INVESTIGATOR 563

I’ll have to get a pic of the inside

Interesting stuff guys and great reference material for those following. On that note Peter, that method to recore a soft deck sounds superior to other methods I’ve heard referenced. Can’t remember if it was here or the other place but I remember the poster lamenting the difficulty of reattaching an inner skin under a deck with resin dripping down on you in a confined space. For future reference what brand of epoxy do you recommend. Is the slow set hardener marketed as such or do you just add less.

Anytime I’m using glass it needs to be slow set , I’m hopeless and slow

Peter,

Thanks for the heads-up. Except for a clean up I haven't done anything to #111 since I bought it, so I will have to go all over it when I do.

This is just getting more and more interesting.
Ozzie, I have been using West System epoxy. I buy 4 litre epoxy and 800 ml hardener so I can use the pumps. That way you always get exact amounts of hardener to epoxy. Never , I repeat, NEVER, use less or more hardener than recommended. Either less or more will both result in an extremely weak mess. If I need smaller amounts than one pump of epoxy, I use a couple of syringes so I can mix up small amounts accurately. Very important.
105 is my resin, 206 is the slow hardener and 205 is the fast. It all depends on the job I am doing, the time it will take and the ambient temperature. On days with sunshine and my boat in the shed, it gets hotter up on deck as When standing on deck, I am not too far from the roof.
When I was last at the fibreglass shop in Hobart, I purchased a cheaper epoxy. It's called "Compset 5-2-1. As well as cheaper, you also get more. In this lot, I got 5Kg of resin and 1kg of hardener. It is completely compatible with other epoxy so they said but Idon't have pumps for those containers.
You would also be aware I am sure that you can get different fillers such as glue powder ( West 403) and microlight fairing powder 410. You just make up what you want. Just remember that you always mix the epoxy with the hardener before mixing in any filler or glue powder.
Just another thing with epoxy, the slower it sets, the stronger it is. Also a box of those surgical disposable gloves are a must. Continued exposure of epoxy to the skin will result in very bad dermatitis. Barrier cream is also a great idea but I just use baby powder to make it easy to get the gloves on
Ozzie, as for that core material fix, my cabin roof, you could hardly walk on it. Now you could jump up and down and get into it with a sledge hammer. It's as solid as a rock now.

Thanks Peter, gold, and as I said good reference for future owners., If you don’t mind I’ll copy your post as is with a forward and heading so it is easier to find in the future. I’m always cognisant of the need to find information in years time when it may have come up as part of another thread. I have a few pics relevant to the gutter concerning how I reinforced the centre front hatch lock after removing the “hopper window” catch originally on it . I’ll put it here when I find the pics as it’s relevant to this thread but also give it its own thread in technical as well .

On my old cruiser when filling big chips I used talc as a bulking agent which I assume is very old hat these days
Found the pic. The “L” shaped slot for the original hatch lock had broken out. I bolted an adjustable clamp style lock onto the frame, constructed a dam of modelling clay I got from the reject shop either side of the hole and filled the space with resin to reinforce the weak spot and the new lock. I also created a fillet on the inside underneath the lock plate to stop stuff catching on it when I was passing stuff out through the hatch. To stop the wet resin sticking to the hatch when I closed it (in order to get it shaped to accommodate the hatch) I coated the hatch in a thin smear of marine grease. All worked ok.

Relevance to this thread is, it effectively cut the gutter drain in half at this point. I though it may cause the water trapped in the gutter to come inside as it could not drain to the opposite side but so far no issues or at least it has been insignificant. I’ll post a pic of the finished lock when I find it . I’ll put the whole bit in a separate thread in Tech also for future reference.

Hi Ozzie, thanks mate, that sounds perfect. I was getting concerned as to how far off the original subject we all had drifted. It's hard to know when to call it quits. New thread great idea. I will also create one for my mast step and roof repair.
Cheers

Got notified I’m 5th on the wait list for a double bay mooring last night. Pretty excited, but will have to pull my find out and do the prep to get fathom ready.

Signed up at position 23/24 6 months ago. Thought I had a 2 year wait ahead of me.

Picked up a 7 1/4” x 5” metal prop for the little Honda. Will report back on performance.


Note original is 7 1/4 x 4 3/4

Finally got Fathom onto her mooring @Double Bay.

Hi Luke. She looks very happy sitting there waiting. Cheers