Cockpit fiberglass layup

[jimsavenir]

everyone
I have a Pearson 1968 35 and I had to tear out a soft cockpit. I left the lower fiberglass pan and then leveled it out with 10 oz. cloth and Mas Epoxy, 8 layers in spots and 4 at the least. Then bonded 3/8 meranti marine plywood with laminated 10 oz. fiberglass cloth again leveling with 10 oz. cloth and another layer of meranti 3/8 marine plywood with laminated 10 oz. fiberglass cloth.

Now I am finishing up, my plan is to use 24 oz. woven roving, then 10 ounce and finally 6 ounce cloth all with Mas epoxy. Is that enough layers of fiberglass over the final plywood? I want finer cloth at the end so the weave does not print through. Is it better to do many more layers of 10 oz.?

Trying to wrap up and then Awlgrip, and Kiwi grip for the anti slip. Anyone have long term Kiwi grip use?

Thanks
Jim

[colemj]

Good god, that will be the strongest part of your boat for sure! Rest assured that you have over-built it by a huge margin and do not need to worry about anymore fiberglass.

Just be sure to drill out any penetrations and make them solid glass - plywood does not like water, even the good stuff.

Mark

[UNCIVILIZED]

Hi Jim,
Yes Sir, you've got MORE than enough cloth. Ditto on plywood. If you find that the surface is like stupid uneven after putting a few layers of cloth on top of the woven roving, you can save yourself a bit of coin (in epoxy) by mixing up an epoxy based filling/fairing paste. Go to www.westsystem.com & you can download all of their user guides there (as well as their excellent book "On Boat Construction"), and some recipe's for various fairing putties. Ditto by going to System Three Resins - System Three Resins, Inc. and any of the other big fiberglass & resin makers/distributors.

Obviously you're going to be painting the cockpit sole with nonskid, but prior to getting to that stage, if you're unhappy with the finish & it's evenness (even after fairing it), you can flowcoat it. Basically that's pouring resin onto a surface & allowing it to fill in all of the little pin holes & fairing goofs. It explains it better in some of the texts on the West System site.

Also, as an FYI for the future. If you're doing work with glass & epoxy which requires much thickness, & or is a structural application, a lot of the stitch-bonded fabrics like triaxial are a lot cheaper per pound or square foot, than is woven cloth. And when applied right, stronger as well. But it's not worth worrying over.

Just remember, it always looks the worst, right before you put the first coat of paint on ;-)