Hull #2 is officially finished! 

Check it out!
 

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 This was my first scratch built 57" Deep Vee hull (hull #1). It was powered by a stock 25cc Homelite trimmer engine. 

I'll explain, with the help of a few photos, how I built my second fiberglass hull (hull #2).  It's basically the same except I used heavier fiberglass cloth and better epoxy resin which made the hull alot stiffer. 

I  started off by marking the hull outline on each piece of white Styrofoam.  Before gluing them up, each outline was cut out. I then glued the sheets of white Styrofoam together using 3M's Super 77 Spray Adhesive. Each piece was stacked  until I achieved the thickness I wanted (12").  As I glued each one, I staggered them to achieve the desired angle at the bow.  The back pieces at the transom where cut off straight. 
 

I choose to use white Styrofoam for a couple of reasons.  It's inexpensive and very easy to sand and shape.  Here I'm starting to shape the hull and give it a little style. I use the word "little" because the shape of the hull is really basic.  Maybe I'll get fancier on the next one. 

Here's the top of the hull finished.  Like I said, it's pretty basic (flat).  The edges are angled at about 45 degrees.  I won't win any prizes for it's looks but it's sure fun to build. Check here to view the overall dimensions. 
 

Here's a few shots where I'm rough cutting the "V" on the bottom. Final sanding is always needed to get it just right. 
 
 

So with about a half a days work the final shaping was complete, now it was time to start glassing the foam hull. 
 
 
 

To avoid seams, I covered the complete hull, except for the top, with one piece of  glass cloth.  All the "sharp" edges of the hull have two layers of glass cloth for extra strength. 
 

Once the glass cloth has been saturated with resin, it's important to squeegee the excess off.  Here I'm squeegeeing off the second coat of resin.  After the resin cures, I sanded the surface then applied another coat of resin.  This process continues, and continues, and continues until all the holes in the glass cloth are filled and the surface is smooth to the touch. 
 
 
 

Here you can see what the engine compartment looks like. Once I epoxied the light ply-wood in place I  then applied a thin layer of epoxy with a brush to seal the wood.  At this stage I also added the running strakes to the hull.  They where made up of triangular shaped balsa wood coated with several coats of epoxy then glued to the hull. 

The hull has been primed and here you can see the engine and radio installation. The engine mount is made up of two pieces of hardwood epoxied to the bottom of the engine compartment.  Custom made engine brackets attach the engine to the mounts. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Octura Strudder has been installed on extensions to get the prop (Octura X472) out in "clean" water.  The distance from the transom to prop with this setup is about 6 inches.  I have yet to test the boat and compare the results with and without this setup to see if it really makes a noticeable difference in speed (from what I've read it does).  When I do I'll post my results. 
 

Here's a shot of my first boat,  for the skeptics (25-30mph), no speed records yet.  As I mentioned at the beginning, this hull was my first attempt. The hull came out way too soft and subsequently became damaged. 

Although the "finished photos" are of hull #1,  the "building photos" shown here are of hull #2.  I used West System's epoxy  which doesn't attack the Styrofoam and with a much heavier fiberglass cloth (6oz) came out great! It's actually lighter than hull #1 so I'm hoping for more speed. 

I've finally decided on a paint scheme and this graphic shows basically what the paint job turned out like. 
 
 

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