The old starboard one broke clean into. I was wondering why the boat was handling so funny. Then one night at the dock, the bottom half just floated up next to the topside. Another “Maalox moment”.  It was a learning experience though. An autopsy showed that it had significant water intrusion into the balsa core right close to  the fulcrum point. Not good. When I did the layup, I thought I could seal the  heavy triax with a thickened resin as a flow coat. Those pinholes are hard to spot though, and it doesnt take but one. So the lesson is:  wet out a layer of light cloth first in the mold to help seal out the water! then do the layup.

The truth is,  the broken board took a few pretty hard whacks. One was in a lateral current up against a hard oyster bar. I think that one did it in.

This is the female mold. It has to be dead nuts flat. I used some old truss joists for the table. This time I couldn’t find a formica sheet to use for the mold so I bought one of those PVC sheets and used that (to the left in photo). DONT do it! It isn’t rigid enough and the board will come out wavy. then you have to spend all this extra time fairing the thing.

Here are the two halves being squashed together. Weights and spanish windlass.  I am too cheap to make the whole thing up and then cut out the hole for the lifting block. It is more work though. I used an old lay-up leftover from my composite boat cleats, instead of a ss eyebolt. Pour in place, two part foam goes on the tip.

 

The Black stuff is graphite mixed in with some resin and phenolic microballons. Actually that goes down first on the mold, then the 6 oz cloth to seal the pinholes, then the triax etc. The graphite is supposed to lube the thing up so it won’t bind up so easy. I put in on there in case I have to sand it down a little bit if it is too big for the hole. It is hard to get it just right. My new crash block won’t fit that good either, this time. Once the oysters start growing inside the trunk It is a nightmare to get it clean enough for the crashbock to slide down to where it needs to be.