Laminating the Solar panel bracket

We are in Antigua and it’s just weeks away from Hurricane Season. Shayne has been asked to help deliver a Gunboat 68 from the Caribbean to France while Anna and the kids stay behind with Paikea. It means last minute repairs to the carbon solar panel bracket we put together in Cadiz, Spain. See our blog post here to see how we put the frame together.

Due to time contraints we were unable to laminate the joins in Cadiz, instead they were just glued together with Spabond, a rubber toughened epoxy. The next step should have been to laminate the joins together but time and changing priorities have meant that it has been left on the “to do” list for far too long. Now Shayne needs to be properly laminate the joins together before it becomes a real problem while he is away.

Laminating the join below with carbon double bias cloth. This was difficult in the heat as the resin was curing as we were filming this video.

We show you a quick solution for consolidating and post curing the repair in these conditions using black electrical tape. The tape is excellent for squishing down the laminate in small projects like this where you don’t have a vacuum pump on hand.

It is also time to address the fizzing that is starting to appear between the carbon fibre and aluminium solar panel frame. Carbon does not like aluminium and unless we can find a quick solution to stop the reaction the aluminium frame with be destroyed. Luckily the solution to fix it is as simple as putting a few cable ties around the carbon bracket to lift the panels away from the carbon fibre frame.

Now all Shayne needs is to recover from the Flu becasue those Gunboat guys are waiting and there is a rather cool performance multihull ready to leave this afternoon!