We need a bit more information:  What boat are you building?  Not clear exactly what stage of construction is.

Paul G.

Sorry, I'm building the Guillemot.

 The entire boat is intact on the forms, and I just finished glassing the hull a few days ago.  Now that it's cured, I'm trying to remove it but can't seem to get it off.

 The deck is intact as well, so the forms are sandwiched together giving me no access to try to find the trouble spot to pull it off.  The deck however is just stripped and sanded and has no sealer coat of resin or any glass yet.

Let's try this again.  You need to give us more information:

1.  What boat are you building?

2.  Is the hull stitch & glue or stripped (I see that the deck is stripped)?

If the hull is stitch and glue, the question is: Why were forms installed before the hull was glassed.  Hull glassing should have proceeded stripping the deck.  If the deck has not been glassed, you should be able to pull the staple and lift the entire deck off.  Very hard to guess what the situation is without the additional info.

If you have epoxyed the forms to the boat you may be in big trouble.  Hopefully some wizzard out there will have faced and solved a similar problem.  Keep feeding info and help will emerge.

Paul G.

My appologies.  I see now that you did give the boat info.  I still wonder if the hull should have been glassed and the forms removed before the deck went on.  I have not however built a fully stripped boat so I am probably wading in over my head.  Strip builders, can you help the gentleman?

Paul G.

I have to many questions and not enough time at the moment. On my strip build I used duck tape over the form edges so that the glue from the edge glueing did not adhere to the form --did you take this precaution??--CZ

How did you attach the strips to the forms?  Have you cut hatch holes.  My first try would be to look in the cockpit area or through the hatch holes.  Remove some of the spacers that keep the forms aligned and see if you can move the forms you have access to.  That might give you a clue to what is holding onto things in the rest of the boat.  If it is only dabs of hot melt you might start taking the strongback apart from the cockpit, rap on the forms (even if it means knocking them an eighth in the wrong direction, drill a hold through the form so you can hook the form with something and yank them back towards the middle.

Keep talking to us about what you see, what you try, the more detail the better.

the collective ideas of this many builders usually finds a way.

Ed

Hi folks,

 Thank you for all the replies! I did use painter's tape over all of the forms to minimize any strip -> form attachment that might've formed due to dripping glue.

 I was able to remove the glass'd hull, but only after first removing the non-sealed or glass'd deck first.  It was a bit nerve wrecking as I thought for sure I would crack it at one of the strips, but thankfully it held together very well.  I had a bit of trouble removing the deck, but due to it being more flexible I was able to squeeze a long japanese saw between the strips and forms to cut any tape that might've been sticking at various spots.

After removing the deck, it was just a matter of flipping the form over and doing the same process on the hull to get it popped off.  It was frustrating, but I'm happy I was able to remove it without damaging anything.

 The deck has now been glass'd  and I'm eagerly awaiting it's completion. 

Also on a separate now, I'm using the MAS epoxy sold here, and I'm curious how many coats are standard?  I'm at 2 coats for the deck and the hull, and I'm curious if that's enough or if I should add a 3rd and possibly 4th coat.  

Any input would be appreciated - thank you! 

Glad to hear that all is well that ends well..For our clarification what exactly stuck to what so that we can all learn and try to avoid this in the future?

Thanks--CZ

The strips ended up getting stuck to the painter's tape that I had wrapped around the forms.  In trying to remove the completed hull, I was also pulling the tape upward and it had difficulty tearing since it didn't have a starting poing for the tape to propogate.  Getting inside the walls via a japanese saw was able to start tears in the tape allowing it to be ripped free.

You asked how many coats of epoxy to use. Folks put on different thicknesses of epoxy so I can't say what is standard. What is needed is enoughf to fill the weave and to leave a smooth surface. Typically use thin coats, after a few coats let it dry some then sand smoother, and put on another coat. It should be very smooth.

This may be a lesson to stay away from painter's tape for this application.  It sounds like epoxy sticks to that quite well.  You ended up with a little sticky in a lot of places.  On my hybrid I covered all the forms and the gunwale with sheet plastic.  this not only gave me a non-stick surface, it kept glue dribbles out of the boat.  I would think that, for an all strip boat, one should cover the entire mold assembly with plastic before stripping the hull, then turn it over and cover everything from above before stripping the deck.  The deck could then be lifted off before the hull is glassed.

Glad this has all worked out in the end.  Good luck with the rest of the build.

Paul G.

I considered the plastic approach but it did limit some of the clamping opportunities and more importantly with the long pointy strips that must fit well between to unmovable points it was nessesary to reach under the forms and guide the fine strip points so that they slid into place with out leaving the cove and bead of the ajouning peices. My slick duck tape on the forms offered no foot hold and the resin paper which covered the bottom hull caught all the spills. Any way that is what worked well for me.....CZ

I found that the blue painter's tape, given a little time, is permeable to epoxy.  Once the epoxy soaks through and kicks, the tape is glued on to your wood.  I used it to support the cardboard dams for my end pours and then left for a weekend at the in-laws.  Needless to say, there is a bit of blue tape that remains within my finished kayak.

This tape is great for temporary masking but pull it as soon as you are finished gluing (or within a few hours).  Plastic packing tape may be a better option for long term masking.