PocketShip.net

Hope we dont scratch it up too much on the re- turn.

Nice Job!!!

Looks great! I'm sure the graphite will help a lot for durability and speed. I am considering using it on my hull.

Thanks.
I have used epoxy/graphite mix on 2 other boats and I have found that it holds up very well (one boat completed in 2001) with no need for bottom paint unless you are going to keep it in the water for extended periods of time. This one was sanded to 220 grit. Problem with the graphite mix is tiny air bubbles that are difficult to defeat but patience and dragging a foam brush or foam roller over it repeatedly gets rid of most of them and sanding takes care of the rest. You will need at least 3 coats of rolled on or foam brushed on mix to cover.

Herb

herbt wrote:Thanks.
I have used epoxy/graphite mix on 2 other boats and I have found that it holds up very well (one boat completed in 2001) with no need for bottom paint unless you are going to keep it in the water for extended periods of time. This one was sanded to 220 grit. Problem with the graphite mix is tiny air bubbles that are difficult to defeat but patience and dragging a foam brush or foam roller over it repeatedly gets rid of most of them and sanding takes care of the rest. You will need at least 3 coats of rolled on or foam brushed on mix to cover.

Herb

Hi Herb,

Regarding your use of graphite: Did you have to do anything special to paint over the portion of the hull which had been treated with graphite/epoxy? And when you use a graphite/epoxy coat to "fill out the weave," can one still bond wood to that surface with thickened epoxy after sanding the graphite/epoxy base (thinking of the centerboard trunk, for example).

Thanks,
Mark

Herb

She's really lookin' good. What's the name of the blue that you painted the hull??

Jimmy V

I used graphite/epoxy on the centerboard, and graphite/epoxy/dynel cloth on the noseblock and front end of the bow. Wish I had thought of painting the entire hull bottom with it as you have. That stuff is really slick and tough, and I did not realize you don't have to paint over it.

Dana,

Way back, when you made your centerboard trunk, did you sand the graphite / epoxy coating of the inner faces of the 'trunk before gluing the wood blocking pieces, or did the thickened epoxy bond satisfactorily to the graphite surface without further surface preparation?

Thanks for your posts and blog. I'm reading as much as I can before I get started.

Mark

Wow, that is a ways back. If I can remember correctly, I either left the graphited epoxy off the areas where the blocking was to go, or I sanded it. The thing is, though, that I sanded the entire graphite/epoxy area anyway to get it "as smooth as marble." Before sanding there were remains of bubbles that slightly roughened the surface. I may have posted pictures of the pre-sanded areas, but I do remember they were all sanded with very fine paper--probably 320 grit, do did not look all that shiny, but were very smooth.

When I did it I masked the areas where the blocks would go before applying the epoxy/graphite mix to the centerboard trunk sides.