Hi guys after 30 years building and designing boats in Australia I am very experienced in what you are doing. Worked on my first atl composites kit in the late 90s. And been building and designing ever since. Tip 1 it is far easier to use a cake icing knife and a plasterers hawk for tabbing/filleting as we call it down under. I am allergic to epoxy after using it for 20 years and now use vinylester only. It is much better to work with than epoxy but does give off more fumes. In oz we work in an open sided shed, just a roof basically so not really an issue with fumes. Tip 2 wet on wet is the way to go. Rather than do all your fillets at once you will save yourself a lot of work if you do one section at a time and put your bog on as you glass. You can leave the peel ply on the roll and save the heartache. Tip 3 watched your glassing of panels video. I never glass to the edge always a half inch or so back from the edge this means you dont have to cut glass and sand it to fit your bulkheads etc just cutting foam is a lot easier and quicker. Cut the panel/bulkhead and fit it first, or cut to plans, no need to cut oversize guys if you cut an inch out just glue a piece of foam in, simple. Saves miles of waste and work. The edge of the panels do not need to be exact as the fillet mix will fill the void and you will then glass over it anyway. Also the more resin you use the weaker the panel, try to use the minimal amount and ditch the leftovers. We always have a piece of solid glass usually two or three feet long and a foot wide and all offcut glass anf leftover resin gets layed on that. We cut it up to use as backing plates for cleats and tow points or where you put door hinges etc. Saves on waste and really handy later in the build Tip 4 hotcoat all foam before glassing and heat workshop beforehand so that foam cools slightly as the resin cures. This will prevent the foam outgassing and save heaps of resin when you glass as well as time on the roller as the foam outgasses more bubbles. Hot coating is a super thin layer of resin applied to the bare foam and allowed to gel off then start your glassing. This prevents large resin uptake in the foam and also creates a barrier to prevent bubbles outgassing. If you heat up the foam after you glass it will outgass and cause bubbles. In oz we tend to glass in the afternoon when its cooling down and this causes the foam to ingas, for want of a better description, and suck the glass and resin in. Also dont mix your epoxy that way as you are introducing too many air bubbles, mix it slower with a stick and try not to introduce air into the resin, it is good to use your drill to mix bog though. If you have bubbles in the resin then you will have bubbles to roll out. In oz we use a different style of roller than you guys it is like a spikey bottle brush type roller. Works a heap better and lots faster. I have actually worked on and been on a spirited 230 so I am familiar with your project. Good luck its a big job and takes a lot of your life to complete. Cheers Craig
Wow. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this comment. We truly appreciate any and all input that will help us along our journey. It’s things like this that we don’t think of while doing our process. When someone with experience comes along and shows us the way, it makes us go “ooooh ya that makes sense!🤦🏻♀️ 🤦🏻♂️” we are but simple humans who have no boat building experience. Thanks again and thanks for watching.
