Saturday was supposed to be the day I glass the hull. I say "supposed" because I took another look at my "bent stem" and realized that I was not happy with it. I'd be staring at it on every paddle and I could not see it happening!! I ended up having to saw down through the join I made the day before and resetting and reshaping the stem once again. Surprisingly, it went pretty smoothly. I found the hot glue gun invaluable for test tacking the join. After two hours of fooling, I managed to get a nice symmetrical bow! I won't be doing this again!! I needed to use some fairing compound to take out a dip in the stem. It wasn't pretty at first and took a long time to set but it worked out in the end (see last image in this entry).
While waiting for the filler to set, I decided to try a fillet. I mixed up some epoxy thickened with 406. I ran tape down each side of the keel join to keep things neat. As my stations are still in place, I stopped short of them to prevent unwanted adhesion!!
 |
| Just a shot to show the shape of the hull. |
The next step was glassing the hull. I am using 60" wide cloth so I simply draped it over the hull and cut off the excess - which is just the right size for covering the deck!
After three hours of squeegeeing and brushing she was done!!
 |
| From the bow |
 |
| From the stern |
 |
| Stern |
 |
| Stem |
 |
| The "filler" side of the stem |
Yes, you can see the filler but this boat will be painted anyway! Also, as this is the first coat of epoxy, the weave of the cloth is supposed to be visible!
Took a bit longer than expected but I figured I might as well do this right!!
Looking great Sean. Really impressed in the speed your putting this together! You planning to have this done by the retreat??
ReplyDeleteRobert: That is certainly the plan - at the VERY latest. I'm finding it kind of addictive but at least it's good clean fun!!
ReplyDeleteI find the same thing. When I do get the chance to work on the boat, I disappear for 3 days at a time. I Find it really hard to just work on it for a hour or so. Always turns into 5 hours, ending only cause Tash comes to "find" me.
ReplyDeleteI just put in 3 hrs giving the bottom of the hull a second sheathing of glass. It 12:30 and I'm beat. But still, a good night's work that did not start until 9:30!!!
ReplyDelete