River Boating Forum

April 6th 2008

Well, after a disastrous Saturday, the snow came overnight; 4 inches of the stuff but what glorious sun the next morning. So I thought I would take the opportunity to fill the hole left by the redundant water filler through the deck, know with affection as ‘The ‘orrid ‘ole’

This is how I did it, there may be a better way (please tell me if there is!): For a start I tackled the underside with sander & wire brush to clean it up & give a key to the ‘glass’. I then cut out a bit of hardboard to cover the hole plus a couple of inches all round & a couple of bits of glass a tad smaller than the hardboard. I also cut down a cheap paint brush so the bristles were about 1” long. Then came the mixing of the resin & application to the underside of the deck covering a larger area then the ‘glass’ I had cut earlier; followed by stippling of the two layers of glass with some additional resin.

This was then held in place using the hardboard propped off the wardrobe base. I had previously covered the hardboard with cling film & positioned it smooth side to the glass. The thinking being ‘easier to remove cling film residue than hardboard stuck to the new ‘glass’’.

Having got that far and once the resin had set, I made the ‘orrid ‘ole bigger using an angle grinder with a well worn disc (just in case it dug in & went right through to the cabin). I then cleared away the foam filler to expose the ‘top’ of the lower glass skin & cut out two discs to place in the round hole & a square (ish) piece to cover the exposed ‘top’ of the inner skin. Then into the garage to cut some balsa wood to make up the void. This was cut so it could be placed with end grain vertical as apposed to the grain running with the deck. (All balsa laminated hulls & decks should have the end grain to the glass). I used Balsa simply because I do not know any place in this part of the world that can supply the correct foam sheeting. In Cornwall I can get it off the shelf! I applied more resin over the glass & put the balsa in place applying a little resin over the top. Once this had set I ground down the top gel coat & glass layers to just above the original foam, easy to see as the colour changes to almost opaque once near the foam. It helps if the top glass can be feathered at this stage.

I then cut six pieces of glass to cover the exposed glass & balsa, each piece being slightly larger than the previous finishing with the two final layers being approximately the same size (to fit the area cut back). Liberal quantities of resin were then applied over the exposed area and each layer stippled in leaving the final finish a bit below the final level.

This is where I finished for the day, just before the clouds came over. In all it took me about four and a half hours from getting the snow off the tarp to sliding the tarp back on, the only problem I had was my back, twisting it through 90 degrees & inverting upside down to sand the underside of the deck in not the most sensible thing to do at my age! Hopefully next weekend I will be applying a filler layer to fair it all in finishing off with a gel coat layer, then at last getting on with the other areas that need the gel coat making good.

To be continued……