Fibreglass resin is everywhere!

Nigel and I got together on the weekend to repair the K2. There were a few little holes that wanted patching, the cockpit conning had some chunks missing from it, but most severe damage was where the cable for the rudder was slicing through the boat each time a turn was made. I got hold of some fibreglass from work and with assurances that fibreglassing was really easy was pretty confident that me and my mate could do this.

I have taken photos of the before, work in progress, and hopefully will get some nice finished shots of the craft when it is all sprayed up to perfection. Because I can’t upload them at the moment I am going to ask you to imagine the before and after.
Before Imagine a dusty old scout boat which has generally been looked after, a couple of faded stickers here and there, rusty rudder gear and a couple of holes that could turn ugly if not attended to asap.
After Now you need to imagine a boat that has had all the stickers and the rusty cables removed, has been sanded where there was to be a repair, then had fibreglass inexpertly applied everywhere. There are runs of resin, and a spiders web of rock solid glass especially around the tricky fiddly bit at the cockpit conning.

I think I am making it out to be worse than it is actually. The bit I am most proud of is where the rudder cables will exit the boat, we have bonded in some trick metal eyelets that resemble F1 exhaust ports, and although we have made a bit of a mess in some areas it will tidy up nicely when we have to flat it during the prep for spraying. All in all a success I think. I need to source about 14 metres of replacement cable, and a few other little gromits that I don’t know the name of (I am hoping to be able to show it to a bloke in a hardware shop who will smile and tell me he has hundreds) and then we are good to go.


Bank holiday Monday was a chance to run off a bit of a hangover that had appeared as a direct result of the successful glassfibreing. The sun was shining, I was feeling fit, so I set off for 7.4 miles around town. Everything was good I felt fit my feet were blister free, I was even able to thrown down a couple of sustained fast running to elevate my heart rate whenever I came to a bit of an incline. I don’t think I have felt so fit or happy with my running yet and it was a good feeling. Unfortunately I wore the same shirt I wore for the Ironbridge half, and I developed joggers nipple again which made life a bit uncomfortable but apart from that it was good.

I must have been daydreaming or something as I came to the final mile or so because I suddenly became aware that I was getting overtaken by another jogger. It’s not a problem, he was clearly a fit guy and my ego was already preparing the excuses for why he was able to pass me with such ease (joggers nipple, already covered 6 miles etc.) but the thing was my competitive streak then kicked in. His pace was manageable and I held the gap between us. I was actually pretty happy that I had enough left in the tank to pick up the pace again. Crossing the main roundabout before I get home he had a break in the traffic, I did not and I waited for maybe 30 seconds jogging on the spot while my unknowing pace setter stretched the gap. Underway again and I was running really hard to close the distance and for maybe half a mile I was this side of full blown sprint speed.

I never did catch up with him. By the time I arrived at the turning for my house he was still a few hundred metres away. The sprint finish did zap me though, and once I was off the main road I paused to get my breath back and to let the stars in front of my eyes go away. I walked the final stretch stopping the clock 67 minutes after setting off.

7.22 miles in 67 minutes is an average speed of 6.62 mph. Not bad, and has pegged the speed from my previous (shorter) run which was 6.63mph.