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April 18, 2011 Post 35

Invitation to the Fiberglassing Party!

Jacking the keel up to it's final position

There's light at the end of the tunnel. We're starting to add stuff to the boat! Chris has finished up the conversion of inside ballast to outside keel. He's removed the keel cooler and all thru hulls and this weekend he and John Pupparo will be rounding off corners and carving back the stem and stern post and otherwise preparing for the hull covering.

The resin and cloth have been ordered and Noah's says they'll probably come in next week to the Depew Warehouse. We'll fetch the supplies with pick up truck and unload them here with some ingenious Chris contrivance. So April 30 -May 1 is a target date to begin covering. We need four people minimum. 5 would be ok too.

One person will cut cloth strips ( one mat and one roving) and mix resin. This lucky person can be away from the worst smell! Two people probably will be lay up crew and one will apply resin. An 'extra' could fetch and carry and fill in to be useful. The three lay up people must have proper respirators with cartridges for volatile organics. (Not just paper masks). Since these are sort of â€œpersonalâ€ items, we might each want our own. The Sara BLLC could buy another one. Or if you have one of your own (or can buy one), bring it!

Filling the gaps with mortar (this keel has a little of everything!)

Here's what we bought at Jamestown for a total around $70:
Respirator
Particulate filter & retaining ring
Organic vapor cartridge

We'll start with the keel to build up layers, then 'hang ' the deck edge to keel full length strips. As the resin hardens, some one will go over the strip with the air powered stapler. Then possibly we'll be having such a grand time, that we'll apply a second set of roving and mat.

There will be some up and down on and off a low scafolding, but if we have enough people to fetch and carry the job should go pretty easy. Plan on a whole day. If it's not too hot we'll aim for April 30. We have no idea how many days the job will take. Vaitses says a good crew can do a 35 foot boat in two days. Chris says the rule of software is multiply all estimates by 10. Since this isn't computer programing I'd guess somewhere in between!

If you can help out let us know what days and times you'd be available so we can schedule accordingly. Starting around the end of April.

Wear old clothes! We do have a couple of Tyvek suits and lots of disposable light weight gloves. Heavier rubber gloves could be useful.

Keel fairing in place, ready for final shaping; hull seams caulked (for the last time!); thru-hull holes plugged; chainplate insets filled with glass cloth for strength

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