Vlog 377: Mind the Gap
Having not been able to do any restoration work on my cabin cruiser Twiggy for a while, I finally got back to the boatyard to do final preparation before fitting the new transom core. This involved a bit more fibreglass work as well as mixing up thickened resin to seal the join between the top and bottom halves of the hull, which were coming apart.
Dear David, really love and enjoy everything on cruising the cut. Being an aircraft engineer for over 56 years with indepth involvement in composite repairs, here are some tips for your next stages on twiggy repair.
1. Try to pitch the boat on the trailer as much nose down as you can, this will help make resign flow into the repair.
2. Work out in advance how you will clamp up the next stages of the repair as you will be dealing with large and deep repair elements that will require even and positive clamp up pressure. consider;
a. Ratchet straps from boat to trailer
b. Very deep G clamps
c. Sacrificial holes to insert threaded rod sections with large washers and nuts to apply clamp up pressure. These holes can then be filled with some of your special filler mix before applying the final repair cloth layers.
d. For large repair in aviation we use vacuum bag and heater mats to pull down the repair. But this could be slightly complex in your case.
4. Once you have your new transom section shaped to fit, before you install and coat with resign and cloth, use it to make a accurate cardboard template to help cut out accurate layers of repair cloth.
Hope the above is of help to you, and good luck with finishing off the repairs on twiggy. We will be watching you!
Cheers, yes I’ve been giving thought to the clamping issue and it may have to be long (deep?) G-clamps, if I can find any. I don’t think ratchet straps would exert the right force and I’m reluctant to drill holes through it all. I already have another large plastic sheet (which I used for the first template, as you’ll see in the next video) ready to template the fibreglass sheets for the back! Thanks.
David, Can I suggest some rolled up short width tissue paper stuck around the areas where you suspect water ingress. Many short pieces rather than one longer which will help locate the leak more accurately. Toilet paper width rolled finger thick. Non waterproof masking tape to affix. Good luck Howard
Cheers Howard!