fiberglassed starboard bottom.

Today my Dad and I fiberglassed half of the bottom of the Zip. Dad showed up unexpected the night before to deliver Christmas gifts. We watched the "how to fiberglass" dvd from Glen-L after dinner. This morning we got to work on the boat. This was the first my Dad had actually seen the boat and it was a lot of fun to get him invlolved. He had raced hydroplanes years ago. There used to be a picture of it in our house when I was a kid.

Here are a couple pics of laying and wetting out the fiberglass. Dad mixed the epoxy and kept a steady supply ready for me while I spread the epoxy to wet out the glass. It took less than an hour from start to finish.

A couple hours after the first coat of epoxy is applied I will apply a second coat of epoxy to fill the weave of the fabric. Then tomorrow I can sand the edge that overhangs the center/keel of the boat then apply the opposite side fiberglass. With the holidays the second side will most likely not get applied until monday or tuesday after Christmas. If I work fast I might be able to squeeze it into Christmas Eve's schedule.

Here is a picture of the first coat after the glass has been wet out. It turns almost completely transparent. After this sits for an hour to harden a bit I will trim off the overhanging fiberglass at the transom with a utilitly knife. I decided not to round the transom edge so I did not attempt to shape the glass around such a sharp corner. You could apply the glass around the edge if you sand the edge round but then later you must build up the edge to a sharp, crisp corner to prevent porpoising when the boat runs at speed.