With the time zone difference between here and Washington, I got out of "work" pretty early. Today I was done with what I needed to do at 2pm. My wife decided to run some errands without me which meant I had free reign in the garage.
I'd spent the last week or so getting acclimated to the time zone, prepping the garage, and ordering needed supplies. Today was the first day I got to do some work despite the glorious weather: it's a perfect day to sail on a finished boat instead of sanding an unfinished one
I'm gearing up to 'glass the bottom and paint -- that's the goal for the these weeks. Before I can do that, I need to clean up the undersides as much as possible. There are many ways to do this but I figured I'd start with the rub rails.
Running stern to bow, the rub rails provide good looks and a little protection from bumping into things. They probably give a little structural stability but if missing not much would be lost or gained except maybe 100 hours of cussing to build, attach, and prep them. In the end, they really do look good and I'm glad they're on the boat.
Here's a good view of what's to come. You can see where the topside fiberglass comes down a few inches past the rub rail.
Try as hard as I did to keep this clean when putting this together, there are obvious voids and epoxy lumps all along the length.
I can't really use thickened epoxy here because of the color so it'll be clear stuff poured to fill the voids and careful sanding to knock down the highlights. The idea is to get a smooth surface in order to apply a light fillet between the rub rail and the hull, and then bring 'glass down to cover the first two rub rail laminations. I figure that'll provide some real strength as this would not only overlap a few inches from the topside 'glass, but also bring it along the bottom of the rail. The top view of the rails have similar issues but will not be 'glassed. I'm not sure if that's better or worse in the end.
This wasn't easy, though, as the angle between the rub rail and the hull is pretty sharp and the wood is meant to be decorative. Hit it too hard and the whole purpose of the rub rail would be lost. The 15-foot length took about 2 hours of careful sanding, or about 40 seconds per inch.
Clearly, the rub rail epoxy work at the bow was better than at the stern. I'm not sure why except maybe I had better access to the bow at the time. I remember I did most of this work with the garage door open for easy access to the bow, but in order to do that, I had to push most of my equipment towards the back, thereby preventing some access. So maybe I just had better bow access? Who knows.
Tired, I set that aside for a bit and came back to it to finish the port side of the hull but once again noticed a few weird things about how I left this. It was like stumbling into a campsite and finding the coffee pot over the fire but no one else around.
In any case, above is a photo of the bow before cleanup. You can see where I stopped the topside fiberglass in 2014. I forget why I did that -- probably because to keep going would've meant to clean up the bow and I either didn't have time and/or didn't feel like it. Fast forward a few years, and this is now a shiny, smooth object waiting for some filler and its own fiberglass layers.
Inspired, I then went up and tackled the keel joint. Again, I don't remember what I was thinking here, as this had evidence of some sanding but not completion. I can only conclude that I was not happy with the joint because there's definitely a bulge where the fillet sagged on itself. So rather than being a nice, concave shape, it's more like a long lump, especially in the middle. Sanding this down would not be fun, and this is probably why I delayed the effort, not realizing the delay would be 5 years.
A couple more hours later, it's about ready for a new, fat fillet sometime in the not-so-distant future. It wasn't as bad as my younger self thought it would be.
So, port is about done. Prepare to tack!
I'd spent the last week or so getting acclimated to the time zone, prepping the garage, and ordering needed supplies. Today was the first day I got to do some work despite the glorious weather: it's a perfect day to sail on a finished boat instead of sanding an unfinished one
I'm gearing up to 'glass the bottom and paint -- that's the goal for the these weeks. Before I can do that, I need to clean up the undersides as much as possible. There are many ways to do this but I figured I'd start with the rub rails.
Running stern to bow, the rub rails provide good looks and a little protection from bumping into things. They probably give a little structural stability but if missing not much would be lost or gained except maybe 100 hours of cussing to build, attach, and prep them. In the end, they really do look good and I'm glad they're on the boat.
Here's a good view of what's to come. You can see where the topside fiberglass comes down a few inches past the rub rail.
Try as hard as I did to keep this clean when putting this together, there are obvious voids and epoxy lumps all along the length.
I can't really use thickened epoxy here because of the color so it'll be clear stuff poured to fill the voids and careful sanding to knock down the highlights. The idea is to get a smooth surface in order to apply a light fillet between the rub rail and the hull, and then bring 'glass down to cover the first two rub rail laminations. I figure that'll provide some real strength as this would not only overlap a few inches from the topside 'glass, but also bring it along the bottom of the rail. The top view of the rails have similar issues but will not be 'glassed. I'm not sure if that's better or worse in the end.
This wasn't easy, though, as the angle between the rub rail and the hull is pretty sharp and the wood is meant to be decorative. Hit it too hard and the whole purpose of the rub rail would be lost. The 15-foot length took about 2 hours of careful sanding, or about 40 seconds per inch.
Clearly, the rub rail epoxy work at the bow was better than at the stern. I'm not sure why except maybe I had better access to the bow at the time. I remember I did most of this work with the garage door open for easy access to the bow, but in order to do that, I had to push most of my equipment towards the back, thereby preventing some access. So maybe I just had better bow access? Who knows.
Tired, I set that aside for a bit and came back to it to finish the port side of the hull but once again noticed a few weird things about how I left this. It was like stumbling into a campsite and finding the coffee pot over the fire but no one else around.
In any case, above is a photo of the bow before cleanup. You can see where I stopped the topside fiberglass in 2014. I forget why I did that -- probably because to keep going would've meant to clean up the bow and I either didn't have time and/or didn't feel like it. Fast forward a few years, and this is now a shiny, smooth object waiting for some filler and its own fiberglass layers.
Inspired, I then went up and tackled the keel joint. Again, I don't remember what I was thinking here, as this had evidence of some sanding but not completion. I can only conclude that I was not happy with the joint because there's definitely a bulge where the fillet sagged on itself. So rather than being a nice, concave shape, it's more like a long lump, especially in the middle. Sanding this down would not be fun, and this is probably why I delayed the effort, not realizing the delay would be 5 years.
A couple more hours later, it's about ready for a new, fat fillet sometime in the not-so-distant future. It wasn't as bad as my younger self thought it would be.
So, port is about done. Prepare to tack!
