In with the new

Step 3a

Here we are and so far so good. I'm about half a day behind where I wanted to be which is pretty good if you consider how construction projects typically go. I had a head scratching moment which turned into longer than just a moment of head scratching. Since I only have access to one side of the hull, I needed to come up with a way to support the new fiberglass as it hardens. I saw a brilliant idea where you construct a bridge over the repair area and thread wire through a backing (that goes in the hole) which the bridge will hold. I just happen to have some old guitar string that I'll use as the wire. The head scratching came when I came upon the problem of gravity.
All of the repair areas are on the edge of the hull where it turns and becomes the side of the hull. This is where the bridge needs to be to pull on the backing at around 90 degrees. The hull is also curved and the sample bridge I made kept sliding off the hull. So I began scratching my head. I tried forming some blocks to the shape of the hull, and that didn't work. I tried bracing the bridge with wood, using the rolled edge of the hull to prevent a piece of wood from sliding out. That didn't work either.

I needed reinforcements so I called in my trusty assistant:








Amigo (the trusty assistant pictured above) came out of his water trough to see how he could help. He needed a "thinking spot" he dug half a spot, before I asked him not to, and laid down to think. After a few seconds, he suggested I use string and weight to prevent the bridges from sliding off.
And whadayaknow, Amigo's idea looks as though it may work!







It takes two large bolts to secure the smaller bridges and three large bolts to secure the larger bridges. I simply stapled the string to the bridge so I could easily make sure the length of the string was accurate without the fuss of tying it.


So, with all of the bridges on the boat acting as arrows to point out each hole, you can see how many I'll be repairing.




Some of the wood near the bow is to keep the bolts from sliding forward since the hull narrows considerably.

So after constructing the bridges, I was ready to put away all of the power tools [sad face goes here] and start on templates.
West Systems has a fiberglass how-to video on Youtube which I'll be going by. To make the templates, you can take a clear piece of plastic and tape it over the holes. Then you trace the sanded area and then the actual hole. What you come up with is this:





I could have continued today, but it was getting rather hot, my shade had left me, and I was hungry for lunch. I took the pieces of plastic off the boat and put them in zip lock baggies each labled which will save time for figuring out what hole they're for. What I'll do is put the template, fiberglass and backing all in the ziplock bag as I cut it all.

Hopefully tomorrow, the holes will be gone. Not sure though because the fiberglass kit I have has an upsetting amount of fiberglass cloth. It's a piece about double the size of a wallet. I have another kit which has more cloth. I'll see how far it will go.
Funds are short so if it doesn't go far enough to cover all holes, progress will halt for the next few weeks.

Things are coming along so far!

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