110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
To get started, I sanded the cockpit once more, then sanded inside the port hull as needed to remove any unwanted resin from the core installation, and to further ease the edges of the core for the upcoming fiberglassing.
I measured for, and cut, two overlapping layers of fiberglass to construct the inner skin. I overlapped the seams by about 50%.
With a batch of thickened epoxy, I formed various fillets around areas of the new core, again to provide the easiest transition for the fiberglass to stick to the contours. I included a smoother fillet at the bottom edge of the existing inward hull flange, covering and filling bolt holes and cleaning this area up since I planned to bring the new inner skin up and into the hull flange for additional strength.
After installing the fillets where needed, I wet out and coated the core with plain epoxy to saturate the wood and prepare it for the fiberglassing.
Preparations complete, I installed the two pre-cut layers of fiberglass in epoxy resin, wrapping about 3" up onto the underside of the inward hull flange and extending downwards nearly to the settee, and overlapping the material onto the existing hull laminate at the forward and after edges to the extent possible. The two new layers approximated the thickness of the original inner skin found elsewhere in the boat; the junky roving I'd removed from this area, which had already been repaired once, had been somewhat heavier, but to no avail.
The discovery and extent of the damage to this portion of the hull had nearly stopped the project some weeks ago, so it was with pleasure that I brought this repair to completion. There was still a similar--though much smaller--area requiring new core and laminate a few feet forward in the head, which I'd complete in the near future.
Afterwards, I applied a thin coat of fairing compound to the few minor lows remaining in the cockpit.
Total Time on This Job Today: 7.25 hours
