Fiberglassing Hull

I am building my first boat, a glen L minuet. I was wondering how many layers of fiberglass would make it strong enough for ocean sailing. Also do I fiberglass the inside as well? Any tips would be helpful, Thanks

 

don't the plans cover all that?

what do you mean by ocean sailing? crossing oceans?
15' center board, light weight, boat's hull staying in one piece doesn't mean its a viable bluewater boat.
ie. extra layers of fiberglass is not likely to give it another 25 feet...

 

Welcome to the forum.

Making a boat suitable for ocean sailing is a classification, more so than a sheathing schedule. Minuet is a 15' dayboat, intended for protected waters (Category D), with occasional and intelligently handled semi protected waters (Category C) possible. Near shore sailing (Category B) and off shore sailing (Category A) are simply outside the design parameters of this little pocket yacht.

This said, if you have some serious sailing skills, you could safely venture into near shore waters on a relatively calm day, but the boat just isn't equipped to handle these conditions, before she's overwhelmed and the USCG is looking for your strobe.

Simply put, keep her in lakes, small rivers and bays. This is a 15' boat, with a 150 pound PPI, hell one good fart and she'll rise up a half inch, so not a boat to consider taking into deep water. She doesn't have any of the design features we'd expect for a Cat. A or B vessel. Better yet, just take her out on a really rough day at your local puddle and see how long you can stand the motion in her, with a steep chop working your belly for an hour or two. Then multiply these sensations by 10 and you'll get an idea, of what near shore sailing can bring, to the crew aboard a little puppy like Minuet.

To directly answer your question, there's no number of layers of 'glass cloth or fabric you can apply, to turn Minuet into something she's not.

Just in case you're going to ask, there's no amount of extra sail area you can add to a Minute, to make her go any faster then 6 MPH (on a good day, 5 MPH will be the norm). You can sail into a full gale, with twice the 130 sq. ft. of sail area she has and you'll still just go 6 MPH, though admittedly, there's a part of me that would like to try to keep her upright in a gale.

 

Would this boat be able to sail the Caribbean? Sorry I've only just begun sailing, not much experience.

 

In the right hands, yes. If you are a beginner, no.

 

Maybe he is getting worried it might leak !

 

Since the boat is a hard chine one here's a trick that will help reduce the amount of work fairing your boat when you glass it: http://duckworksmagazine.com/03/r/articles/glass/bottom.htm

 

PAR's comment is the solid valid one.
It is not - even close - to an offshore vessel.

going offshore is also not how you start your sailing hobby

 

His skill sets (sailing) are permitting some dreaming about far away adventures, aboard this little boat. Once he splashes her and gets a taste of some open water in a little boat stuff, he'll quickly wish he had a more appropriate boat for the conditions, as there's little more sobering, than being in a too small boat, experiencing too big a sea.