I didn’t manage to get anything done on the boat yesterday due to having to help Jo get a waterbed and then moving stock from the warehouse to the shop until mid afternoon by which time I was exhausted so I didn’t have the energy anyway.

Today I glassed the forebeam with 1 layer of 450g unidirectional and 1 layer of 450g double bias. I started by sanding the inside as smooth as I could get it and then vacuuming it clean. I decided I would also fill some of the uneven heights of the planks but that I could then glass onto it wet. It is not so important how it looks but still important the glass has a smooth surface to adhere to. Once the gaps (and screw holes) were filled I started with the uni, I rolled out about 3 meters of it and started to wet it out with a brush. After a while I realized it was easier to pour out some resin and spread it with the brush. I thought at first that I was using too much resin, but as I am going to place the next double bias glass onto the wet uni I was not so concerned.

Once I had finished the uni glass wet out, I immediately started on the double bias glass wet out directly on top. I didn’t have to cut this from a wider roll as I have a 300mm roll of 450g double bias so I simply measured off 6.4 meters and cut it to length and rolled it up ready to apply.

The wet out process was identical for the double bias but having an already wet surface below meant that it was faster and used less resin to wet out. The double bias is also much easier to wet out than the equivalent weight uni, I guess because the strands of glass on the double bias are much thinner than on the uni.

Now that the beam (half) is glassed I can start on cutting the 12mm ply web. I need to shape it to the shape of the curved beam before glassing it in. I have the shape from the plans, so I will draw it onto a template of cardboard, which I can check for fit and add or trim where necessary, then once satisfied I can transfer that to the ply. I have a 2400 x 1200 sheet of ply so I will need to cut that down to 3 planks of 400mm each and then scarf join the 2400mm lengths into a 7200mm length. I can then cut out the curved shaped web to the same curve as the beam top and bottom, top is easy once I have the bottom as it will be a uniform height so have the same curve as the bottom. Then once cut I glue it into the beam and cove and glass it in place. Then I can glue the top on once I have that made.

It should take me another couple of weekends to finish the beam. So basically the rest of January.