Filling a Void Space

[Bill Vanguard 281]

Hello folks - I have excavated some nastyness from my bilge and around my ballast.
In the bilge I am trying to determine if I should l create a small double bottom or just fill the area with foam and glass over. I am leaning toward foam with a small void in the foam for any water to run into.

The material that was in my bilge appears to have been either marine tex or chockfast - some sort of hard epoxy that was poured in to the bilge. I haver removed about 1/2 of this that had cracked and spalled - now I want to fair and fill the excavated area. - Any suggestions?

I have removed all the saturated muck around my ballast and am planing to wedge the ballast with oak shims and then fill the void around the ballast with foam? (what type) or some other substance (the volume of epoxy required would be expensive)

[David]

The poured in stuff you see is most likely gelcoat, not MarineTex. If the area is now clean--if not you might consider pressure washing it with a small electric pressure washer first. Anyway, you could fill the void by encapsulating the ballast with polyester resin. Once it has hardened, glass over the polyester with some fiberglass cloth and epoxy. The polyester tends to shrink, so you really need epoxy--which doesn't shrink--over it.

Good luck,

David

[Rachel]

I would sure like to see photos of this. I've read that the ballast pig in the Vanguards was surrounded by balsa, but I've never seen one in that much detail.

Rachel

[Bill Vanguard 281]

Rachel,
I will email several pictures to you if you would like (I haven' figured out the photo posting yet)

Bill