Glassing the hull of Shearwater Sport

I've got the hull of my SWS smoothed out about as well as a couple of hours of hand-sanding with 120 and the 150 grit will get it.  Now draping the first layer of fiberglass, which runs from shearpanel to shearpanel.  To my surprise, I was able to smooth out the fabric over the bow with no folds or wrinkles.  But the stern is a different matter.  It's darn near vertical.  Can't see how to do it without cutting a dart on one side.  Has anyone done this with no darts?  What the trick?

 


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RE: Glassing the hull of Shearwater Sport

 Jim,

I built a Shearwater 17, and did not have difficulty with the stern, although I think the 17 has more rake to the stern than the sport (bow and stern of the 17 are very simular).

I would not cut a dart on the side, but I would cut the glass in line with the stern so that both sides rap around the stern stem to the other side.  This will give you a double layer of glass on the stem, an area of much stress and wear. One of the next steps will be to add more glass layers to the stems, so you will be ahead of the game and need to add less. Read on the forum about the blue tape method of trimming the glass - it saves a lot of sanding and frustration with  the cloth unraveling.

Good luck and have fun,

Joel

RE: Glassing the hull of Shearwater Sport

when you wet out the cloth, you will often find you can work out extra material that you could not work out when it was dry.

i would start without the dart.   and then when doing the end, if you can't make it work, make the dart per joel's direction above (dart down the middle and then fold over each side)

make sure to have a white vinegar  handy to clean off your scissors before epoxy hardens on the blade if you need to cut the dart on wet cloth.

i have done this before (cutting a dart on wet cloth)....and its not a big deal.  just need to clean up your scissors straight-away.

fwiw....another reason for waiting to make the dart is that when you epoxy a hull....you should start at the middle and work your way to the ends.  as i indicated, wet cloth will lie a bit differently than when it is dry....so by the time you get to the ends, there will be some movement and the dart can't really be sited properly until you get to wetting out that location.

h

 

 

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