More Weight details

Today I sanded the inner hull to remove some of the excess epoxy and epoxy wrinkles from the vacuum bagging process. I then mixed up some west epoxy (1 pump each) and squeegeed this inside the hull to cover any pinholes that may be left from the original fiberglass. After squeegeeing the epoxy I then donned some rubber gloves and rubbed the epoxy all over the inside, along the stem and the stern joint to ensure a good coverage. This extra layer of epoxy is to prevent any water ingress to the balsa planks, which was discovered to be a problem on both Hew's Vanquish and Al's Noux. This extra epoxy only increased the weight of the hull by 19 grams; the total weight of the hull is now up to 347 grams.

Weight

The hull, planked with balsa and with 4 ounce S fiberglass on the inside and 4 ounces of S fiberglass on the outside of the hull = 328 grams. no sanding or filling done yet.

Epoxy and Fiberglass

It took four (4) 'pumps' of from the West Epoxy system cans to wet the fiberglass on the outside of the hull and four (4) more 'pumps' to wet the interior fiberglass. It was noted that on Hew's Vanquish it took three (3) 'pumps' to wet the outside and three (3) 'pumps' to wet the inside. Al's Noux also required three (3) and three (3). Both the Vanquish and the Noux have less beam the the Vektor. I am not sure the fiberglass that Al & Hew used on their builds, but i am using 4 ounce S-Fiberglass on both the inside and outside of my hull.

Putting hull in vacuum bag

Putting the hull in the vacuum bag









In order to prevent the vacuum from crushing the sides of the hull, we put some foam shadows in the hull to help the hull keep its shape.

Preparing to vacuum bag the hull

Wetting the fiberglass

Laying the diaper in the hull. This material will absorb the excess epoxy.

Removed hull from building board

The hull off the shadows
Fiberglass dry fitted to the inside of the hull.

Fin Keel

Poured some more epoxy on the keel fin to fill out some shallow spots. Will have plenty of sanding to do in the next week or so.