Port Quad Run

We're feeling the crunch to complete this phase. Scott Lewit of Prisma Preforms will be flying in from Florida in a couple days. He's offered to walk us through the stringer installation using Preform stringers. We need everything in order beforehand. That means completing the base layup in a few short evenings. After tonight's quadraxial cloth, we're shooting to add a layer of 24 oz 0°-90°. And all this needs to be done in 2 nights. It's gonna be close.

A late Sunday night session jolted this phase one step closer to completion. With starboard side already reinforced, Sunday's game plan is to do the same to port side. I cut several strips from the 15" wide quadrax roll as before, using a paper template for the most outboard strip. Shaping cloth is easy with these electric shears. I love these things!


The Quadrax cloth has a spun polyester Trevira™ backing. This backing makes laminating the cloth very different, it soaks up resin and we wanted to be extra sure the underside was wet out thoroughly. This Sunday night I was flying solo, so work time was critical. To keep things easy, I wet the strip out in the hull, the backing first, then flipped it up and over into place. It worked like a charm. The cloth wet out much quicker this way.


As before, opened garage doors helped lower room temp for extended pot life. Once the laminating process was complete I closed up shop to boost the temps. Highest strip first, I laminated progressively down towards the center. This way any epoxy runoff worked favorably and there was dry area to work from. I pulled the next dry cloth under me to keep out of the resin. This heavy cloth doesn't distort easily, otherwise you wouldn't want to abuse the weave this way.

This is a great shot of the bow section. We will be replacing the stem later, so we've left that area accessible. The cloth lays nice and flush with no lifting.








We butted the strips flush to the chine where it curves around the bow.

Each layer overlaps 3-5" for strength.



The fillet we laid in the chine eased the abrupt turn. The cloth laid down very nicely there with no tenting.






The resin was beginning to gel as I chased out the last remaining air with a bubble buster roller. That's the curtain call for this stage. With lower back burning it was time to step out of this boat and let it all cure.

We'll be ready for the 24 oz cloth tomorrow night. Then the following day it's time for stringers!