Port side forward

So, slacked off yesterday and the ole' Lady and I took off in the Camaro for a lil' cruise. We had planned to take the ferry over to Wolfe Island and drive around & see what's there then take the Ferry across to Cape Vincent NY. Loading on the ferry we bottomed out and damn near ripped the exhaust off the car. Didn't really notice what exactly happened till we checked out the ramps for the ferry to Cape Vincent. Much too steep for the Camaro! :-(  Turned back and limped our way back onto the ferry to Kingston & home. :-(

The Admiral enjoying her boat ride for the year!

Next time we'll take the Jeep. 11" of ground clearance vs 3" on the Camaro! Duh!

Ok, so to make up for a day away from the BBBBS I hit the shed about 9'ish and started to clean up the port side forward in prep for fiberglass. First it took me over an hour just to rip out the peel ply.

Oh Gawd! This is gonna be a real PITA!

This is what lightweight peel ply does when you try to remove it all in one piece! It just shreds itself into ribbons! :-(  That'll teach me for being frugal (cheap)!

Peel Ply removed.

Just a few minor bubbles where I leaned over and rested my hand on the sections already epoxied. No other way of doing it with short arms like I have.

Used peel ply.

Just a fraction of the peel ply I ripped up this morning. There's nothing I can use it for later in this condition. I have heard of some frugal (cheap) fella's who get it from production boat builders and make it into sails for dingy's.

Prepped and ready for glass.

Took me an hour or so to sand down all the fabric edges and lil' bits of peel ply that got stuck. Dust blown out with compressed air and wiped down (degreased) with Acetone.

Rolling out the wide fabric.

The plan has always been to do the sides in two sections. The section with the bulwarks requires 50" wide fabric. That's what you see above. The aft sections without bulwarks only requires 38" wide fabric (which I have). It's a little cheaper with less waste that way. There'll be a good overlap where the two join.

Trimmed up ready for epoxy.

That section of fabric is 16' long by 4' 2" wide. It'll soak up about 2 gallons of epoxy! *sigh* Probably take me 3 hrs to do it by myself.

Five hours in the boat shed today. That's pretty good for this ole' fart. Noticed it getting pretty warm around 2'ish this afternoon so time to quit.

That's 'bout it for now. Shower time!

Standby....