Playing with Half a Foredeck

The scene through my upstairs window was chilly, but captivating at the same time. There's a certain wonderful quality of light from the low afternoon sun. Filter that light through the fractals of ice as it crawls on the window pane, and it's almost worth staying here year round.

As my wonderlust continued, I found this scene on the Wooden Boat facebook page: a literal "boat house" somewhere in Scotland.

And then of course I left these daydreams behind to mix epoxy and 'glass the centerboard in the basement shop. I had a lot of remnants of 'glass from various cuttings through the summer. It didn't make sense to roll out a full sheet for the centerboard when I could use a few sheets that would be perfectly acceptable. In some way, this would actually be stronger than just one sheet as the overlaps will provide extra support.

Laid out the 'glass.

I found a leftover wider piece and used that for the bottom half, then cut a smaller strip for the top half from the big roll. Both ends were in good shape, removing the need to feather and taper where they met. In other words, I could do this at one time and not have to wait for the bottom half to cure in order to clean up the top.

Half the centerboard 'glassed. This is just the first weave layer of epoxy.

I also cut a couple darts here and there around the curve, especially by the corner. I imagine, of the whole centerboard, this corner will get beat up the most. It's unfortunate it's also one of the more difficult areas to lay 'glass.

Close up of trailing edge. Earlier posts showed voids here and there, now fixed. Some darts helped the bends.

On the straight leading edge, I wrapped about 3" under and applied epoxy there. It required a little bit of technique as I was working effectively upside down, but it came out really nice. The hours spent shaping and sanding were worth it as the 'glass went on like a charm. Granted, I'm better at this than I was a few months ago, but mostly, I learned that proper prep can make or break a good layout.

View of the "underside." This is where about 2" wraps over the leading edge and up against the other side. I was worried I'd get a lot of bubbles or whatnot here, but it went on great.

A few hours later, I was on a quest for more offcuts as I went for the flip. The only downside to the offcut method is that the overlapping 'glass takes up more epoxy than a single layer. That might seem intuitive, but hey, I never said this would be a deep blog. I trimmed back the overlap and various odd angles to that there was about 3 inches at most of double fiberglass.

Found more offcuts. This is a set of 4 arranged in a compelling pattern.

Wetting down the 'glass.

Down the length - this is where the table saw ate my centerboard, 'glassed over. All good now.

I wrapped another 3" around the other as I did the other side, thereby having 2 layers of fiberglass on the trailing edge. When all of that cures, I'll add a strip of 9 oz 'glass here, too. Bring on the logs!

Underside, 2nd layer of 'glass.

I'll be painting my centerboard and would like to add a design, like a big eye ball on each side to make it look to sea critters like a big fish; maybe then they'll leave me alone. With my luck, they'll try to mate with me. I thought about (albeit too late) epoxy'ing some design in there, like they do with Kaholo stand up paddle boards. But alas, eyeballs will have to do.

Beautiful stand up paddle board built by Boat Building by the Bay.

I hate using up supplies on relatively short projects. The foam rollers are about 50 cents each; my gloves are 5 cents. Yes, I know. My Vetus portholes will be 900 times more expensive. But darn it, I'm gonna save those 50 cents. So before I geared down, I looked around to see what else I could 'glass. The dogs were not immediately available, neither was the TV. The triangle-shaped piece that is the foredeck volunteered itself, so I propped it up on the would-be router table and set off to find more offcuts for the 'glassing.

Now, 'glassing the underside of the foredeck is not specifically called for in the manual, but it's recommended. This is an area that gets pounded by anchors, by people standing on it, sitting, whatever. Just a little extra piece of mind that takes just a little extra work. I'll be doing the same to the cockpit decks over the next couple weeks.

Same as before, I found some strips of scrap fiberglass (kept in good shape of course) and layered them on. I did the left (aft) half first and let that cure overnight because, unlike the scraps used for the centerboard, the edges weren't as good, and I needed to feather it down some. The aft half is actually visible in the cabin as it is the ceiling of the forward locker. I'll do at least a second layer tonight and be done playing with the half foredeck until it's time to sand.

Bow deck underside with fiberglass layers. Looks like a Christmas tree.

One sheet 'glassed.

Next day, did the others

With that curing, I started fitting the pieces for the cockpit locker dashboards. I plan to put speakers in there with a couple 12v outlets.

Fitting the locker speakers. They'll have to be trimmed back a bit but otherwise fit well.

Though I'm a few months off from making this a reality, the plan is to copy the "solid" seatback supports and install a second one just a couple inches aft of the structural one. This will reduce the space in the locker by a little bit; the upside is I'll have the cockpit as I want it without affecting the flotation. The wires will run down behind this wall into the laz area where the bus bars await, then forward to the battery. If I can only figure out where to install the VHF antenna that would end the planning phase of the electrical.

Note: The work represented here took place over 3 days, with lots of waiting for stuff to dry in between. Everything got 3 coats of epoxy and is now awaiting sanding.