Skip to main content

Fiberglass fitted to inside of Borealis hull

One last step tonight before tomorrow's big glue job of epoxying the inside of the hull. Tonight I fitted the fiberglass into the hull and taped it to the sides.

ALTERNATIVE STEP FROM THE OFFICIAL PYGMY MANUAL: My biggest suggestion in this step that varies from the official Pygmy manual is buy an additional 18' or so of fiberglass cloth from Pygmy! The official manual has you use two overlapping scraps of cloth. It's just sorta cheap and could potentially leave you with an ugly area of overlapping but not perfectly flat glass. Rather, just spend a little bit of extra money and buy a run of fiberglass that will fit the entire inside. This will also leave you with an entire run to fiberglass the deck later on too. I'm not entirely sure why Pygmy decided to skimp in this one area, but it's never sat well with many builders.

I laid my full run of cloth down the hull and ran one side along the tape. You then smooth it out as best you can and tape the edge every foot or so. The remainder can be cut from the opposite side. Then smooth out that other side and tape its edges too.

At the bow and stern you will have to make a cut or two to enable the cloth to lay smoothly.

This is what the hull looked like tonight, ready for tomorrow's epoxy job...


Here is the bow with an extra piece of cloth to cover the area where I had to cut the main piece. I goofed and ended up with an area that had no cloth at all. Oops. But this will work out just fine. Besides, once the deck is installed no one will ever see this far up the bow ever again, even when the hatches are installed later.



Here is the stern with the small piece of overlapping cloth. This is what the bow should have looked like but I screwed it up instead. Oh well... it's all easy to fix!


Wish me luck tomorrow during the epoxying of the inside! It's a bit tricky at times but by being careful and paying attention to runs it should look OK when done. Of course I'll post pictures!


Peace!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Rogue Manual

I've posted about this earlier, but thought it might be good to post it again for anyone who may be interested. I've started to write a manual of tips and tricks for Pygmy solo kayak builders. It covers the taping method, so that your boat doesn't have hundreds of holes all over it. I'm on version 2 now. Version 2 covers several other tips and tricks from myself and from others as collected over time. ATTENTION : Use the manual at your own risk! The only person responsible for any mistakes or problems with the building of your boat is you. Always use the official Pygmy manual that came with your kit. Only do those tips and tricks that make sense to you. If something in the manual doesn't sound right to you, then don't do it! Neither I, nor Pygmy Boats, nor anyone else except YOU is responsible for the safety of your boat and the quality of your build. It's in very rough draft form right now, but if you'd like to read it, please send a $10 donat

Pinguino End Pours and Other Jobs

I've spent the past day and today doing a number of jobs that just need to be done but aren't that noticeable. First, I added a saturation coat to the bare wood on the #4 panels above where I cut the fiberglass the other day. I also added a layer of epoxy over the area where heels may rest. Today I scraped the sides and heel area and added another coat of epoxy.Here's how it looks now. It's technically a third coat, but really only two as much of the first two have been either scraped or sanded. I may add a third layer once this is cured. I also worked on the end pours. The Pygmy manual says to do the end pours later on after the boat is complete. It says to take the boat outside and prop it up on a wall with the end in a bucket of ice water. Then you contort yourself and pour thickened epoxy down into the end and let it cure. Then you do the other end. THEN... you have to guess where you can drill holes through the ends for your painters (the lines that you t

The "Rogue Manual" - A Supplementary Manual for Pygmy Kayak Builders!

I've mentioned a few times that I'm writing a supplementary manual for Pygmy kayak builders. It's currently up to 30 pages with lots more to go. About half of it is dedicated to the "strapping tape" method of building a boat and not using wires and holes. The rest is other techniques, tips and tricks that many builders have used over the years. If you want Pygmy kayak building tips and tricks then hopefully this will be the place to go. Here are the first few sample pages: The cover:  The Table of Contents and first few pages: Rogue Supplemental Manual Table of Contents Those are the first eight pages of the thirty page manual. I'm sure it will be larger by the time I'm finished. Let me know if you have ideas of what should be included, or what you think of the manual so far. Thanks! Aloha!