Thank goodness for global warming?

It was in the 40's yesterday, which is a bit unusual for Maine in December.  That being said, it was a good thing because it was warm enough to do some fiberglass work.  Since I will be using a composting head for the boat, I do not need the 3 through hulls that were associated with the previous traditional head on the boat.  That means I can patch the holes in the hull, and have fewer through hulls to maintain and worry about. 

Here are some basics for fiberglass.  I was using epoxy resin for yesterday's project.  It is the strongest, most water resistant resin out there.  It is also expensive.  I used it because where I am patching will be underwater, and therefore needs to be water resistant so that osmotic blisters do no occur on the bottom of the hull.  Osmotic blisters occur when water penetrates the layers of fiberglass.  This ruins the strength of the fiberglass, and is quite expensive to fix.  The epoxy resin gets mixed to a specific ratio (5:1 in this case), then the layers of glass fabric and mat get soaked with resin.  The layers get progressively bigger as you add them because then each layer will grab more of the existing hull and have more hold strength than if each layer is the same size, or the bottom layer is the biggest.  In this case, I had one layer of fabric on the outside of the hull, with 2 layers of mat and 2 layers of glass alternated on the inside of the hull.  Doing the repair in this manner makes for an extremely strong fix, which is important when patching the hull.  I will have to do some fairing (read: LOTS OF SANDING) of the glass layers after they have set and are hard.  This will make them basically invisible as fixes on the hull, and also make the hull smooth so that it cuts though the water very well. 

 Left: The layers of glass laid out in prep for soaking (aka: wetting out) with epoxy and application to hull.

Below: Plastic sheet taped to hull to form glass work to the shape of the hull so that less sanding is necessary, and less material will be removed in the process.  One through hull hole is still left to be patched due to temps dropping below 40 degrees.

A final note: The tailgate of the pickup makes a great work bench for doing projects for the boat.