Last weekend saw the mating of the deck and hull. This weekend saw the final consumation of the union - glassing the topside of the deck and tying the deck and hull together for ever (hopefully).
Friday night I had a few small jobs to complete - finishing the filleting and taping on the bulkheads. With that complete, I took the rest of the night "off" to watch some TV with the family.
Saturday morning was a beautiful sunny day and I knew that a crowd of fellow paddlers were heading out but strong is the addiction when building a boat. I turned my gaze away from the waters of the bay and headed up to the attic to glass the deck.
I read of a neat trick to get a nice clean edge when overlapping glass joins. Normally what you'd do is run a wide strip of masking tape, let the glass hang down over the strip and epoxy just overlapping the tape. When the epoxy is almost cured, take a sharp blade and cut the glass right at the edge of the tape. Looked good in the book so I figured I'd give it a whir. Not having wide masking tape and dredged up an old roll of gyprock tape. I simply ran masking tape alomg the edge and made a nice wide strip.
Then I laid the glass over the boat and trimmed it so that it fell within the confines of the strip. I used some Schedule 40 clamps to hold the glass in place initially.
Applying the first coat of epoxy took a few hours but was rather uneventful, nonetheless.
Friday night I had a few small jobs to complete - finishing the filleting and taping on the bulkheads. With that complete, I took the rest of the night "off" to watch some TV with the family.
Saturday morning was a beautiful sunny day and I knew that a crowd of fellow paddlers were heading out but strong is the addiction when building a boat. I turned my gaze away from the waters of the bay and headed up to the attic to glass the deck.
I read of a neat trick to get a nice clean edge when overlapping glass joins. Normally what you'd do is run a wide strip of masking tape, let the glass hang down over the strip and epoxy just overlapping the tape. When the epoxy is almost cured, take a sharp blade and cut the glass right at the edge of the tape. Looked good in the book so I figured I'd give it a whir. Not having wide masking tape and dredged up an old roll of gyprock tape. I simply ran masking tape alomg the edge and made a nice wide strip.
Then I laid the glass over the boat and trimmed it so that it fell within the confines of the strip. I used some Schedule 40 clamps to hold the glass in place initially.
Applying the first coat of epoxy took a few hours but was rather uneventful, nonetheless.
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| After first coat of epoxy. |
The image below shows the trimming process using the wide tape. By cutting along the edge of the tape, you are leaving a nice crisp edge. This will later be feathered after I apply my epoxy. It's nice using this metthod because you are not fighting with itinerent/wayward glass strands that can be a real PITA to keep down flat as you bush on the epoxy!!
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| Nice and neat! |
It's sure nice to see the whole thing covered in glass and epoxy. Below are two nice shots showing the deck with one coat of epoxy. Notice that it's not yet shiny. The first coat does not fill the weave of the cloth, instead it leaves a rough surface. This rough surface cuts down on the flash glare and makes for a nicer photo!! |
Trimmed edge at the bow. |
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| Looking Fwd |
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| Looking Aft |
I entitled this entry "the price you pay" because the amount of time I'm spending on building this boat could very well be spent on paddling my plastic one. I'll admit that I would like like to get out for a paddle but then I look at this new boat and I can't wait to get it out on the water. As I always say, the water ain't going nowhere!! It'll still be there when I'm finished this project and then I'll make up for lost time.
I have one more coat of epoxy (the 3rd) left for the deck. Last night I started sizing up the cockpit coaminig - the next task on the list!!
Beautiful lookin boat!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lee. I can't wait to see it all fitted out and painted.
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