Taping Up

A few hours on the weekend (thank you Ed) and finally we have begun taping... that's the trouble with this time of year; it should have been a winter project when we had some time. Ed popped in and started the taping on the promise that he will be the third member of our crew when it comes to sailing time. A few hours of prep (sanding back the fillets) and taping and it is starting to look good. The transom was an easy area to reach and finish and has stiffened up the back of the boat enough to hopefully work on the next section easily. This is not the way to do the boat in one hit, but if you are short of time and resource its quite a nice way of working! I prepped the next section early on this afternoon and intend to pop back this evening and tape. If we ever manage to get a couple of us down at once we will finish all the bottom in one hit!!

Note that we added a few tapes at the bottom of the transom to spread the load to the hull from the rudder. This was done before the addition of the longitudinal to ensure continuity of the taping.

You may be able to see that the peel-ply is not fully wetted out; this won't give as nice a finish, but it will mean that we do not have an excess of resin and therefore less weight ... there are arguments either way but we will probably wet out the peel-ply fully where we will add additional reinforcement over the top so that it adheres better.



Stuff used:
Peel Ply
100mm Tape E-Glass 450 +- 45
Ampreg 21 Resin and Hardener
Roller
Paintbrush
Scissors
tongue depressor
Resin/Fibre mix for any gaps