A busy work and home schedule has put my boat build on hold. I went up the farm to find it covered in a thick layer of dust. We were having a dry spell and it looked guaranteed to be dry for the next few days. So I took a gamble and loaded the boat up on the van to work on at home.
The last thing I did was add an undercoat of resin to the outside of the deck and hull. This turned out a bit of a mess up to say the least so I spent hours sanding it back to the wood.
Back up the farm on a wet day to minimise the chance of dust a last bit of fine sanding and a clean down and it was time to lay on the glass. The fibreglass comes in a weaved fabric. This fabric is draped over the boat and cut to size. It is then lightly brushed to get out any folds and creases. A mix of epoxy and resin is then painted on with a roller, just enough to wet out the cloth.
Notice how the fibreglass weave is now clear once wetted out. It was left to dry for three hours. I then brushed on another layer of epoxy/resin as a fill coat to fill in the gaps in the weave.
The finished result. Not bad for my first go, a good sand, varnish and polish should see it shining, but that will come later.
The hull has been sanded back to the wood and is due to be glassed in the next couple of days, once I've fixed a split in one of the strips.
Once I have glassed the outside I have to plane, scrape and sand the inside before glassing also. Then I can build up the cockpit coaming, cut the hatches and install the skeg. Both halves will then be glassed together and bulkheads, footrests and seat installed ready to grace the water.
3 comments:
Looks too gorgeous to put on the water!
Wow Stuart. I'm from Vancouver Island, B.C. Your boat looks fabulous. I am just preparing two strongbacks; one for my wife's Guillemot and one for a night heron for myself. I'm curious, though. I used Nicks's table of offsets from his book for the guillemot, but am planning to buy his night heron plans. But if you bought his plans I thought they were printed out full-size, but you worked from a table, I see. What's up with that?
Hi Garry, thank you. Unfortunately I still haven't managed to get around to finishing it yet. I haven't bought any plans I worked off the table of offsets from his book 'Building Strip Planked Boats', which has the offsets for the Petrel, Coot and Nymph boats.
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