She’s finally ready for sea trials!

A couple of notes about the fiberglass:

As noted in previous posts, it is a bit heavy, only available in 8.5 oz, in this case I was looking for an ‘expedition weight’ layup, so that was not a concern.

It will not conform to tight radius curves or compound curves very easily. You need to be very carful when laying the glass out, since any distortion in the weave will be readily visible. Try to layout the glass so the weave is parallel for a more uniform look. I used a black pigmented undercoat of epoxy to mitigate any cosmetic issues where the weave started to separate. Since I was working very carefully, I did not have any significant issues.

It is a bit difficult to determine when the glass is properly wetted out and if there are voids.

Sanding through. This is THE huge issue. Any place where you sand though, even a little bit, will completely destroy the uniform look, and as far as I can tell there is no fixing it once it happens.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Like many others, I have a garage full of bright varnish finished boats. I wanted something unique. The Petrel turned out pretty much as planned. It will be interesting to see how it looks after some regular use and abuse.