Fiberglass Complete

I completed the fiberglassing portion of the build and am very excited to put that behind me. I don't think I've ever talked myself up so much trying build some confidence to get something done. I watched the Glen-L video on fiberglassing, about 10 times, which you can purchase from their website along with a book, and used that as my main source of information. I also looked at Art Atkinson's Boat Building Blog for more information, and of course, I took advantage of the Glen-L forum with some questions. As a reminder, I had purchased the Glen-L fiberglass kit for the Squirt.

When fiberglassing, you can use fiberglass tape to cover any plywood joints (chine line, transom to side, transom to bottom, stem/keel), and then do a final sheet over the entire hull. I decided to go with just the sheeting of the hull and not use the fiberglass tape. I went with this decision because the only reason I was fiberglassing was to give the hull a little extra strength, but because I used screws to fasten the plywood panels to the frame, instead of screws, I decided a single sheet would be fine.

I started the process with an application coat of epoxy covering the hull. Next I fiberglassed the transom, with the fiberglass sheet extending about 3.5-4" around the sides and over the bottom plywood. I used the dry-method of applying fiberglass, which was recommended by the Glen-L plans and the Glen-L video. Following this I did the sides, and recruited my dad to help mix epoxy so I would have a steady flow coming to me. When I did the sides, I again had about 3.5-4" fiberglass sheet extending to the bottom plywood. This gave some support to hold the fiberglass up. Finally I did the bottom in a single sheet, as per the fiberglassing plans. I cut the bottom sheet to slightly overlap the side sheets. I also had my mom help during the bottom sheet, to keep the fiberglass smoothed down. It seemed with such a large piece of fiberglass, the sheet kept moving. Before each coat of epoxy or fiberglass I did a very quick sand with 80 grit paper, followed by a wipe down with a rag soaked in detergent and water. This made sure everything was clean before applications.

The first picture shows the application coat of epoxy. It really turned the mahogany a beautiful dark and made me wish I wasn't going to paint, next time I'll be leaving the side natural. The second picture shows the right side fiberglass applied, and overlapped on the chine and the stem,and the left side being fit. The third picture shows the fiberglassing complete. Remember, I have a lot more pictures in my full album linked on the right of this page.