Sail Lifevideo
⛵️ Plug to mold to a finished part for our hurricane-damaged catamaran. Ep 660
21 December 2025 · 22 min · 70K views
What this video covers
Mads fabricates custom deck rings and hatches for his 44-foot Antares Yachts 44 catamaran refit using a Shapoko 5 Pro CNC machine and polyester resin.▶ 2:12 He creates a plug from MDF, coats it with gray surface primer, and uses it to form a fiberglass mold.▶ 6:18 During the process, he encounters recurring "alligatoring"—a wrinkled, uneven surface texture—in the gel coat, which he attributes to applying the material too thinly by brush.▶ 9:43 He attempts to repair mold imperfections with Bondo, but finds the filler adheres to the finished part, complicating the release.▶ 16:04 Despite these surface defects, the resulting deck rings provide a functional, well-fitting temporary solution for sealing hatch openings during the ongoing refit.▶ 19:14 He concludes that spraying the gel coat with an air compressor, rather than brushing it, is necessary to achieve a consistent film thickness and eliminate alligatoring in future parts.▶ 20:33
Boats in this video
More from Sail Life
From Sail Life — see the channel’s boat, crew, and every analysed video.