RE: choppy water
Bugger, I'd forgotten I already had a prepared text on the floodchamber wall..., enjoy.
Floodchamber wall.
I make a thin sheet of epoxy/glasscloth between two pieces of glass, covered in clingfilm to prevent the resin to stick to the glass.
Waxing the surface will do, but clingfilm is quicker.
Also anything with a smooth surface will do, I just happened to have a few pieces of glass at hand.
The sheet I make has roughtly the shape of the floodchamber wall, so having a card template of it helps determen the size.
As I build competition boats, weight is an issue, so the sheet is very thin, usually two/three layers of glasscloth (160gr).
Once the glasscloth and resin is in place I cover it with the second piece of glass and put some weight on it, squeezing the excess resin out.
When it has cured (24h epoxy), I peel it from the glass sheet and use the template to cut it to fit in the hull.
The epoxy sheet is paperthin and not yet watertight, that we’ll fix later.
Make sure the wall fits into the hull without any pressure, in order to avoid deforming the hull in any way.
Small gaps are ok.
Now for the clever part:
When a floodchamber runs along the entire length of the hull, it’s a RPITA to reach into the bow section to laminate in small strips of glasscloth to seal off the floodchamber.
Here’s my solution:
When the floodchamber wall fits, I laminate an extra layer of glasscloth onto the wall, leaving an overlap of half an inch all around.
Make sure the resin is applied very thin and tap the glasscloth onto the wall, so the overlap stays clear of the resin.
After it has cured, I cut the overlap to the desired size.
Position the wall into the hull (the overlap will close the small gaps) and laminate the overlap onto the hull with 24h epoxy, using a long thin brush to reach the bow section.
Cut out the transom and pour resin into the floodchamber, turning the hull so it runs into every corner, let it cure and fill the floodchamber with water to check for leaks.
Repeat the resin pour if there are any (after drying it out ofcourse).
Drill some holes into the deck to let the air out / water in, in case of a flip.
Ready.
It sounds very eleborate, but the actual installing of the wall only took me 20 minutes.
Original idea from Holgi, Germany.
Regards, Jan.