Can I sheathe the hull with fiberglass cloth in polyester resin?
Fibreglass sheathing will hold the surface together if it is bad plywood and will also make a tougher surface so that the hull can take more knocks. You should sheathe before you fit the sheer strakes, so that the strakes hold the edges of the glass. If not, a peeling problem can occur with the glass. This is because polyester resin shrinks as it cures and it tries to shrink itself off the plywood. The peeling stresses that result can cause delamination to start at the edges. You can improve adhesion by brushing on a coat of resin thinned with styrene monomer before you start the layup. This thinned coat will penetrate into the surface grain to bond it more securely to the timber. Lap the glass about 25mm (1″) wide around all hard corners (chines, transom and bow) to give a double thickness. When applying the glass sheathing, use a squeegee to remove all excess resin from the cloth. If you don’t it will come out lumpy and give you a bad finish. The glass texture must show through when
