I had a good afternoon on the build today. I got the dingy top painted in the morning, then had work to do most of the day, then in the afternoon I was able to wet the glass out and after an hour or so (more work to do which was actually fortunate as it passed the time) while the glassed tacked off a little so it would not move when I trowelled on a thin layer of bog.

I left a meter square area around where the mast will come through the panel un bogged so that I can apply the extra layers of glass that will be required to strengthen the deck around the mast. Glassing on glass is much stronger than glassing on bog, so on the Port hull where I forgot to leave a section bare, I will have to sand back the bog all the way to the glass.

Now that the panel is glassed and bogged, it will take 2 days to be set well enough to remove the panel from the boat and work on the inside of the panel. I will actually leave 2 of the temp bulkheads on the panel and remove them from the boat with the panel (still attached) and add one at the bow, while I work on the inside of the panel and remove and replace them to glass it, before replacing the panel on the boat to fully set. This will ensure that I don’t have a repeat of what happened last time with the glass crimping and bubbling because the panel had spread a little while off the boat and was glassed in that new shape before being bent back to the boats shape when it was screwed down against the bulkheads again to regain the correct shape. The panel should already be the correct shape as we put it back on the boat so wont cause any of the bubbles in the wet internal glass.

I may do some work on other parts of the boat if I get any time tomorrow as I wont touch this panel now until the weekend. Such as the forebeam that is still waiting on the bench to be finished. It will be nice to get the bench space back!