Been a while on this. Big update. The timeline on this is from the last post. There was much thinking and staring at the problem before acting. The reason for that will be clear. This gets more fun than you can imagine...
Been working with HHH Boatworks so the action plan here is "per the factory spec" and they (HHH) are paying for the repair. I'm going slow, sending pics to them, and taking their advice (as well as Fuzz's). This will make sense in about 2 minutes (if you read slow and look at pictures).
Full Hookups is a 35' fast cat with 2x Merc 300 verado (the supercharged ones). Captain is a bit like me and Adam... they wouldn't have put all that room under the throttle if it wasn't supposed to be used. Boat tops out at a bit over 60 and is regularly abused at 50+ in 3+' seas. He tends to slow down at 4'. Vinylester over carbon, encapsulating foam core. Hull is #6 but was the first "non-company boat" on the water and the third built by a "non-company" factory (all manufacture is now in-house for HHH).
Shane (the owner) has had it down to Homestead for a few repairs... not all of them his fault. Most of them are his fault, just not all of them. The gel coat repair that started this thread is all Shane. But...
We have full bow eye blow out!
As I was preparing to start on the gel, Shane asked me to look at the bow eye. Bow eye was loose. Just rattling on the hull. "Been like this a while. Started making noise about three tows ago, but she's been living at the marina so I didn't think anything of it. Not really safe to town to Homestead. You want to fix it?" HELL YES I DO!!! Called the factory and the owner/naval arch got on the phone with me and confirmed that this was a known issue. The original contract called for high-density foam and the contracted factory assumed it wouldn't be noticed if they put low-density foam in there. It was noticed.
I cut out a 2"x4" area of the inner skin with the SOB tool. There was nothing but dust under the undersized backing plate crush area. I removed all the damaged foam and a bit more. Followed that up with a bit of "beveling" to the factory spec. Since they supplied all the coosa, vinylester, glass and gel, I'm following their directions (so I know the bevel seems "short" but this is warranty work with no room for me to deviate, it gets bigger later).
This is the external gell and glass cracking from the bow eye pulling through the core.
Took a break from bending over the anchor locker and figured I'd prep the gel areas for a bit of "structure". Per HHH what I thought was core showing in the step, was just a fold in the glass. Their direction was to grind a nice surface to get a good bond, then fill with an off-the-shelf 3m product that is polyester and glass fiber. A dremel, some drum sanding with 80gr got me to ...
Actually had to crawl under the trailer to get to the step hit.
Took a break from being a "hull troll" and climbed back into the anchor locker. Cut me some new core. Trimmed the hole and plug for the indicated <1/4" gap, coated the plug with 3m product and slipped it in.
Since I was using the 3m product for the plug I rebuilt the bow and step in prep for gel.
Following this HHH and I got into a bit of a "discussion" about glass sizing, beveling, and lamination. They wanted 10oz, 6x10" sheets with 4 staggered layers of 2.25x4.25" 12oz CSM over the plug. I questioned how it would tie to the glass over the gel and they suggested that I would sand it back. to the beveled area. Keep in mind I have a new FG backing plate that is 8x12" so the entire repair is under the plate. They agreed that widening the bevel would give me better glass bond and given the size of the plate would be better. So I fixed it... but only to their spec.
And that brings us to Sunday. I created a damn should the vinyl pull an epoxy trick like "I want to run downhill fast!" then prepped for layup. Everyone says "vinyl and poly are the same". What no one mentioned was the difference in catalyst ratios. I applied a layer of "catalyzed" vinyl to the repair, laid the bottom sheet, add vinyl, add csm, add vinyl, add sheet, add vinyl, and rolled.
Now fallguy1000's head exploded about 2 paragraphs ago since all of us would have used a smaller bottom sheet and built up to the top sheet. In this case it worked out to my advantage. Monday I walked over, put on gloves, and pulled the entire dripping layup off the hull. A couple wipes with acetone and we were almost ready for a second try.
I way under-catalyzed the vinyl. Fuzz walked me through getting my ratio corrected (which nearly set my shed on fire). I've called HHH and had a "are you sure about this layup" and was greeted with "You missed the ratio, right?" They KNEW it would happen. "You're an epoxy guy. Normally you guys start a fire. I figured you were smarter than most and would under-catalyze since you called about which resin to use. That's why we sent the extra glass. If you think you have the ratio down, use the lamination you think is correct. If not use the oversized bottom so you can pull it off easy. Won't be weaker if you sand it back later. And thanks for not setting the boat on fire."
I have to admit that this has been fun so far. I'm hoping to get the glass done CORRECTLY later today. If y'all see a big black cloud north east of Savannah, it's probably just me missing the ratio. Again.
