Fiberglassing hull bottom, joining to keel, fairing hull bottom/keel.

Aug 11, 2019 - Sept 24, 2019.  Now that the hull bottom was cut to shape I was ready to fiberglass.  I started by cutting and laying out two strips of cloth to cover the bottom.  I ran the pieces lengthwise, with an overlapping seam in the middle.  I mixed up some West Systems, and got to wetting out the cloth.  Once all the cloth was wet it was time to wait.  After the first layer was just tacky I mixed up another batch to fill the weave.  I ended up with 3 coats total.

After the bottom was cured, I laid it up over the keel, lined it up and screwed it to the place.  I traced the keel on the bottom then flipped it back over and sanded the area that would bond to the keel.  I then mixed some epoxy up and flipped it back over, screwed it back up and added some weights for good measure.

Once the hull bottom was cured to the keel I flipped it over, wiped it cleaned, sanded, and cleaned again.  At this time I added a thin skim layer of West Systems 407 fairing compound to the entire bottom and keel.  After that I carefully sanded the entire surface smooth.

My daughter wanted to put her name inside the keel, like a time capsule.  Hopefully never to be opened...😅