"C" Plate

I needed some solid laminate to take the bearing loads – that is where a bolt or a pin directly bears on the laminate. Examples are the forestay chain plate, where the centreboard pin goes and where the gantry bolts on. Bearing on foam is obviously too weak so I have chosen to replace the foam with a solid laminate in these regions.
E glass is much more ware resistant than carbon, so I wanted this solid to be mostly glass, with a carbon on the outside to gloss up if necessisary. Unfortunately I didn’t have as much glass as I expected, and what I did have turned out to be mostly 225gsm not 600gsm. So after I scavenged I got enuf for the following laminate:

• 2x200DB Carbon
• 3x225DB E Glass
• 1x300CSM E Gass
• 1x600DB E Glass
• 1x300CSM E Gass
• 1x120WR E Glass
• 2x225DB E Glass
• 2x200DB Carbon

Incredibly, dispite this wacky laminate I still achieved better than a 50% weight fibre ratio. Nick suggested I include a dust suit or two to bulk it up – I resisted temptation.

As an impromptu vacuum bagging system I covered the complete laminated in vac bagging consumables then weighted it down as shown below. It turned out well.