Progress!

I've made some decent progress over the last few weeks. Having stitched the bottom to the sides, I was ready to fiberglass the outside bottom. Deciding I wanted a decent amount of abrasion resistance, I laid down 3 layers of fiberglass cloth. This is going to contribute to weight but I figure with these layers over a half inch bottom, I'll land up with a strong result. The chines received similar attention with several layers of overlapping fiberglass tape. The middle section received an additional couple of layers as this is the area that will likely receive the bumps and bruises. All in all, I think that section now has about 4 or 5 layers of tape.

 
 



Having done a couple of flow coats to fill the weave of the cloth, I added graphite powder to the epoxy and added another 3 coats of the graphite mixture to the bottom.

 
   

The graphite will help the boat slide easily over rocks once in the river. I masked off the sides of the boat to get a decently crisp line and will paint over any stray graphite when I do the final finish of the boat.