Taping hull joins and bulkheads

Glassing Internal Joins

Posted by Paul

A quick recap on where we are. We have recovered from the bad bog and now have the final preparation of both the inside of the hull and the outside before the hull can be turned.

Of course the fairing is important that it is done before the hull is turned because it is easier to get to but more important for structural integrity when turning it that as many of the internal joins as can be reached need to be glassed.

This includes all of the hull plank joins and all of the hull to bulkhead joins. This is also referred to as taping. A tape is a strip of glass. The usual tape schedule for all joins is 1 strip of 150mm double bias 600g glass then another strip of 100mm over that of the same glass. Before the glassing can be done, the panel joins (hull to bulkhead or plank to plank) need to be coved. Coving is filling the internal part of a join so as to reduce the angle that the glass will turn at into a gradual rounded join instead of a sharp angle. The angle is not so sharp on the plank to plank joins but is of course 90 degrees on the hull to bulkhead joins.

I have coved many already before I found out that they can be glassed over whilst the cove fill is wet, so these need sanding back to a smooth round even surface. Just another amount of extra work that need not be done but for a little knowledge. You can see how the second hull will go together much faster without these little errors.

So I spent a few hard hours inside the hull sanding the coves I have already done.

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Paul