The bilge’s surface is fiberglass roving. It is far from smooth and I want to make the bilge in the shower as smooth as possible that way it will drain more easily and be easier to clean.
To make roving smoother, I could either sand it until it is smooth, apply fairing putty to fill in the gaps, or cover the whole thing in chop strand mat to give it a nice smooth surface.
Looking back, it appears that I chose the wrong option.
I covered the entire bilge in a blanket of CSM with the hopes that it would smooth the whole floor out and also give more strength to the sole bearers that I had installed yesterday. The idea was simple, the CSM would act as a sponge and simply hold a lot of epoxy in place while I quickly fitted the shower sole. Then the entire unit could cure as one big strong molecule.
This was a massive undertaking, and I was not properly prepared for it (mentally) First, being how CSM acts as a sponge, I grossly underestimated how much that sponge would soak up! I used almost an entire gallon of epoxy to do the shower sump!
Second, fiberglassing the entire floor means you have nowhere to stand while you work, so the entire time is spent doing boat yoga as you lean from your perch on the toilet forward and brace your torso against the bulkhead. This gives you only one hand to work with.
After a few hours of this, you get very tired and ready for the work to be over! I was going to install the shower sole but I physically couldn’t do anymore work in here. I will let this cure and add the shower sole tomorrow once this is fully cured.
