GF14 - Charleston, SC

[Rumdoctor]

Well my GF14 project is finally moving along at a more consistent pace now. It's my first build and certainly a learning experience around every corner. The project sat idle for about 20 months, because you know...LIFE -job change, first child born, home repair priority, etc!!!!

Thanks everyone for the help on the forums so far. It is greatly appreciated. I do find that it is sometimes difficult to find corroborated advice. I search the forums as much as I can, and post as little as I can to try not to repeat technical questions that have already been addressed. However, it sometimes seems the opinions can be greatly varied for single topics and the technical jargon confusing at times. Add in that its all done remotely, and it slows me down a bit. I certainly get the paralysis by analysis which has been mentioned in the forums before. Anyhow, it is still a fun project and I'm hoping to complete it soon.

CURRENT STATE: Runners are glued on and need to be glassed over. Spray rails will be glued on soon too. Fairing and sanding the hull coming up. (see questions below about sanding in last picture please)

I did not take many pictures of the inside of the boat during building, but I did do a fair amount of custom work before flipping it. I ran chase tubes, limber holes, drilled transom drain, drilled bow eye holes, made backer plates, made foam compartments and anchor locker, cut and framed hatches, and fabricated a bow rubrail. I will add photos in after I flip it again.

setup 1

setup 2

setup 3

cutting panels

glued

rubrail

bow rubrail

chines taped

hull mat

hull glassed

sanding threads

sanding

How does this sanding of the threads look? Too deep into glass for the slurry fill? Is this what it needs to look like for the mechanical bond when not working wet on wet?
What respiratory protection do you guys use when sanding? N95 particle mask?
What do you use to clean up the boat after sanding, but before fairing? air only? clean rag? tack cloth? something else?

So far I've found the most difficult part was filleting the outside seems and getting a nice round edge. I've worked wet-on-wet for everything except my next step of glassing over the runners, which is another reason for the sanding questions above. I know I need the sanded bond between the two layers, but am not sure if the sanding in the picture above suffices for that purpose.

Thanks!
Chris

[topwater]

Wear a good mask, in my opinion the paper masks are useless. As far as sanding for between coats of glass you want to
knock down the stitching to where you just see the glass fibers start to show . More like the top right of the picture
than the middle of the picture. You want a medium of the two.

[piperdown]

Can't help on the sending part since I'm new to working with epoxy and fiberglass but I do know particulate exposure as I'm a safety manager.

There are only very few limited situations where I allow N95s at work. For the most part I recommend N100 or P100 (P100 if there may be oils). My personal 1/2 face i use for mixing epoxy or epoxy and wood flour and epoxy is a 3M (the epoxy sets off my sinuses). The one I'll use for sanding is a Draiger full face. Both are P100 with organic vapor combo cartridges.
I have the advantage of the equipment for fit testing at work so I get quantitative tested. At home you could try the qualitative test but it would be better if you could find an Industrial Hygienist (IH) to help get the right fit.

BTW, great looking boat and you're moving right along on the build!

[Rumdoctor]

Sounds good thanks Piperdown and topwater.

I sanded a bit too deep the other day next to the runners in an effort to create tooth for the tape layer. Hoping it's not too much of a problem since I'll be laying a piece of biax tape over it anyways. It was also the top layer of the overlap so I think it will be okay. I'll definitely err on the lighter side for sanding the rest of the hull.

I reached out to a place to fit test respirators and it's only $25. They recommended going over to Sherwin Williams to select the actual mask. I probably already did some damage epoxying without a mask, and doing a little sanding with a N95 particle mask. Although I did always have both garage doors open and fans blowing out. I am concerned about the sanding dust when fairing and priming so I am going to get a real respirator before continuing.