Fiberglass the forward deck - fix foam core - Laser II Sailboat

Article By Shorty




One of the problems with this hull, is that she was built with a foam core. That is where there are 2 layers of fiberglass with foam between them. Supposedly, it makes for a lighter and stronger hull, but in the long run every foam core hull I have seen that is over 20 years old, has the foam seperate leaving the decks very floppy. (luckily the hull bottom is solid fiberglass).

Since I had installed the new unstayed sleeve, I needed something serious on the deck to brace it on, so in addition to bracing I decided to glass the entire bow deck.





I've got the glass suspended from a piece of conduit, so I can roll it out and cut pieces.



Here are the pieces of glass laied out on the deck to dry fit.



This is after a full wet out of the glass. Notice that I fold my newspaper back and have 2 layers of newspaper. This is becuse on a previous project when I only used one layer of newspaper, the epoxy soaked through and permanently attached some newsprint to the hull. Luckily it was the comics section, so we ended up with something to laugh at.





This is the bracing, it is 2" pvc pipe cut in half.



I dressed the edges a bit, did some rough sanding and it doesn't look too bad.



Dropped my PD mast in and who is ready to go sailing !?!?!