Fuck it, i'm having a cup of tea!

Been having temporary sense-of-humour failure the last few days and i think its no coincidence that this is happening as i have started laminating the inside of the keel stubs, my conclusions are that if i were to come across this problem on another boat i would seek advice before jumping in, such is the steepness of the learning curve.

I have finally got the hang of it; (cutting, folding & rollering etc) but trying to consolidate cloth onto the hull when you have a sodding interior moulding in the way........oh and thirty degree heat in the cabin drove me to down tools on the first couple of lay-up's, peel ply it - then sulk in workshop.

what i have learnt about west systems is that although it will create a rock solid bond , better than polyester, in my opinion this system is a sod to lay up by hand as it takes so much effort not to mention materials to saturate 430g cloth. i say this because if you were to use a finer cloth to saturate quicker you'll just end up using more materials and take twice as long.

That said its fine on stuff like the coachroof and engine bay where these areas were easy to get too and do not have fiddly tight radii.

Where west's comes into its own is either being used in a vacuum system (where the vacuum pump would stop you getting 'white knuckle syndrome') by pulling the cloth down into the resin or indeed infusing the cloth with resin to begin with, (so you don't need to soak it in the stuff) thus saving materials (& money).

Having seen the amount of epoxy i have used this last week to repair one keel stub i was shocked considering how small an area it is .

When considering west's 'c' pack which is a 30kg drum costs £300 a pack and with another keel stub to do as well as re-laminating the hull that's quite a lot of money - that said the hull will be put in a vacuum as it is a simple shape with good access so will not use as much epoxy, hopefully.

cheers roger