Fairing starboard side float deck and gunwales

I've spent the last week fairing out the starboard side float deck and gunwales. My plan is to finish both port and starboard decks and then change out the supports for holding a float for access to the hulls and all that freeboard area on this design.

Step one was to apply beads of System Three quick fair across the deck. My fairing strategy is to sand these beads down with the flat long board (60 grit sandpaper) until the fiberglass on the hull is reached. The remaining high bead level indicates where and also the height to which fairing material has to be applied.

The above picture shows the beads sanded down. I was actually quite surprised at how much putty would be required to get the decks flat.

So I applied the fairing putty and filled the low areas. Sanding this first layer down did not yield a finished flat surface.
Here is the deck getting pretty close to finished. Still quite a bit of dust on the surface. I think I lost a couple of pounds this week working away on the long board.

A picture of the chain plates finally getting cleaned up and looking a bit more presentable.

Quick fair putty requires a sealing coat of epoxy. I plan to paint (2 part LPU) directly on this surface after some fine grit sanding. There will be no paint priming for the float decks. I hope the flatness of the deck will still be apparent when the non skid surface is applied.

This is how I will leave this float and do the same job on the port side.

Pictures of float interiors

With the deck plates openings cut out, I was very interested to see how the float interiors look after the deck join. First impression: certainly looks like a home amateur build, but not bad for a first attempt. The floats seems strong and light enough on the inside and outside. I'm happy.

Starboard side float looking forward to the bow.

Port side float looking forward to the bow.

Starboard side float, looking forward from the hatch opening to the forward beam bulkhead.

Port side float looking forward from the hatch opening to the forward beam bulkhead.

Starboard side float looking back to aft beam bullhead.

Port side float looking back to aft beam bulkhead.

Fitting wingnet rails, hatches and deck plates

I glued and taped the inner support parts for the wingnet rails.

They stand fine but in order to verify placement the cut outs for the deck plates and hatches have to be made.


Everything looks like they are in the right place. I was happy to note that simply clamping the rails in position have them standing at the correct height. The inner supports meet with the gunwale very nicely. It would appear however that I will have to provide more clearance for the side stays and lashings.

Next to fill in the deck cut out edges with putty and fair the deck before taping the rails on permanently.

Floats all glassed - ready for final fairing

Both decks are now glassed and the transoms have their final layer of s-glass. It is time to think about the strategy for fairing the outer float hulls. Do I fair the hulls before the deck?, and when should I attach the wingnet rails?

Above are the deck hatches and plates with the cut wingnet rails lying roughly in place. Just for economy of effort I will fair, cut the holes for the deck plates and hatches and attach the wingnet rails before attacking the hulls. After all, both decks are accessible just the way they are. I do believe I can safely fair the hull sides with the wingnet rails in place. But, as the blind man said, "we shall see'.

Here are the float transoms, ready for final fairing. If you look closely you can see the tiny 2mm hole near the centre top of each transom drilled clear through for ventilation.

The garage also needs a real good cleanup.

Starboard side float deck laminated

Yesterday I started laying out and cutting the cloth (2 layers of 8.9 oz) to cover one float deck. This time the cloth pieces are cut for the full length of the float and the cloth pieces for the extra reinforcements as required.

I decided to go for it and was able to finish the full deck in one go, all by myself. I was back in the house for a glass of wine (or two) by 7:00PM - well deserved.




Above are various shots of the resulting surface revealed today after stripping off the peel ply.

There are a few air bubbles this time I will have to deal with. But overall I am very happy to have one hull more or less fully glassed. One layer of cloth on the transom remains.

With the boys I made another rough weight estimate. (Two guys on bathroom scales minus there own weight. The float seems to weigh around 110lbs, just around the theoretical weight given by Ian Farrier. If this weight is accurate then I am very happy indeed. I was hoping that the 8.9 oz s-glass interior cloth and using two layers of 8.9 oz cloth exterior would save me some weight - and maybe it has.

Floats decks prepared for lamination

Here is how my float transoms are looking. They are pretty much ready for the final layer of cloth.

The float decks have now been sanded and filled with light filler to ease the transition where the cloth from the hull lapped up on the deck.

The float bows look like this.

And finally here are the carbon fiber chainplates. If you look closely you can see the carbon fiber wraps showing on the outside.

Both float hulls now glassed

It is a bit of a milestone to have both float hulls glassed. I can now present them upright in the garage and work on the float decks.

Here are pictures of the two float hulls out of the garage. It is interesting to see the various colours of the light fillers that I have been using.


The hulls look a little rough around the keel where the last lamination finished. The hulls are as is, no cleanup, but with all the peel ply removed.

Just to review the materials used.
Fiberglass cloth: 2 layers of the following cloth from BGF Industries

Style:	7781
Finish:	497A
Weave Pattern:	8 HS
Yarn Description:
Warp:	ECDE 75 1/0
Fill:	ECDE 75 1/0
Count: Ends X Picks (in)	57 X 54
Weight:	8.71 oz / yd²
Breaking Strength: (lb / in)
Warp:	242 lb / in
Fill:	231 lb / in
Thickness:	0.0089 in

The strategy with this cloth was two-fold. First, the fine 8HS weave is very drapeable with little crimp, resulting in better strength than a plain weave cloth.

Secondly, applying 2 layers at the same time hopefully optimizes the glass to resin ratio. The purpose of the epoxy resin is to communicate stresses from one fiber to the next. This cloth with ~55 strands of fiberglass per inch has very little space when laid up, to be filled with resin.

Applying the peel ply and plastic has resulted in a very good quality lamination. The cloth is very firmly attached to the foam and the weight seems to be optimized. The 'high contact angle' air bubbles have not been observed anywhere. They seem to be a thing of the past and the quality of the laminations have really improved from the 'early learning escapades' on the float interior to the outside hull.

Epoxy Resin: PTM&W MVS-420 resin MVS-468 hardener.
This resin gives the working time I need 2-2.5 hours but then cures at a rate I like. If I work through the afternoon on a part I can expect to be able to rip off the peel ply early the next day. The Aeropoxy resin would take days.