Batboat Rebuild: Day 13 September 25, 2008

The weather was wonderful on the 13th day of the rebuild. That morn I set out to patch up the holes below the water line of the hull and coat the rest of top side of the laminated transom with polyester resin.

After carefully looking over the boat the day before for holes I marked their locations with pieces of duct tape. This morning I slipped on my work suit, Tyvek suit and respirator mask for the task of fiberglass grinding those areas from inside the vessel.

With the flapper disc on my grinder, I cleaned up around the holes for about 6 inches radius, or so. The boat almost tipped off the trailer several times when I was under the bow!

The spots were thoroughly cleaned of dirt and fiberglass dust with a rag shirt and Acetone.

When done with that I cut matching pieces of 1.5 oz chopped cloth and 1708 Biaxial Mat for each repair. There was about five of them to fix, I think, including the spot where the previous owner screwed the plywood deck through the bottom.

1708 Biaxial is among the strongest fiberglass out there. The repairs are as strong, or stronger, than the rest of the hull.

I then went around the outside of the boat and sealed the holes with duct tape, preventing resin from leaking out, then mixed a pint of polyester resin and cabosil to make the resin more thicker.

Before getting back in, however, I coated the rest of the top side transom. This wasn't difficult. I removed two long bolts and painted it up.
Quickly making my way into the topsy-turvy hull with the catalyzed resin and roller I slathered resin on the first area, laid the 1.5 chopped fiberglass cloth on top and worked out all the air bubbles with the fiberglass roller, put more resin on that, topped it off with the 1708 biaxial and more resin, and worked the air bubbles out. Repeated for the others.

Here is the finished repair to the 10 inch long cut my sawzall made through the hull on my first day ever using a sawzall and first experience cutting out a Batboat deck.

Working quickly, but very carefully, I didn't have time to take more photos. Sorry.