Bows, Glassing

Starboard Inside Deck Glassed On

Posted by Paul

During the week I got the glue and join sanded on the starboard bow inside hull to deck panel on both the inside and outside ready for glass. The joins need to be free from sharp glue dags that would cause bubbles in the glass and also to remove any sharp corners so the transition is smooth. The inside is difficult to sand as the corners are tight and you cant get the grinder blade into them and also you have to be extremely careful not to let the edge of the grinder touch the glass, only the face of the grinder because even the slightest touch will cut through the glass. It is also a tight cramped space to work in after I glued the toilet surround in. The other area that requires care is under and around the beam although under is a much tighter angle.

So with the panels all sanded all that was required was coving where needed. So I started with them as you want them to go off a bit before glassing to them. I coved the underside of the beam first, the top didn’t need coving as I just sanded and shaped the glue into a cove.

I had all of the glass pieces pre cut ready for today so I wet them all out and started applying them. 2 layers of glass over all of the panel joins and 4 layers in all over the deck to beam joins. 3 layers in a circular pattern at 150, 300 and 450mm from centre of the deck beam join out in all directions and a 200mm tape around the entire join. These pieces of glass require some slots in them to get around the very sharp corner at the leading edge and trailing edge of the beam as the glass moves from over to under. It is just too sharp a corner to get the glass down without a slot cut in it. I do this at the very last moment, once I have the rest of it in place, down with all bubbles out and I just cant get any more down with cutting, then I run the scissors in to where needed and lay the rest of the wet glass on, overlapping if needed or onto the beam and under the beam where it needs to go.

Once I had the outside glassed I moved onto glassing the inside. I can only get to half of the joins at this stage because I still have the hull to deck panel on the starboard hull. I can get into the middle void because of the toilet cut out and the one behind it, the actual ensuite but I cant get into the front void or the one over the beam with the bow locker. I will get to those once the hull deck panel is off the boat. There is no necessity for it to be done before I can proceed but it must be done before the hull deck can be glued on forever sealing the front crash void.

Tomorrow I will glue the conduit onto the starboard hull and do some more work on the catwalk preparing for it to be glued onto the boat. The usual method is to glue the foredeck panel on first then glue the catwalk to it, but I figure that because the catwalk is exactly the same width as the D section bulkheads under the foredeck I can glue and glass the catwalk sides to the bulkheads then glue the deck to the boat around the catwalk in the same way I glued the side bow panels around the forebeam, then glass that all in as well for a second point of attachment.

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Paul