Hi Everyone,
A buddy and I have embarked on a new project - a partially finished Ocracoke 20-B, hull 109. All planking has been completed by the previous owner and now it's on us to start sanding, filling, faring and glassing. We are avid sailors and tinkerers, well versed with fiberglass projects though this is something new for us. Our goal is to turn this into a good looking little center console by July...I know, we are hopeful.
I'm certainly glad this forum exists, seeing everyones fantastic builds is amazing and motivating, let alone all the valuable knowledge sharing that occurs.
That brings me on to our own project and I was hoping to seek some input in our methods. Please let us know if we are completely of or if there may be a better way to do things. We are about to start sanding and fairing the hull. As you can see in the last picture, it looks like someone had a little too much fun with an a rotary sander and I think we'll need to get quite some ways into the plywood for it to come out looking decent - any problems with just adding fairing compound over top of this and smoothing from there? As I understand it you want to fill the glue holes with epoxy/wood mix (completed already) and then you can fill in any additional pockets with fairing compound. I've seen some fair the hull without any fairing compound (or so it seems) and other do the fairing compound prior to glassing. My thought is that you want to get everything as perfect as you can prior to glassing, and then apply a tiny filler coat on top of the glass so you can get ready for high-build/primer/paint.
We'll try our best to keep updating this topic and share our experiences. She is currently located in Atlanta.