: John

: I do not understand what you did. Did you cut 4 inch wide tape into 4 inch
: pieces?

: I bought one yard of 60 inch wide 5.7 ounce carbon fabric. Cut Biaxially I
: ended up with a bunch of 3 inch wide by differnt length strips. I started
: with two long strips that would cicle the perimeter of the coaming then
: used the smaller pieces, then used two of the longer pieces on the last
: layer. I did not overlap the strips, but butted them together. I figured
: the next layer would overlap and give me the strength needed. It seems to.
: I could get three layers on before the epoxy would start to thicken. After
: those three layers hardened, I started where I had left off, butting up
: the next strip to the last, adding three more layers. During the last
: session I ran one layer as before and the last layer I used one piece to
: do the back of the coaming and the last piece on the front overlapping the
: back piece. The ends of the last piece terminating a little past the
: center of the cockpit. After the epoxy set up I trimmed and sanded these
: ends and added two fill coats. You can see the ends, but they are clear
: and neat.

: I used my hands to smooth the cloth and squegee as I was laying it up. I used
: barrier cream to protect my hands. This stuff works great.

: Bill

Bill, I had a lot of left over 2" wide fiberglass seam tape. I cut them into 4" long lengths. I would lay one 4" long piece starting under my deck, then I masking taped it on the end under the deck and run the 4" length up and over my foam coaming, then tape it on the other end to hold the whole piece in place. Then I repeated this all the way around the coaming foam to make one layer. Then I fiberglassed the whole layer. I repeated this 6 times. I over laped each piece edge on each strip by about 1/3 of a strip. The problem was that seam tape edges have a raised seam that created some hollows in the lay up that didn't fill with epoxy. It was a heck of a lot of work for nothing, plus I had to rip the whole thing out. I printed out how you did yours incase I try it again.

One question, if you bent the carbon fabric under your deck and up and around your combing foam, how did it stay inplace while the epoxy was setting up without it wanting to spring loose from the sharp bend coming from under the deck, up and around to the top of your deck. That's why I had to use masking tape to hold my in place. I know I'm not explaining myself too well about this. I had a good picture of the glass tape ready to be epoxyed but I can't find it.

John in IN