Restoration of Picaroon

I have "inherited" a Picaroon -18 ft mahogany sailboat which has had most of the restoration work completed. I would like to leave the hull sides-- above the water line--a natural wood finish but the entire hull was covered withfibreglass cloth once all repairs and sanding were completed. I don't see a way to remove the layer of fibre glass and can,t apply varnish/whatever finish over the fibreglass as I believe the texture of the cloth will show through. What are my options? I will attempt to send pictures on another post

 

The resin is heat sensitive, apply heat and it will soften. You can then peel it off, however you should plan this carefully, when I say heat I mean as in stripping paint, not a blow torch. If you only remove it down to the waterline you will be creating a seam at the worst possible place and inviting water intrusion and eventual delamination of the remaining fibreglas. When sheathing a hull it is an all or nothing affair.

If glass was installed correctly you could instead fill the weave with additional epoxy and once smooth give it at least three coats of good uv varnish.

This is all predicated on the wood being of good enough appearance to be finished bright and your willingness to wield a varnish brush on a regular basis to keep it that way. Varnished wood is truly beautiful and like pretty women very high maintainence.

 

Leave the glass on. It's absolutely not worth the trouble. Paint.

 

Ditto Alan's comments. You have no idea how much difficulty it is to remove a fabric sheathing and still have a reasonable surface to finish with for varnish. In all probability you'll rip off large portions of wood with the 'glass.

If you do elect to remove the fabric, then resheath the hull down to the LWL, over lapping the previous sheathing. Use a light weight cloth, no more the 4 ounces, which will go completely transparent when it's applied with epoxy. If 4 ounces or less, you'll not be able to see the weave.

 

Picaroon restoration

Thanks for all of the input, I see the "light" and will go with painting. It's unfortunate because I wanted to have a woodie appearance but I can see the issue with removing the cloth.

 

Type of Picaroon

I've always wanted to see a Picaroon. Is it a strip built version or the plywood version?

 

Picaroon

LP, I recently acquired this boat in a partly refinished condition and am just about ready to start the finishing work and launch early this Summer. It is a
strip plank version with new tanbark sails, I just purchased a long shaft 9.9
with electric start and will hang it off the transom until I discover the waterline and then install same outboard in a saildrive installation. The Picaroon has such a great profile it will look better with the engine out of
sight.