple foriegn objects trapped between the glass and the hull, but the bubbles they caused were small- the scars from grinding them off were smaller than a dime. Also missed 3 wrinkles, also small.
The next day, it was raining, so I couldn't move the boat out to lay out the cloth, so I did it the old-fashioned way, spreading epoxy on the hull, laying on the glass, letting it rest for a while to wet out, then adding epoxy as needed to wet out the dry spots. This method worked just fine, and was neither as cumbersome or as messy as I'd feared. Maybe because I knew what to look for, I didn't end up with any wrinkles or bubbles.
Both methods used about the same amount of epoxy- three 48 oz. batches or 1-1/8 gal. That seemed like a lot, but there didn't seem to be any excess epoxy between the glass and the hull - it took heavy squeegee pressure to squeeze any out the edge, and very little at that. The first method made it easier to wet out the glass. In the second method, the glass was easier to handle, but it was harder to get it to wet out.
One tool I found very useful was a 14" squeegee I picked up at the local plastics store. It had a stiff rubber blade, set in a 1" PVC handle. Its easy to grip when there's epoxy all over gloves and squeegee, and was comfortable to use for long periods.
As per plan, I tried pre-wetting the first piece of biaxial glass for the bottom of the GV17 (full length + transom). I rolled the boat onto the driveway, laid down plastic on the garage floor, spread epoxy on the cloth and let it wet out while I was squeegeeing and rolling a coat of epoxy on the hull. The glass went on pretty easily, with few dry spots and very little excess epoxy between the glass and the hull. Had to spend a little time chasing down wrinkles and bubbles, but not bad at all. There were a couple foriegn objects trapped between the glass and the hull, but the bubbles they caused were small- the scars from grinding them off were smaller than a dime. Also missed 3 wrinkles, also small.
The next day, it was raining, so I couldn't move the boat out to lay out the cloth, so I did it the old-fashioned way, spreading epoxy on the hull, laying on the glass, letting it rest for a while to wet out, then adding epoxy as needed to wet out the dry spots. This method worked just fine, and was neither as cumbersome or as messy as I'd feared. Maybe because I knew what to look for, I didn't end up with any wrinkles or bubbles.
Both methods used about the same amount of epoxy- three 48 oz. batches or 1-1/8 gal. That seemed like a lot, but there didn't seem to be any excess epoxy between the glass and the hull - it took heavy squeegee pressure to squeeze any out the edge, and very little at that. The first method made it easier to wet out the glass. In the second method, the glass was easier to handle, but it was harder to get it to wet out.
One tool I found very useful was a 14" squeegee I picked up at the local plastics store. It had a stiff rubber blade, set in a 1" PVC handle. Its easy to grip when there's epoxy all over gloves and squeegee, and was comfortable to use for long periods.
Building: GV17 Built: D15
I posted some more pictures showing the completed biaxial glass ( http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.php?album=39 ). Since those were taken, I've started applying a veil of 4oz. woven glass (bottom and lower part of sides done, upper part of sides should be done later today). I did a test patch of QuickFair on part of the bottom, and it went on like a dream- very optimistic about the fairing process. I'll try and post an update and more pics tomorrow.
Building: GV17 Built: D15
Keep up the good work, and show us some more.... Thanks for the kind comments. I'd hoped I'd be farther along by this point, but life keeps getting in the way! The outside of the hull is all glassed (biax + 4oz. veil), and I'm starting to fair. Shouldn't be too bad- using the edge of a strip of plywood as a straight edge, the only dips and high points I could find were those created by the edges of the tape 
. I'll post some pictures as I go. Hope to be faired, painted and flipped onto the trailer by the first of March- we'll see!
How's your boat coming?
. I'll post some pictures as I go. Hope to be faired, painted and flipped onto the trailer by the first of March- we'll see!How's your boat coming?
Building: GV17 Built: D15
In the meantime I kill some time skiing....GV17 - Fairing
I posted some pics from after my first pass at fairing. http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.php?album=39 On my D15, I laid the fairing compound on thick and tried to grind down to a fair hull. A lot of wasted epoxy and a LOT of dust. This time, I'm planning on several thin layers, sanding off high spots and building up low spots as I go. Seems to be working. Smoothing the edges of the tape by laying on plastic while it cured was a big help- no abrupt transitions. The planning surface is about as smooth now as my D15 was when I gave up and went to the paint!!
I also decided to throw money at the dust problem and invest in a dust collector, air filter and a pneumatic dustless body file, in addition to the random orbit sander with vac pickup I already had. The dust collector attached to the sanders has been so effective so far i probably didn't need the air filter.
I also decided to throw money at the dust problem and invest in a dust collector, air filter and a pneumatic dustless body file, in addition to the random orbit sander with vac pickup I already had. The dust collector attached to the sanders has been so effective so far i probably didn't need the air filter.
Building: GV17 Built: D15
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ArizonaBuilder
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