Thread: Snow White

Hi All,

Finally managed to schedule some time to work on poor, neglected Snow White. It looks like I need to apply some fibreglass tape to seal and strengthen where the botton (outside) meets the centre-case slot.

The question in my mind is how to deal with the sharp edged join (i.e less that 90 degrees). I don't want to radius the edge too much, but nor do I want the tape to bubble and lift at the join.

I'd appreciate feedback based on others' experience as to what is the smallest radius I could expect the tape to accomodate, and possibly which type, and weight of tape would work best in this situation.

Ah, well! Just muttering away to myself here.

Anyway I figured it out. Some experimenting with glass tape, minus epoxy, convinced me that if I tried to seal and strengthen the join between the inside of the centrecase, and the outer hull bottom, ordinary fibreglass tape would be unable to handle the sharp bend and would get voids underneath. The answer was to make my own bias tape by cutting some diagonal strips from a sheet of light-weight fibreglass cloth. A bit tricky because the bias cut tape has almost zero dimensional stability and needs to be handled very carefully. Also, I couldn't use anything too thick or the centreboard would jam.

Overcoming the dimensional instability issue was helped by using a technique I was shown by a friend recently, using a 'wetting out board'. You just lay the tape flat on the board, wet it out thoroughly, roll it up like a bandage, then unroll it along the (previously wetted) target seam, join, chine, or whatever. Well, I guess you all knew about that anyhow and and weren't letting on.

If I use this method again I will probably run a line of stitching close to each edge before cutting. That should stop it stretching too easily.

Anyway, the little job is done now and looks fine. Almost ready for the missus to start painting. Then put the boat back on the trailer and start fixing up the inside.