As promised: I used some epoxy thickened with recent sanding dust to fill in small gaps near both ends of the hull. This goop is very dark, like chocolate rather than peanut butter, but it will do. After it hardened for a few hours, I moved the boat off the table, put down a sheet of plastic to catch dripping epoxy, and returned the boat to prepare for glassing.

I need to wait for the last fill to cure lest the fiberglass cloth get caught up in it.

Day 22

I sanded the hull with finer grit (120), raised it a few inches above the table by inserting substantial cardboard boxes inside the hull, the better to keep the sheer clamps clear of the table and the glass cloth clear of both the table top and any supports, and then draped it with fiberglass.

I’ll wait till tomorrow to trim the glass more closely and apply epoxy. The glass has been folded in a USPS Priority mailing box since 2010. The wrinkles fell out and it smoothed easily, but I still want to give the glass time to relax and fall over the hull as naturally as possible. I also want to start early so that I’ll have all day for the first pour to partially cure and allow a second thinner coat of epoxy later on the same day.

For the record, the fiberglass supplied is a 50″ wide, 4 ounce cloth. The bag said “7 yards” but CLC was generous; there must be a little over 8 yards here. The whole piece weighed 1.3 kg; the boat will probably eventually use a little over half of it. I guess the rest is for patching. I have almost exactly 1/2 gallon of resin and the corresponding amount of hardener left. It’s going to be a near thing to complete the hull and have a little left over for sealing the decks. That’s down the way a bit.

Tomorrow

we pour, but for now we wait.

In other business, I asked for an received an RMA for the MAS epoxies I’ve been collecting and do not need. Maybe (probably) I’ll need more than the gallon of LV epoxy supplied with the kit, and if so, I’ll start with a fresh order of the right amount of the right stuff. (The money saved is half a set of Concept II sculls!)