Trimaran

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain

Name:
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, United States

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Hull Repairs



I had never taken the boat hull off the trailer, consequently I had no idea of the condition of the portion of the hull hidden by the trailer support boards. As it turned out, there was still a section of the old Fiberglass skin about 4 foot wide by 8 foot long surrounding the daggerboard slot.
Once I supported the hull and removed the trailer, I was able to remove this last section of fiberglass by simply pulling it down and off. Unfortunately, there were a couple of places where the water had penetrated the plywood hull and rotted the outer layer. I scraped and sanded and ground these areas with my angle grinder and removed all the loose crap. Then I sealed it with a layer of fiberglass resin. After the gel hardened, I sanded it and applied a layer of fiberglass mat and resin. I was going to continue this process to build up this area but decided to fill it with bondo. So, I put three or four layers of bondo in the low places and tried to even it out.
After building it up, I applied one layer of fiberglass cloth and resin to the entire bottom of the hull. Now I have every exterior portion of the boat covered with at least one layer of fiberglass. I want to cover the hull bottom from the ama supports with at least four layers of fiberglass. . . maybe six.
I ordered some resin and resin colorizer from Jamestown Distributors. I want to apply a layer of colored resin to the entire boat. This might be the finish instead of gel coat. I figure that I can always do the gel coat later by just sanding the colored fiberglass. And by being colored, it will make the boat look more finished and less of a project in the front yard. Maybe that will stave off any possible complaints by the city or the neighbors. Here are a couple of current pictures.