This boat, like many other mirror dinghy’s, had obviously spent a period of its life left deck up & exposed to the weather. There is a tide mark inside the lockers. Given that this boat is never to be a racing mirror I have decided to line the damages part of the bow lockers with a layer of chopped strand mat and resin. I sanded the lockers where they were to be glassed ensuring that there was no flaky paint. I then used a vacuum cleaner to remove all of the dust and cleaned the area with acetone (cellulose thinners will work as well).I cut a piece of the chopped strand mat to the required shape. I then mixed west system resin and hardener and painted the area to be treated with a generous coat of the resin. Next I placed the pre-cut mat into position and worked the resin through it with a brush, that I had shortened to give stiffer bristles, to work in the mat I dabbed the brush rather than using a brush type stroke. I have repeated this process in the two open lockers , both of which had some cracking. The result is excellent, very stiff and strong.
Bow lockers pre treatment (cracks visible near the centre vertical line)
Bow buoyancy locker sanded and ready for glassing
choppes strand in place , the next step is to dab the mat until the resin is absorbed.
once the mat has absorbed the resin remove any excess resin. the result is a very strong repair. the rest of the lockers will now be sanded out in preperation for painting.
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