The Worst Is Yet to Come - Prepping for Topsides

Another Friday night in the boatshop made for one happy boatbuilder. The session started out well enough: I poured enough epoxy to gum up Hoover Dam as I filled in the gaps between the cockpit deck and the hull sides. Not sure what went wrong here, probably nothing, but I was between 1/4" and 1/2" off from the sides. Given the most important thing (to me) was to line up the centerboard trunk and the footwell with the cockpit deck, and I knew I could just fill and fair whatever didn't look right, this went as planned. I also filled in the couple hundred temporary screw holes that peppered the deck and the bow deck, too.

Bow deck gets holes filled.

First laydown of epoxy to fill the gaps. These came out great after some work.

As I let that cure, I reviewed the manual to see what was next. I was really keen on getting the topsides screwed down, but before that, had to fillet the forward locker from the inside. To prep for that, I put some frogtape along the outside of the deck, mixed up some epoxy, and started squeezing from the pastry bag. This was, however, the worst part of the build so far. For the first time, I felt the size of the boat, how small it really is. I'm not a large person, but to squeeze in this area to epoxy such a highly visible and important glue up was not anywhere near fun. It just wasn't. I laid down the first layer, applied the spoon, and let it sit for 90 minutes as I turned my attention to the aft cabin wall.

This was prepped a couple weeks ago with fiberglass with the inside-facing wall sanded down to 120 grit, paint-ready perfection. That part was OK. What wasn't OK is the 1/2" gap between the centerboard trunk ("the bridgedeck" area) and the aft cabin wall. Did I not put the side cleats on right, lifting the corners up? Did the centerboard sag? Unsure of what to do, I pulled it up as much as I could until I couldn't strain anymore and tied off best I could. In the morning, I'll stack some things in here to bring this up as much as possible for the fillet and 'glass and maybe use a clamp or two. Once that's applied, it won't be as visible, but the afternoon that started with so much promise and vigor ended in disappointment, worry, and a strained neck.

View from inside - about 1/2" gap at the widest point. I'll probably clamp them together as I did on the hull.

View from outside. I can get this to 1/4" but it's still a lot.

By the time this was done, the epoxy in the forward locker was set enough to apply the alcohol. Over the next 30 minutes, I carefully and methodically retraced the epoxy and smoothed it out. The corners are better; the forward part looks almost good. The areas behind the speaker boxes need some work, but won't be visible, so aren't as critical. Still, it was really hard to get back there and I'm now a little concerned about how the electrical is going to go.

Before epoxy on the inside. Light coming in from outside. These were the toughest fillets yet.

Wide angle doesn't look so bad.

What to do? Well, work on something else, of course. I've been 'glassing the cabin deck (not sure what to call these things anymore -- this is the cabin 'roof') and the MacGregor rudder at the same time since they both use fiberglass and unthickened epoxy. Makes sense to me. The rudder looks great, so does the cabin deck/roof. I've gotten the fiberglass thing down, which is good because I have to lay down about a mile of the stuff in the next few weeks. I also for the first time had a successful "frogtape-fiberglass" experience. I cut a nice clean line for the rudder and will do the same on the other side.

At least this stuff came out OK. Cabin deck gets 'glass.

First half of rudder gets 'glass.

Tomorrow should prove to be productive as the hope/plan is to get the screw tops sanded down, holes drilled for the topside wires, and the fillets ready to epoxy and paint. With luck, I'll get the aft cabin wall figured out, too. The final shape is coming together, though these last pieces are trying my patience and my flexibility.