Epoxy repair

I have discovered that frantic and enthusiastic gluing isn't a very good substitute for preparing the surfaces properly. And that the little disc cutter on the Dremel will go straight through bubbles of fibreglass and sound fibreglass and wood, another worthy discovery. So the lesson is that prising off bubbled fibreglass is best done with a sharp knife inserted where the glue isn't, and then the tattered fibreglass can be ripped away. Where it doesn't rip, I assume it to be soundly glued.

Repairs effected, I have started filling the chinks on the underside of the hull and the two halves are beginning to look boat-like, though some fairing with filler has perforce taken place and will have to be concealed by paintwork. Nobody will ever know, other than the NSA and two billion people with an internet connection.

I must now tape and glue the seams, and in preparation have hopped on my bicycle and ridden over to see Saunders who lives 15.33 miles away, the last two of which are at the top of a very steep incline, and who has in a former life built two Kayel canoes and who is even now glassing the hull of a bargain plywood powerboat he bought on Trademe for a dollar. - We will not embark on a discussion of the meaning of the word 'bargain', nor, tactfully, will we discuss the need to purchase a trailer and a suitably heavyweight road vehicle to tow said trailer. - He told me, when I described my gluing technique, not to be so stupid. All you have to do is lay the dry tape on the seam, and then stipple it very hard with fresh-mixed epoxy. The epoxy soaks into the glass and into the wood surface. Leave to harden, and bingo! a taped seam. He then presented me with some epoxy wood filler paint,  and told me that it soaks into even soft and porous and rotten wood and converts it into hardened material suitable for coating with glass, and if painted on according to the 'structions, will protect the innards of the boat from rot.

So there will now be a pause while Christmas is undergone, and ahead lies the interesting mental tangle of where to put mast steps and rudder mounts and what sort of sail to use and how to rig it and all the complicated stuff about centre of lateral resistance and centre of underwater resistance, or whatever it is. - The attentive reader, if there is one and if he chances to be a sailorman, will perceive that I have a great deal to learn.