March 16 2010 Hipnautical Repair

Well I went to the boat early to see how well it had dried. The outside temperature dropped to minus 5 Celsius last night so I wondered what effect that would have, as our Yacht Club prefers if we do not leave heaters unattended. The area was quite dry, but I set up 2 heaters to get one area that was wet.

We then cut the marine grade plywood with a skill saw and jig saw, attempted to dry fit them, recut the pieces a few times to make sure we could fit them, then drilled the hardware holes while it was dry. I went outside the boat to mix the resin, but found it a bit challenging with finding the correct amount of silica to add. After a few coughing fits, we had a mayonnaise/peanut butter consistency resin and we slapped the goop on the bottom skin. We did place tape over the hardware holes to minimize resin drips in the cabin.

The second batch of resin was made with more silica, which we smoothed on to the plywood, making sure we got enough into the perimeter where there were gaps.

I wanted to place the skin on and get it all finished, but we ran out of silica and I think we need a very thin piece of pegboard to fit along the top of the plywood to keep the top skin from sinking as it used to.

Acetone is VERY necessary for this type of work, very sticky!

Hard to tell but we have the resin all packed into the sides and the gaps between the plywood, now to wait til we have the new silica and pegboard.

I did use some of the leftover resin to spot repair some degraded fibreglass on my cabin top runners. Next time I would make sure the area was cleaner as a lot of dirt was glassed in.

Here’s hoping I get more done this week!

Brad J Boudreau
Hipnautical
Grampian Discovery 79 hull #38