It's probably cooler in hell right about now!
Holy Crap is it hot outside! 34C and hotter in the shed 37C even with all the fans going! With the humidity it's over 40C right now.
I had planned to get the first carbon fiber reinforcement on the bow & keel today along with a couple layers of tape. By the time I got the carbon fiber on the heat was oppressive and I had to get out of the kitchen!
The carbon fiber tape I had (got cheap from eBay) runs from the bow to about midway down the keel. This should provide some extra reinforcement in the case of a collision. There's more carbon fiber going on the bow below the waterline and around the thruster opening. These layers will be buried deep under multiple layers of fiberglass tape and cloth. Should a collision occur the carbon fiber is the last line of defense in a hull breach. The upper layers of glass would be easily repairable. That's my twisted logic behind using it anyways. The remainder of the keel will be built up of a couple of layers of basalt fabric and fiberglass. About 5 layers in all.
This is a close up of the bow with the carbon fiber. The epoxy kicked off inside an hour in this heat and was hard to the touch in 3 hours. I peeled back some of the peelply to show the result. Using peelply I don't have to do any sanding before putting on more layers of fiberglass which in this heat is a real bonus!
Extreme close up of the carbon fiber after the peelply was removed. There's a few tiny voids that are only on the surface of the fabric. These shouldn't be an issue. I had a hard time getting the peelply to lay down properly. The peelply I'm using now is really heavy material. It doesn't seem to get any more flexible in the heat!
Picked up this small trailer to use with our dingy "Lil' Peace". I have to modify it a bit but it should work well.
Off to consume another cooling beverage. Stay thirsty my friends!
