To give Galene the completely watertight integrity enjoyed by a steel hull I removed all the bolts and glassed the hull/deck joint with three layer 17 oz. biaxial tape inside and out. It was an exercise in pure isometrics to push myself up into position to glass the interior joint, but the reward was a joint that is much cleaner, stronger, and completely watertight.

Before the bulkheads were installed, I had the perfect opportunity to lay in a RF ground plane. Mine consists of approximately 60 sq/ft of bronze screen laid in below the waterline in the aft third of the hull, and tied together with about 20' of 4" wide copper foil. The screeening proved to be a bear to wrestle into place when combined with a layer of 10 oz.fiberglass and resin. I was able to tame the mess with the convincing influence of a vacuum bag.

The complete counterpoise joins together the above elements with the metal fuel tanks, the internal lead ballast and a single bronze thru-hull. It exists completely segregated from the both the DC ground and the lightning ground system