Laying Down the Heavy

By our next shop session the center strip of Quadrax cured rock hard. Just stepping in the hull was noticeably stiffer. This is the way to go- quick and easy strength. Time to add some more. We're going to split this stage in two, glass the starboard side first, let it cure, then glass the port side after. Otherwise we'll be lying in wet resin, a very stick proposition! In total we estimate covering 80" x 180" of hull area .

The Quadrax is on a 15" wide roll, so we dry fit three strips in advance. For the outside run we used a roll of masking paper to make the template, simply following the chine with a sharpie.




Once the quadrax was cut, we sized it and it looks spot on.


We cut it so the fabric just curled into the chine but not up the sides. We'll come back after with some 6" wide tape to finish tying in that angle.

The cloth runs all the way aft to about 2 inches up the transom.

With everything in order, we began the mixing. Again, we went to West 105 and 206 slow.



Starting with the highest strip, we spread neat epoxy on the hull with chip brushes and roller then aligned the fabric over. We poured the resin and squeeged it out with spreader.




As the fabric wet out we worked all the air out with laminating rollers. 15" wide strips make bubble chasing manageable. We walked our way towards the keel with each layer. Keeping the cloth flush on the sharply angled bow was tricky. The best solution we found was to fold the cloth back on itself, back wet it and stick it like a postage stamp to the steep bow. We finished the wetout spreading more resin with a chip brush on top and worked out any air with gloved hands. All strips had at least a 3 inch overlap.

We're half way there.