Hi guys, welcome back aboard Spiffy—our 44 ft hurricane-damaged Antares 44 catamaran. This week I used two leaky plywood “hatch covers” as the perfect excuse to practice the exact process I want for much bigger fiberglass parts later in the refit (stuff that won’t fit on our CNC). The goal was simple: go from CAD to a finished part in one video, while also testing a laminating schedule that’s pretty close to what I’m planning for the eyebrows. I designed a new hatch in Fusion, turned it into a female mold, and then split the mold into three layers of 19 mm MDF so I can prove out a method for making taller molds in the future. I added alignment holes and used a bit of aluminum rod to keep everything registered, resurfaced the spoil board, and learned (again) that shallow angles can absolutely murder CNC time. After some CA glue, Bondo, primer weirdness with MDF grain raising, sanding to 600 grit, wax, and PVA, I laid up gelcoat + veil + 1.5 oz CSM + 1708 + 3 mm core mat (first time using it) + 1708 + CSM. The part popped out ridiculously easily thanks to a 10° draft, and the finish was great—minus a few PVA-run indentations and the usual inside-corner annoyance. Next week we’ll go into production mode: a second hatch, two deck rings so they actually seal, and hopefully more fiberglass parts while we’re at it.