Now that we have bonded the bridge deck together, it’s time to glass all 50 feet of the inside seam. There’s multiple steps involved, including making sure all parts of the seam which did not have our methacrylate bonding agent push through, get a bit of thickened resin pushed inside. From there we cove any open spaces in the flange and wait for that to get tacky before we can add our fiberglass.
The seam receives two layers of 1208 fiberglass, with a bottom layer of 150 mm, and another layer of 100 mm covering it. To get this seam as smooth as possible, it receives a good coating of resin, and then has all air bubbles rolled out with a fin/metal roller. The last step is to apply Peel Ply cloth, which leaves for a fare/smooth surface, and also helps to push out the last of the air bubbles.
The next day, once all of this has cured, the two of us tackle the task of lifting the 38 ft hull sides up in the air. We do this so we have a better opportunity to level the hull before it receives 5 strips of unidriectional fiberglass from one hull to the other. (This prepares the areas for bulkheads ) Once in place, it will be nearly impossible to make adjustments to the hull.
We hope you enjoy!
Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie