Stringers all Glassed in Engine room

Finally the last section of the stringers in the engine room is done. It turns out that it took about 40 yards of mat and 40 yards of roving to do all the stringers in the engine room. not to mention the resin.

The next project is to continue beefing up the stringers in the fwd part of the boat. I will only do 2 layers on the main stringers for the next 8 feet or so. It will harder to get to and the septic system will be glassed in there as well. That will help to strengthen it up too. Then there is only the few feet under the forward cabin left.

Moving right along

It is amazing what you can get done when you have a chance to work at it.  Spent the morning and late afternoon glassing the forward section of the starboard main stringer. So both stringers are done all the way up to the forward engine room bulkhead.

Not much to look at, but it sure feels good to have that done. Tomorrow I hope to finish the port side main stringer. I spent some time today filling and gluing the old glass work back in place so I can glass over the whole mess.

Looks like a real Frankenstein mess. The plywood in the inboard side of the stringer was  rotten in that whole area. It is all solid now and tomorrow it will all be glassed over.

 Filled in this interesting little hole I found way down at the bottom of the bilge all the way forward under the generator. They had a 3/4" thruhull with a cap screwed on it  there. I never knew it was there and you would never have been able to get to it way down under the generator...So it is glassed up on the inside and will get another 6 layers of glass over it. Then I will grind a tapered area out on the outside to fill in as well.


Midday was spent buying more 1.5Oz mat. I finally decided to buy a roll, it is about 1/2 price that way. I did not realize how much glass it takes!!! I think I have gone through 30 yds just reglassing the stringers.

Engine back home

Spent the morning opening up a limber hole in the outer stringer next to the engine and adding new limber hole under the engine. It took about an hour to bore the hole through the stringer to get this in. The stringer is about 4-1.2" of solid teak which I was drilling a 2-1/4" hole through at an angle.
I made fiberglass tubes by wrapping wet 1708 fiberglass around a slit PVC pipe wrapped with wax paper. After the glass kicks you can usually slide the pipe out. After boring the hole I drive the fiberglass tube in and glue it in with resin and filer. That way the limber hole is completely sealed though the whole stringer. I made them big enough so hopefully they will not clog.

I painted the bilge under where the engine sits with MacroPoxy epoxy paint. This will seal the fiberglass so if any water sits in the bilge it will not seep into the hull. Also makes it a lot easier to clean. The entire engine room will be painted when I am done. Had to finish this painting last night so it would have time to cure before I moved the engine. It is of course already dirty, but a little vacuum action will take care of that.

Last job before moving the engine was to fit the floor piece in on the starboard side. Much easier to do when I could stand next to it before I moved the engine. The round cut out is a weep hole so water coming through the limber home in the outer stringer can drain under the floor board to the lower limber hole. The floor board is removable for cleaning.
The two posts you see the bottoms of are there to move the engine. They will be removed tomorrow.

And there she is...back in place. Still has all the lifting gear attached. I still need to align the engine tomorrow. It will be interesting to see the stringers are perfect....

As you can see the bell housing at the aft end of the engine just fits between the stringers. The shafts look to be aligned, but we will see tomorrow. I guess I will be lifting the engine and grinding some glass if it is not right.

Then it is on to the forward part of the engine room. First step will be to replace the last of the rotten plywood in the main stringer. Then I will add the 6 new layers of glass over everything....
I will also need to build the main stringers up to support the generator. they had it sitting on top of two
4 x 4s which is not very professional looking. I also hope to build an enclosure around the generator so it will need a bottom...