Biaxial - Bow Well - Sailing
Biaxial Tape update. - continued from last week's post.
Well after four tries, I finally got a test sample of 12 oz biaxial
tape to have clean run-less, bubble-less laminate on a vertical
surface. My steps:
1. wet out the wood with unthickened epoxy (I use Raka 2:1 which is
not viscous)
2. lay the cloth with a laminating roller
3. paint on unthickened resin and watch it slowly drain
4. thicken with fused silica (cab-o-sil) to catsup consistency
But after it dried, it was still very bumpy and a lot of work to
fair. I tried laying a 3 oz cloth over it as Devlin suggested, but I
still got some significant ridges and bumps from the longitudinal
yarns that hold the layers together.
After all of this, I've decide to scrap the biaxial and go with three
layers of 7 oz cloth, which is way easier to apply onto vertical
surfaces without too much fairing. I can definitely see how biaxial
could be good for interior stitch-glue joints as in Devlin, but I'll
not try it again on exterior surfaces that must be faired and painted
(even if they are below the water line).
Bow well update - continued from a month ago.
I chopped out all of the old epoxy fillets, sanded the whole bottom
down to the wood (epoxy primer and polyurethane rust paint - whew!),
laid down 1" + radius fillets and laid a layer of 7oz tape plus
another layer of 7 oz sheathing over the whole floor. Looks pretty
nice. Talk about a difficult space to work in though! 10" x 4' x
3'. My bones are kind of creaky from all of that contortion work :-)!
Sailing update.
I took the family out in Creamcheese, our 15' sharpie, on the Elk
River (Northern tip of the Chesapeake). We tacked upwind for about 1
mile in 1 foot of water - on chines alone! Wow! I've never done
that before in any boat. Maybe the mud was acting like a train
track, keeping us from sliding to leeward. It was eerie. We sailed
alone, (double reefed because it was gusty) on an empty expanse of
water - even the motor boats were avoiding our patch of water. I
reached my hand and touched mud just below the hull. We sailed into
the lilies and sat a while looking at the great blue herons, ospreys,
terns and purple martins.
Well after four tries, I finally got a test sample of 12 oz biaxial
tape to have clean run-less, bubble-less laminate on a vertical
surface. My steps:
1. wet out the wood with unthickened epoxy (I use Raka 2:1 which is
not viscous)
2. lay the cloth with a laminating roller
3. paint on unthickened resin and watch it slowly drain
4. thicken with fused silica (cab-o-sil) to catsup consistency
But after it dried, it was still very bumpy and a lot of work to
fair. I tried laying a 3 oz cloth over it as Devlin suggested, but I
still got some significant ridges and bumps from the longitudinal
yarns that hold the layers together.
After all of this, I've decide to scrap the biaxial and go with three
layers of 7 oz cloth, which is way easier to apply onto vertical
surfaces without too much fairing. I can definitely see how biaxial
could be good for interior stitch-glue joints as in Devlin, but I'll
not try it again on exterior surfaces that must be faired and painted
(even if they are below the water line).
Bow well update - continued from a month ago.
I chopped out all of the old epoxy fillets, sanded the whole bottom
down to the wood (epoxy primer and polyurethane rust paint - whew!),
laid down 1" + radius fillets and laid a layer of 7oz tape plus
another layer of 7 oz sheathing over the whole floor. Looks pretty
nice. Talk about a difficult space to work in though! 10" x 4' x
3'. My bones are kind of creaky from all of that contortion work :-)!
Sailing update.
I took the family out in Creamcheese, our 15' sharpie, on the Elk
River (Northern tip of the Chesapeake). We tacked upwind for about 1
mile in 1 foot of water - on chines alone! Wow! I've never done
that before in any boat. Maybe the mud was acting like a train
track, keeping us from sliding to leeward. It was eerie. We sailed
alone, (double reefed because it was gusty) on an empty expanse of
water - even the motor boats were avoiding our patch of water. I
reached my hand and touched mud just below the hull. We sailed into
the lilies and sat a while looking at the great blue herons, ospreys,
terns and purple martins.