Glen-L.com

First, I am going to wait until this winter to start the GV15. I am going to do the Jon boat very soon.

But mean while, I have this thing in my yard... is it worth finishing? this is how it is now (and it was all I could do to roll it up on it's sude), the last picture is how I will build the deck, if I deside to do it. What is your advice/opinion? Please tell me what you think...

I wil tell you one thing that hull might be good for:

Flip it upsidedown and make a "plug" out of it. You will have to do a considerable amount of prep work to make the plug. But if you take your time and use microballoons or any lightweight filler and fair it so it has really nice lines you will end up with a really decent plug.

That plug will serve as your tooled mold to make your female mold. Cover it with mold release. I think they might put about 22 mil thickness of gelcoat on it and then take a chopper gun and shoot some fiberglass all over it with a good mixture of resin. Then make up your own schedule of matt/woven roving and biaxial fibers to give yourself a really strong mold. You could even take some klegicell or divinicell and make it thick (which is what makes fiberglass strong).

From that you bust it out of the mold and ...voila...you have a perfectly good mold that you can turn out countless trihulls from. Now...i have no idea if that is a design that is currently in production or who holds the mold currently..there might be some legal issues there but...if you keep it for personal use it would problably turn out a pretty good boat.

Steve

I take it that's Seaman First Class Hall.

You probably can salvage the boat. I can't see in a picture what you can. But, if the boat is fairly sound down the keel line get the belt sander out and raise some hell.

Flip the boat over. Get some 40 grit belts. Sand out a clean uniform area to patch. I'm guessing that this is a polyester resin boat. That's good it's cheaper. Mix resin and fairing filler and use it like bondo. Now, sand it some more. When you have restored the shape the fun starts. Get some roving. Roving is a thich coarsely woven fiberglass cloth. Also, get a finer glass cloth, 6 to 10 ounce.

Place the roving over the repair area. It should just cover the area with just a little over. Cut the other cloth a little bigger.

Using a brush or squeege wet out the roving. You'll need to do this fairly quickly. While it's still wet put the cloth on and wet it out.

After the patch sets, you'll probably need to paint another coat or resin. Now, guess what. It's time to sand again. Sand to a nice smooth surface.

Decide on a marine paint and see what grit they say to sand to.

Have I mentioned? I HATE TO SAND!

Paint and turn her back over.

Or, you could write it off and do your sanding on your new boat.

Either way, good luck,

Bill

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Mini -Tug, KH Tahoe 19 & Bartender 24 - There can be no miracle recoveries without first screwing up.
Tahoe 19 Build

Bill, YES YOU DID MENTION, you hate to sand. I get the feeling that you are NOT THE LONE RANGER.

Important task, FOR SURE.

Dale
Indy

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I AM ALWAYS DOING THAT WHICH I CANNOT DO, IN ORDER TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT. ~ Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973

Hmmm . . . a chainsaw down the middle, lean one half up, put an oak bar top on her and use a couple old outboards as bar posts on each end to make a wet bar out of her?


Just a thought . . . one I may do in the future.


JB

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My only fear in life, is after I die my wife will sell all my fishing gear for what I told her I paid for it!