Work on the Minuet

Adam has a deadline. The Minuet is a Christmas gift for Julia, and he's promised that, weather permitting, she will be launched on Christmas day. He has five days left to finish her! Julia and Philip are helping. The other day, they began putting fiberglass tape on the bottom seams.

The tape is laid along the seams and the gloopy epoxy is slathered on quickly. The tape should be saturated with it. When it hardens, it's as hard as rock.

Every seam --

The tape turns rather clear.

They also applied liquid epoxy to the entire bottom surface.

Then they laid sheets of fiberglass fabric on the boat, cut out the excess, and applied more epoxy to it, spreading and scraping it into the fabric.

Sandy participated as only dogs can.

Saturating the fabric and keeping it smooth is difficult. The fibers are tricky to deal with, and since this was their first attempt, they didn't do a fabulous job. It's a learning experience, but it turned out fine. If you do a less-than-stellar job, you simply end up with excess fiberglass, which you'll then have to sand off.

Today, they worked on the inside fiberglass tape. The inside does not have to have the fabric sheets, thankfully. They're making good progress! Adam also found a used Rockwell palm sander at the local marine consignment store. (I adore that I live in a place that has a marine consignment store.) That has been very useful in sanding the outer fiberglass surfaces smooth.