Over the winter months....

Over the winter months I have been working on the hull of my boat, cutting away rotten wood, plastic filler and fiberglass repairs and cutting and shaping new laminate strips to repair the hull.

The new Tool

It has been hard slow work and at times I wondered if I should find someone else to do the work because I feared I would never accomplish the task. One thing I did do was to buy a router to mill away the really tough filler and resin to get back to wood and this really did help a great deal.
Another issue that has slowed work is the air temperature. My garage is quite warm as it has the boiler in it and my office is above it but even so it has been too cold for gluing and I hate the idea of heating the garage as it really puts up the lecy bill. But as winter begins to lose its grip and spring presses in, the temperatures have risen high enough.

The following photos give some idea of the progress.

early stages of removing the old filler

gradually removing the old material

Part way through removing the rot and old repair

Using the router to cut away the rubbish

gradually removing the resin of old repair

ready for the middle layer of laminates

measuring out the laminate strip 

Laminate strips cut to approximate lengths/widths

New laminate pieces for middle layer in position.

all glued in.

Next job was to cut away some more of the outer layer around the glued areas, sand it all, then fit the outer layers and glue them in to complete the reconstruction of the hull. I have made some progress since theses photos but forgot to take photos. It now needs a bit of work to complete the task and I shall upload some shots then.

Then I shall sand it all nice and smooth, prime and paint it. I had considered looking for more problems by removing more of the paint and then coating with epoxy resin to give a clear finish but I want to go sailing. So that's a job for another long winter.