Fiberglassing the Hull and Deck

Perhaps this section should be titled Sanding and Fiberglassing. Once the deck has been glued and taped to the hull it all needs to be sanded smooth, with all panel joints rounded so the fiberglass cloth will sit smoothly.

Hull sanded with chines and seams well rounded

I started with glassing the bottom and sides. The instructions call for one full layer of cloth over the bottom and sides up to the hull deck seam. Then a football shaped piece that doubles the cloth on the bottom. Two 5′ long lengths triple up the cloth on the bow and stern bottom to help with abrasion on during launching and landing.

I laid a piece of cloth on the bottom and marked the bottom to side seam and this allowed me to the piece to shape.

Next I laid out the full piece to cut it at the hull and deck chine. It’s important to lay out to maximize the cutoff as it will be used on the deck.

Then the third layer strips were cut.

Here the cloth is laid out and smoothed prior to saturating with epoxy. Note the third layer strips follow the bottom and up the bow and stern for extra strength in these areas of high wear.

All three layers of glass laid out and smoothed

The epoxy is applied starting midship and working towards bow and stern until all full saturated.

The epoxy will set overnight and then another couple of coats to fill in the weave of the cloth before flipping and glassing the deck. Here the cloth is laid out on the deck. There are two pieces of the cutoffs from the bottom and the meet just behind the cockpit. The cloth is trimmed so that it overlaps the side by about three inches. The hatch and cockpit areas will be cutout after the epoxy has set a bit.