Saturday, April 20,2002
Wow, it was another beautiful warm and sunny day and it made for a busy day of Jumbo building.
I spent the first two or three hours scraping and sanding the inside of the bottom to prep it for a full layer of fiberglass and epoxy. I'd already done most of the scraping earlier in the week and so mostly depended on my Makita Sander Polisher to get the work done. I've already learned that I need to smooth down the edges of the fiberglass tape and any bumps to help prevent air bubbles and to make the glass job a bit more
aesthetically pleasing.
After sand, sand, sanding for what seemed like days, I finally vacuumed up the epoxy dust, and wiped the bottom down with a wet towel. It was clean as a whistle after the third go round. On to a big glass job...
I drew pencil lines for the sections that I'd glass, giving myself a bit extra for overlapping of the glass. This way I had a target area to coat with epoxy and a guide for keeping the glass straight.
First panel went on without a hitch. Second panel was cattywampus for some reason. So I pulled the glass up to reposition it. That was a big mistake. Glass stretches in an odd way and it was quite a challenge to get it all back down and bubble free. Did I say bubble free? Fuggetit. I had a few bubbles that required baby sitting until the epoxy had cured quite a bit. I'd walk by and poke it down with my roller or a brush.
Put down the rest of the panels without much trouble. Just a whole lotta epoxy mixing... and running back and forth. Should have put wheels on the epoxy cart. Should have got a real epoxy pump too. I really hate the mustard pumps. They're slow, inaccurate and prone to occasional clogging. Save your pennies folks and buy a real pump.
The bottom is glassed on the inside and now all I need to do is flip it over,fill and tape the chine flats and fill the keel. Then I'm on to putting pieces and parts on the jig!
Sunday April 21, 2002
Life is Good. Got up today to warm weather and a quiet neighborhood. First order of business is to measure where the stringers go on the inside of the bottom, mark it and then 
scrape the seams of the fiberglass flat where the stringers cross. That was short work and then on to preparing for flipping the bottom.
I made up a frame of 2x4s that went the length of the chine flats and crossed at three points. Clamped them on and got my wife to help move the bottom off the jig. This took a bit of manoeuvering. First I figured I'd better get the molds off the jig, so I slid the bottom forward and removed the rear mold. Then I lifted (groan) the bottom up while Rebecca
removed the forward mold. We then turned the bottom over to one side and slid it off the jig. Rolled the jig out so we could move the bottom to the other side of the driveway, moved the jig back in and with the additional help of my friend Melissa (who claims to have a maximum lift capacity of 45 lbs), lowered it into place. Did I mention that the bottom is heavy?
I made fillets for the chine flats just up to the scarf and then taped them over. By this time my wagon was draggin and I was very tired of leaning over applying epoxy. So I intertained myself by cleaning up some the the filling I'd done on the stringers and shelves. Sure do like that big sander/polisher.