TJ's V10

[terrulian]

Awfully nice of you to comment on this little project, given the daunting projects you guys are into.

[terrulian]

Here's the current state of the bow. All the forces applied in wrenching the bottom pieces together resulted in just a little concavity on this side so I've filled it with epoxy thickened with milled glass. The bow will definitely need a bit of fairing to achieve semi-perfect symmetry. Jacques' drawings show just the slightest hint of the bump at the knuckle, almost subliminal, and that's the way the pieces go together, or so it seemed to me.

Next step is a layer of glass on on the bottom.

[terrulian]

Goop is devious stuff.
I crawled underneath the upturned boat yesterday because I missed seeing it, and saw this:



What this is a light coming through one of the seams, which have glass on both sides...so what I think happened is that when I filleted and taped the inside, which I did first, the epoxy/wood flour sagged into the duct tape below before it kicked, even though it was a fairly stiff mix and I'd waited an hour for it to begin to kick before glassing. Perhaps because the tape wasn't secured well enough at that point, it had room to ooze out a bit to the side, leaving this void which shows up as translucence. When I rounded over the outside edge before glassing it, I couldn't see how thin it was. If I had actually sanded completely through the goop I would have discovered this void. Maybe it is no big deal, but I think I'll drill a couple of small holes and insert some more epoxy thickened with wood flour in a syringe to fill it up. Think that will do it? Or should I just start the build all over again from the beginning?
I'm not too concerned since there is one layer of glass on the inside and there will be two on the outside of this seam...but maybe I should be.

[ks8]

Drill into it from the inside, not the outside. No matter what you may need to do to fix it, it will fair more easily if you work from the inside, keeping that outer tape skin intact.

Maybe, best case, it is not a void anymore, but clear epoxy, from the taping, filling in the gap. If it is only in a few spotty places, and epoxy instead of air, then since it is a v10, and not a Mangusta, you might not have to do much at all other than a quick drill and refill to make sure it was solid clear epoxy and not air.

But confirm whatever your plans are with Jacques. And maybe take a single picture of the entire hull, and then put little circles on the picture where all the very translucent areas are. This will give a better idea of how numerous, and where.

No need to chainsaw and burn it and start marking fresh sheets.

[terrulian]

Thanks so much for the sage advice. I'll take some pictures with strong light to see if there are any other spots. It is certainly possible that, as you say, it is clear epoxy because now that I think about it, I put the duct tape on before I wet out the area with a chip brush, at which point the boat was right side up. It is not out of the question that the epoxy would pool a little in the crevices before I even started on the filleting. Still, I would have thought the fillet would make it opaque. Anyway, I'll take some more pictures, consult Jacques, and go from there.

[Cracker Larry]

I don't think it will be an issue at all, but like KS said, run a small drill bit from the inside and see if it is solid or a void. If it's a void just fill it from the inside with thickened epoxy and move on.

[terrulian]

Thanks, CL. Gonna drill into it right now.
At least you can't see through the plywood part. That may be a little more troubling.

[terrulian]

Well, this appears to have been a tempest in a teapot, and that's being unfair to teapots. I drilled a couple of holes and couldn't find a void...I'll patch them later when I've got some extra epoxy.
Thanks for your kind indulgence, gentlemen.

[Cracker Larry]

Good fiberglass lamination will pass light. I've seen solid glass hulls 3/4 thick that you could see the sun shine through. That little thing isn't a problem.

[terrulian]

I laid the glass over the whole bottom and up about 6" on the sides.
It looked nice but the next day I was disappointed to find 3 or 4 small bubbles. I ground them out and patched them, but what looked pristine now appears like old jeans. I don't mind the extra time so much but was a little embarrassed at the sloppiness, when I thought I had been very careful with the glass. Oddly enough, the bow, where I thought there might be problems, came out fine. Just a little more time fairing. No big deal.