Boat porn time! The last couple evenings I used the cardboard templates I made for the core to lay out my glass sheets and test fit them to have any nips and tucks ready to rock. Got up this morning after a poor night of sleep (nerves anticipating today) and I set up all my supplies. At roughly 26 sq ft per sheet of 1708 this was the biggest layup I've attempted to date. I wanted to make sure I had every possible supply close by so I checked and rechecked and tried to think of everything that could go wrong. Finally decided I had every conceivable base covered and I mixed up a batch of ketchup consistency epoxy to paint on the ground portions of the hull, painted it on and then mixed up 78oz of straight epoxy (US Composites Slow Laminating) and set to coating the transom and set in the first layer of 1708:
The glare is deceptive there, it really was much more translucent than the picture shows, as you'll see in the next photo after 2 layers. Once that was saturated I rolled it out with the fin roller and got all the voids to close up. I spent a LOT of time working bubbles out at the fillet but I got that figured out during the second layer:
Second layer in plus a 7 layer exterior patch to cover the original drain plug hole I filled the other night that I'm going to shift down slightly to minimize the lip to the bilge bottom. The faces that Wellcraft left exposed on the core are fully wrapped to the exterior - there will be no aluminum cap strip! I plan to do another wrap once the cap is back in place from the inside of the splashwell over to the face of the transom so what I did today doesn't wrap as far down the transom as it should. Sorry - storms were on their way in so after cleaning up and taking that last photo I covered her back up and didn't get a pic of the exterior of the transom - which is also now sporting a number of long epoxy drips that I didn't take the time to go back and remove. Thankfully I was planning that the transom was going to get a decent amount of gel repair so no harm beyond more sanding (yay). When I do the splash well wrap I'll grind down part of the wrap I did today and glass the whole shebang together. No water is getting in THIS core.
It rained pretty good for about 15 minutes right after I took the last tool inside and cracked open a Yeungling on the carport:
Cover held just fine, the storm was shorter than the last one we had. Still eager to get a bilge drain hole in place though.
Back to the fillet glassing. Since this was the first glass project I've tackled with an inside curve I learned something in the fin rolling. At first I was trying to work the excess and bubbles to the edge, but with the inside corner the bubble would push past then I'd end up pulling the glass back off the fillet from the roller pressure. By the second sheet I realized that all I needed to do was force the excess and bubbles into the fillet from each side until they passed thru the glass, which resulted in much quicker rolling of the second layer. I'm really happy with how it all turned out today. Since the cloth was only 38" wide instead of the 50" I had meant to order I shifted each pattern to give more/less coverage to the top and bottom. As a result I laid a handful of 6" wide by 18" long tabs across the bilge which I think resulted in a really stout connection, and a single extra strip of 6" across the top of each side of the transom. The 1708 behaved beautifully transitioning over the 1/4" radius I put on the face layer of the ply, and even nicer over the 1" radius I gave the fillets along the hull and the 13/16" radius at the top sides of the transom.
My confidence level for the stringers as a result of today's experience is markedly improved. I'm going to leave the hull alone for tomorrow and start stripping the sole. Monday evening I'll drill the pilot hole for my new bilge drain and seal up any core I expose so that Tuesday or Wednesday I can wash the cover and the hull again - the little bit of sanding I did to prep for laying today's glass has everything coated again and I'd rather not have to suit up to lay out my stringers!