GV15 Birch Bay Washington

[klap]

Spent the morning retaping with packing tape and adjusting seams. Then starting mixing epoxy.
How does it happen that you wear gloves but still end up with peanut butter epoxy all over them. Very annoying.

It took about 2 hours to putty the outer seams. I had to go over a few sections a few times due to the epoxy either shrinking in the joint, leaking by the tape or just not being the right consistency.

Either way, I think things will be much easier after the seams set.

[pee wee]

Glad that went well for you. I can't tell from the photos, but standard practice is to brush neat (no fillers) epoxy on the raw plywood before you apply the glue (epoxy plus filler). The plywood will absorb the neat epoxy and the glue will bond better.

I don't know why peanut butter gets on everything, but that's another rule!

[klap]

I was able to get some putty work and taping done today. I’m using 12oz 6” tape for the longitudinal seams and the transom to sheeting. It’s cool enough here I had to put a propane heater in the garage to bring it up in temp. But, when I did that the epoxy started acting right. It really doesn’t like the cold.

Next, I’ll sand down the seams and see if any patching needs to be done. I spent a while going over it so hopefully it won’t be much.

[klap]

Finished the outer seams tonight. When I did the transom, I didn’t really feel good about the strength of the back corners at the bottom of the boat. When I was finished, I cut 6” squares of the 12oz biaxial tape and put one on each corner. Just to add a bit mor strength. (I hope)

[klap]

Two questions before I start laying cloth:
1. Fairing applied before or after laying fiberglass cloth (or both)?
2. Fiberglass cloth laying method.
a. Layup dry on boat and wet from top keeping touching up dry areas
b. pre-wet hull and then lay cloth over and wet out.

Just wondering because it seems to be a large are of fiberglass cloth. If I just do one half at a time, its 17'L x 50"W. That seems to be a large area to wet out at one time.

[Fuzz]

Fairing comes after laying the glass.
What glass are you using? Either way you do not want a dry joint and bare wood can suck the resin away. I like to lay the glass out and them roll it up half way. You can wet out the wood and let it soak up if it is going to and then wet it again and roll the glass over. That way you are doing part of the wet out from the bottom. If you don't think you will have enough working time you can roll up the glass and then wet the wood and roll some glass. do it a little at a time so you can keep a wet edge all the way.

[klap]

Fairing comes after laying the glass.
What glass are you using? Either way you do not want a dry joint and bare wood can suck the resin away. I like to lay the glass out and them roll it up half way. You can wet out the wood and let it soak up if it is going to and then wet it again and roll the glass over. That way you are doing part of the wet out from the bottom. If you don't think you will have enough working time you can roll up the glass and then wet the wood and roll some glass. do it a little at a time so you can keep a wet edge all the way.

I’m using biaxial woven fabric specd out in the plans.

[BarraMan]

Two questions before I start laying cloth:
1. Fairing applied before or after laying fiberglass cloth (or both)?
2. Fiberglass cloth laying method.
a. Layup dry on boat and wet from top keeping touching up dry areas
b. pre-wet hull and then lay cloth over and wet out.
Just wondering because it seems to be a large are of fiberglass cloth. If I just do one half at a time, its 17'L x 50"W. That seems to be a large area to wet out at one time.

For my boat I:

• pre-coated the wood the day before laying the glass
  Gave it a rough sand (80 grit) the day of glassing
  rolled out the glass and marked it with a marker pen to give me some landmarks then rolled it up onto a 'pool noodle' (foam stick thing)
  precoated about 3' of wood and rolled the glass onto about 2.5' it then wet it out
  repeat until the jobs done

Works well on big glass runs.
Helps if you have a 'trained' partner to follow up behind you to chase any air bubbles that may form.

[klap]

Two questions before I start laying cloth:
1. Fairing applied before or after laying fiberglass cloth (or both)?
2. Fiberglass cloth laying method.
a. Layup dry on boat and wet from top keeping touching up dry areas
b. pre-wet hull and then lay cloth over and wet out.
Just wondering because it seems to be a large are of fiberglass cloth. If I just do one half at a time, its 17'L x 50"W. That seems to be a large area to wet out at one time.

For my boat I:

• pre-coated the wood the day before laying the glass
  Gave it a rough sand (80 grit) the day of glassing
  rolled out the glass and marked it with a marker pen to give me some landmarks then rolled it up onto a 'pool noodle' (foam stick thing)
  precoated about 3' of wood and rolled the glass onto about 2.5' it then wet it out
  repeat until the jobs done

Works well on big glass runs.
Helps if you have a 'trained' partner to follow up behind you to chase any air bubbles that may form.

Thanks for the information. I think I will take the idea of the pool noodle and precut and roll the glass. Seems like a good way to control the application of the glass.

Pre-coating the day before. I hadn't really thought about that. I was under the impression that you pre-coated and then applied the glass when still tacky. However, giving it a light sanding and then pre-coating again may use a bit more epoxy but sounds like it should eliminate the absorption issue with the wood.

Tackling the task in small bites seems like the way to go.

By the end of the process, I will actually have a trained partner to help. But we have to get there first.

[OlivierP]

For glassing, all methods described work, so the best for you is the one you master.

Personally I've always found difficult to lay cloth on a wet surface, I'm doing it for tape but for cloth probably I didn't roll it properly, so I settled on laying the cloth on bare plywood, sticking a few pieces of masking tape to hold it in place that you remove as you go, and apply epoxy carefully with a brush to wet the ply through the glass.

Works for me, but I have a lot of respect for those who master "lay on wet".

Your GV15 looks good so far !