Party Balloons and Boat Building

So what do party balloons and boat building have in common? Well it appears balloons can be useful tools!

So what we have here is a party balloon (or an alien egg) hatching from the bow thruster tube. Actually I was adding some fiberglass reinforcement to the thruster tube prior to final fairing on the bottom panels. I laid peel ply over the fresh epoxy and inflated the balloon to hold it all in place till it cured. I think I picked up this tip on one of the boat building forums.

The rest of the day was spent spreading blue goop over the hull to fill the weave on the 12 oz biax fiberglass that was laid on the sides. It left a pretty prominent weave and I experienced some bubbles when I did the transom. Filling the weave should help eliminate any bubbles on the sides.

The blue color helps me see that the weave has been filled and will act as a marker when I'm final fairing. If I hit blue I know I've sanded too far! The final color of the hull will be Royal Blue so I think it might help prevent some print-through of the weave. Not sure about that but it sure sounds good huh? Just a bit more blue goop to put on today then I'll hang the 10 oz satin weave glass on the sides and wait for a cooler day to epoxy that. Standby.