When we were in Knysna, they were getting ready to infuse the hull with resin. This is a different process from how previous models were built by laying up the hull with layers of fiberglass and hand-coating it with epoxy. This process will result in a stronger, stiffer hull, and save about 2000 pounds of resin.
As usual, they prepared a mold:
Then they laid sheets of fiberglass in the mold:
Next, they laid sheets of foam over the fiberglass:
When that was complete, they placed sheets of green plastic over the top which was sealed so that they could pull a vacuum on the entire hull. There are ports in the plastic into which they feed resin. In this photo, they’ve just started the infusion process, and they inject resin starting from the middle and working outward.
The stern of the boat looks like a Frankenstein invention:
Over the period of about 6+ hours, they work their way outwards and eventually the resin went all of the way up the hull:
The next day, the resin was cured, and if they had wanted, they could have demolded it.