TOPIC: New tool, BIG boat

I have about a dozen fiberglassics, 1 in the works and the rest waiting their turn. But I have aonther boat, a BIG boat with a problem. This 40' sailboat needs 1/2" to 3/4" taken off most of the bottom (then put back on!). But, to take it off is a chore. I bought a tool called a Gelplane, which is like a handheld wood jointer on steroids. Takes off about 1/10" per pass.

Once I get done with this I'm going to try it on one of my old finned boats. I can't imagine it not doing an excellent job of removing all the old crap on the surface, leaving a nice, solid working surface.

I don't think it's practical for most glassic work, it would never justify itself. But since I had to have it for the big boat, well, .....

Owing offshore sail boats I learn that there 2 type of boats. One with blisters and ones that are going to get blisters.

I bought a Newport 30 for less than $3000 because it had many blisters. I paid a Co to skin (scrap the layers off till there was no blisters left) it ($900) and I re did the bottom with West System. In total I had $8000 and 6 weekends in that boat. We used it for 4 years and never did get any more blisters.

This is not a blister problem, in fact, it had no blisters. Back when it was laid up the mat was probably put on with a chopper gun, 3/8" to 3/4" thick, but wasn't wetted out well, had lots of half saturated glass and bubbles, and the resin wasn't mixed well. It's amazing that it held together as long as it did, although we have been having problams as long as we had the boat. A little exploritory surgery into some bad spots found that it went on forever. Even 40 years later resin will seep out of spots we opened up. I guess our thinner 50's boats would have just desintigrated. With a half inch of bad mat on 1" to 2" of solid glass, it just hung on.

I bet you wish there was some incantation that would summon forth the goobers that made this mess. Just so you can kick them in the funyuns.

Wow Gene that looks like one heck of a project, look forward to seeing more pics as time moves on.
Al

I'm back in Missouri where my glassics are, and I brought that mean tool with me.

This afternoon I strung out my air hose and cords, suited up and tried it on the deck of my Cobra Commando. This boat was so weathered on the deck that the gelcoat was completely gone, and when I messed with it the last time I took off the first layer of cloth with the pressure washer. There was another layer of rough cloth exposed, which needed to be taken off to get to good glass.

I'd prevously cleaned up the underside and added a couple layers, roving and mat. I also added a couple plywood stiffeners, but if I had to do it over I'd core it with balsa. I hadn't read that trick here on this board yet, so it didn't happen on this one.

What this tool does is planes off a set amount. One side has the stop set flush with the blades, the other is set back the amount you want to take off. That way, the first cut is angled, but from then on one side rides on old material, the other side rides on the fresh cut, leaving a smooth surface. I can cut from nothing to about 1/10" per pass.

You'll see a couple imperfections where either I didn't hold it correctly, or the curve was too sharp for it to follow. I'll have to clean them up a bit with a hand grinder with a sanding disk, but compared to doing the whole deck - well, what it did was perfectly flat, unlike a grinder with a disk would do, and it took about 10 minutes as opposed to probably most of an afternoon.

The first picture has been planed on the left side about half way to the front, the second all I could do with it.

I like it gene,,3k really is an investment,but on a 2 man team I kknow it would make the other 1/2 happy,also he missed x mass,,see ya Bill

If you're curious, here is what it looks like:

I could sure do a lot of damage with that baby. Bring it on.

Been working on the big boat. Biggest challenge was finding help. There are not many people who want to make a living putting on fiberglass over their heads in a hot boatyard. But - I found a guy who's company is "Fiberglass Monkey", motto is, "If it's fiberglass, we can do it". And he has helpers working for him! And he likes doing it!

Anyway, we've got most of the glass on., except where the boat stands are. After getting glass on - 52" wide by usually 6' long sheets - we used sanders to get it fairly smooth, then used thinkened gelcoat as a fairing agent. With a light spraying of paint as a guide coat, we then sanded the gelcoat smooth, applying more gelcoat where the paint still showed. After a couple tries, it's coming out remarkable well.

We'll move the boat stands, then strip the glass where they were. Then lay up 6 layers of glass where they ere, fair it out, then paint comes. Actually, about 5 coats of 2000E epoxy barrier coat, then bottom paint.

Along with the repairs, I've extemded the rudder by 16". The boat didin't have enough rudder to steer it, it was really about on the dangerous side.

Below are before and after pictures of the rudder, I think it came out quite well. I'm anxious to see how the new barn door rudder works. You can see my first mate applying the first coat of 2000E epoxy.