I took my Chesapeake 17 out for "sea trials" this weekend prior to painting and varnishing it. When I had it out in the bright sun light I noticed a small area of the deck that seems to have a grid like pattern of tiny white "highlights" to it. I assume this must be air trapped in the epoxy from when I applied the fiberglass. In the workshop it looked like the fabric was completely wetted but appearently it was not? I am not sure that anyone but me will notice this but I am wondering how can I fix this? Do I have to sand through the fabric and re-epoxy the bare wood? Thanks.
Scott
Scott--live with it!!
Happened to me on one of my clc's. My problem was that when I was building this spring after I let the boat kick in the shop for a few hours after putting on the deck. I rolled it out into the sunshine. I do not have hatches and the air-bleed hole I drilled in the aft bulkhead got plugged with epoxy while I was installing the deck.
After about ten minutes in the sun the aft deck was balooning up- YIKES- I knew immediately what was going on- grabbed the cordless with a #11 bit and drilled thru the bulkhead to release the built up pressure.
Yup you can see the weave pattern, so it goes. I paddle my boat it's not a coffee table. The bottom looks worse than the top now since I've been using it all summer.
These blemishes ended up bothering me enough to try to fix them. I sanded down till the weave in the 'glass showed and the highlights dissapeared. After a coat of epoxy, they are no longer visible even though I did not sand down to bare wood. Go figure?
Scott
That is good to know Scott. The same thing happened to me. However, the phenomenon did'nt manifest itself until the boat was out in the sun for a while. In addition, my boat was completely vanished already. I am absolutely certain the glass was wet out, however, it appears there is a tiny fraction of uncertainty in fiberglassing. No matter how well you think you did, you just can't be 100% certain this anomaly will not occur. Mine, like yours, appears to be trapped air in the wood trying to escape, as I can feel the bubbles trying to push through the epoxt, glass, and varnish. It does bother me, but it is only in a few spots, and no one notices it but me. Having said that though, sooner or later I will fix it, but it may be a while. Right now it's time to put some scratches on the bottom :)
