: Also glass, well epoxy, shrinks as it cures, which can take a month
: or more for a full cure, if the inside is left bare wood the
: hull can change shape fairly dramatically. Best to do both sides
: as quickly as is reasonable, minimizes the effect if it's
: glassed on both sides.

: Bill H.

I always strip the deck before glassing inside the hull, so that the formers are the right shape inside the hull, the thickness of the hull will change with glassing and the formers may not go back in exactly as they were.

The hull can distort with time too though as everyone has observed. to mitigate this, if possible one needs to dedicate regular time to stripping the deck without letting too much time elapse. I find that it also helps to keep the temps up around 65 to 70 degrees for about three days after glassing the outside of the hull. This helps to cure the epoxy more rapidly for a while which helps to stabilise it at the correct shape, I suppose, hope, it seems to help though.

When glassing the inside of the hull I find that if one can get to the glass overhang at the sheer just as soon as it is cuttable with a utility knife (before it has started to harden and before it is ready for the first fill coat), and trim off the excess cloth, then one can rest spacers across the hull at the station points with spring clamps on the ends to stop the hull from spreading while the interior glass is going off. A fraction narrow being better than a fraction too wide IMO. Remove and replace the spacers with each fill coat.

A couple of the spacers still in place in the pic below, after sheer plank installation, as the glass inside is still quite green

Et