Fiberglass Setback

I have not failed.  I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.                 — Thomas Edison

Adding a layer of fiberglass cloth to any wooden boat will add an enormous amount of toughness to it.  And if you do it right, the fiberglass is invisible.  That’s right — invisible.  The problem is in the “doing it right” part.

Okay, let’s step back a bit.

I finally finished sanding the planking on the boat.  The bottom and topsides were fair and I stained it with Minwax Gunstock stain.  The plan was to add 1 layer of 6 oz. fiberglass cloth to the sides and 2 layers to the bottom.  The bottom layers would overlap at the keel, and I would add 2 layers of strips to the chines to really toughen up these areas and provide impact protection.

It all went well until it didn’t.  We got the chines, both sides and the transom covered, and two additional coats of epoxy to fill the weave in one long day.  But there was just the slightest bit of cloudiness in the coating.  There was nothing to do but hope for the best and go home.

But the next day, under bright lights, the cloth was unmistakable.  There was a cloudiness, and in some places it looked like there was a veil over that beautiful woodgrain.

I tried to find a way to live with it for two days.  I researched what might have caused the cloudiness.  At first I thought it was the high humidity.  The relative humidity was 83% that day with a temperature that started at 84 F and ended at 83% and 90F.  But we had used WEST 207 hardener, and the literature said it was unaffected by humidity.  It seemed like the chine strips actually came out perfectly clear, but we used 209 hardener for those to get extra working time because of the high temperature.  I called the gurus at WEST System and asked what happened.

They confirmed that the humidity was not a factor since we used the 207 hardener.  But we were too ambitious.  We needed to work slower with smaller batches of epoxy.  The epoxy began to cure before it had completely saturated the fibers of the glass.  That’s why the 209 hardener, with the longer working time came out clearer.

Then I asked what I could do to fix it. I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

Yep.  Strip it all off.

Now that’s not a small task.  I was looking at about 3 extra weeks of work to get back to where I started.  But the WEST guy did say that if I could get an edge started, I could peel the fiberglass back with a heat gun.  Then I’d have to sand the remaining epoxy off.  But hey, not having to deal with the dust created by sanding a layer of fiberglass cloth off was worth it.  And it saved time as well.  It took 4 days to get the fiberglass off.  I’m still sanding the epoxy, but that will be gone soon–a couple more days.

And the silver lining to this cloud? (There’s always one if you look for it.)  The stain acts as a guide coat to help get the boat even more fair for the second go round.

So I’ll continue sanding.  Then re-stain.  Then wait for cool weather and work in small batches.  I’ll cover one side in a long day, rather than trying to get the whole thing done.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.                                                                          — Calvin Coolidge