Engine foundations and filling holes

Sadly, there hasn't been much progress now that I'm eyeball deep at work. What time I've had has been dedicated to hauling and winterizing Ariel.

One of my little helpers helping me with our littlest boat.

I did, however, manage yesterday to get a final layer of biaxial cloth on the engine foundations, despite temps barely reaching the high 50s. Early in the morning I set up two heaters inside the boat to raise the temp. Around 1, the surfaces were about 65 degrees, so I wet out cloth and glassed the beds.

The weather is going to shut me down soon, so I took advantage of the temp and glassed over two old thru hull holes that I'd filled previously with thickened epoxy. And that was it for the day.

Two strips of G10 arrived late in the day. Those strips will be epoxied to the tops of the engine foundations and glassed over. I'll get to that as soon as time and temp allow. Until then, I work - and wait.

And if anyone is interested in what West Systems has to say about epoxying in colder temperatures, check out this link: Cold Temperature Bonding. Apparently West System fast hardener can be good to 35 degrees. I feel better about the work I did yesterday knowing that

Engine foundations glassed

I began this morning by giving the epoxy a water wash, then sanded the area to prepare for fiberglassing. I prepared the area by wiping it down with acetone, then used plastic pattern material to create patterns for the fiberglass cloth. I transferred the patterns to biaxial and cut enough to apply two layers to both the inside and outside of the foundations. The process went well and I'm pleased to have the foundations glassed in place. A fellow Alberg-er has picked up some 1/2" G10 strips for me that I'll epoxy on top of the foundations and then glass them in place. Things are moving along.

Cleaned and ready for glass

Two layers of glass inside and out 

Engine foundations in

I swear those boat repair/restoration specialists make it look A LOT easier! After a whole bunch of sanding and cutting - and head scratching - I got the two engine foundation blanks shaped and ready to epoxy in place.

I started the day by cutting the 12"x48" laminated plywood for the engine foundations in half, thinking that I'd get a blank out of each 12"x24" piece. After making all of the necessary cut marks, I trimmed the piece to size and realized that the geometry was such that I could actually get two foundations out of one 12"x24" section. I was a little disappointed that I'd cut up more of my marine ply than necessary, but at the same time I was reassured to know that I had enough to make a second set if I managed to make a serious mistake with the first go.

With my first blank cut to the approximate size, I trimmed and sanded as necessary to get the piece to fit  well with the contours of the hull. Once the port foundation was fitting nicely, I repeated the procedure on the starboard side. Both foundations trimmed, I coated the exposed edges of the plywood with neat epoxy before setting the foundations in a bed of thickened epoxy.

I left the foundations to cure overnight. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a few layers of fiberglass on them. 

The cross braces atop the engine foundations provided a guide and secure mounting location during epoxying.

Galley tops

Work's getting busier and busier, leaving little time for hobbies. I managed a bit of free time and cut two pieces for the galley areas on either side of the engine box. Both pieces slid into place, but I need to trim just a little from each to get the edges to line up with the existing bulkheads - nothing major, but just shy of flush.

The engine foundation laminations are complete. I need to trim the blanks to their rough size. Hopefully I can manage to get them glassed in before the weather gets too cold! Things get chilly around here pretty soon.