Another great week of fiberglassing for the Discover has come to a close and we are pleased to report that we are in the home stretch. Charlie got down to the finishing touches by finishing off the corners of the aft deck opening and securing the permanent cover to the floor. We use a flexible fiberglass woven tape for the edges of the openings and standard 4 oz. mat to encapsulate the deck covers.
Charlie will remove these screws once the fiberglass sets up and then fill the holes with epoxy. The screws are in place to ensure that the whole deck is under pressure so no air bubbles get trapped within.
Here is a finished corner after a full day of setting:
This cover is now a permanent part of the floor, but beneath the surface it holds a powerful secret; Charlie finished glassing in the fighting chair support arch and this trick installation will mate the chair directly to the stringers for maximum fish-fighting strength.
The next step is to prepare the removable floor sections. The fuel tank covers have already been encapsulated with fiberglass mat:
Lastly, check out the underside of the in-floor fishbox lid. Once fiberglassed this section will help with the rigidity of the hull and the boat as a whole. This piece should be pretty cool when it is completed.
We just returned from an excellent weekend at the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show and are primed to get back to work on The Discoverer Project.