Sunday 30 June 2013

Wills i550 progress with our kit

The progress since I last looked is remarkable!

Will has had problems with using epoxies in the fierce heat they experience where he is building, we always give advice when those materials are purchased from us, I am not sure who was his supplier?


June has been about crawling around inside the boat cutting the bunks to size and prepping the bilges for epoxy. I am not friends with the heavy 450GSM biaxial tape I am using. So many air pockets to sort out. I have found out (far too late of course!) that cutting the edges off the tape length ways with a rotary cutter significantly improves the quality of the taping. Also, the cooler weather is allowing me the luxury of wetting the tape out first, leisurely filleting and then applying the tape, spiral rolling and adding peel ply and spiral rolling again. This has, mostly, raised the quality of my glass work as the tape is very heavy and prone to trapping air. On the few occasions I have felt able to use the lighter 200GSM tape it has been a breeze, maybe I should have used more?!

Words above by Will, my advice is not to use glass tapes that are so heavy, often hand cutting biaxial cloth sheeting gives you a much more flexible material?


http://471.sailspace.org/wp/

We have local boat builders who can assemble our kit for you.

Roy