Rubbing the Wrong Way - Fiberglass Prep and Rubrails

We are in the midst of what can only be described as super awesome weather. With highs in the mid-70's and full sunshine, it's more like the turning point of June than it is early spring. We all know the bottom's going to drop as it always does, but at least we'll get some good outdoor epoxy work in!

First, a moment of silence for the release of my workpants. I picked these up for about $3 at Arc's, the thrift store nearby. At about 1.5 cents per day, I certainly got good use out of them. After a moment of bonding, I opened the door and they simply walked away on their own. I wish them well!

Walked off and probably somewhere in West Virginal by now.

Quick update on the portlights. I filled in the scoring as noted in a prior post and filled it in with epoxy. Sanded smooth, this will serve as a good spot to attach the portlight screws.

Scored holes before filling and sanding.

Filled with epoxy.

One down, 3 to go.Also faired the topside-hull connection here.

I continued prepping the hull over a day or so filling and fairing any area with lows, highs, and holes. Like most other fairing work, it's more than just aesthetics. If the 'glass doesn't lie flat, there's a structural compromise. So it's important to take the time to do this right. Doing it right often means multiple coats of thickened epoxy. The first application fills the major issues, then another layer finishes the project. The cockpit and hull are complicated to 'glass and I was taking no chances on how it'll look in the end state. There aren't any pictures of this as it doesn't really look like much.

One of the major tasks yet to do was building out the rubrails. This required a trip to Hardwood Supply (now relocated to a fancier location) for 2 boards of padauk. I took advantage of the nice weather and set up shop outside. I've always wanted red grass, so the padauk sawdust was perfect.

My two boards looking very regal before loading into the car.

The dimensions of each layer are in the plans, so when I carefully measured it out and bought the boards, then cut everything, I was naturally short the last rubrail. What to do? Go back to Hardwood Supply and drop more coin on wood I probably wouldn't need? That wasn't much of an option as I'm currently between jobs and doing so would put me in the red on my very strict budget for the week. So, naturally, I'm going to laminate padauk and ash.

The first rails get milled.

I had a board of ash leftover from the gallows and tiller (man, that seems like a long time ago) so pulled that out of hibernation, cleaned it off, and suddenly I didn't have a wood problem anymore. I am, however, perilously close to overdoing the design but at least when I commit, I commit.

Finished milling, including the ash.

The boards were scarfed using a jig purchased from a woodworking store. It was on sale and saved me the hassle of building one. Here, again, I learned another scarfing lesson (which I should've realized as I was corrected and have corrected people on this mistake in the past). Each board is 8 feet long. A 10:1 scarf is 7.5 inches long (10 times 3/4 inches). Scarfing both sides of a board loses the length of the scarf, so two boards 8 feet long scarfed together is actually 16' less 7.5" in this case*. Add the length required for the curve, and it's too short for PocketShip. Even if the boards are scarfed with a smaller ratio, there's no way two 8 footers come to 16 feet.  What to do? Add another scarf, of course.

The extra tail scarf gets done.

I had some extra padauk laying around about 3 feet long which will be just enough to take care of the missing length. I'm not that concerned about how this will look on the boat as people will have to look really close to see these joints at all once polished up, but I'm still annoyed at the error. So, for those thinking of doing this, be sure to add at least a foot to the board, or prepare for a second scarf at one of the ends. The scarfing itself came out OK.

Test fit of the scarfs.

I then had some trouble on where to do the glueup. My garage is, of course, not available, and doing 18' planks in the workshop wasn't going to be an option (and anyway, I can barely walk down there after clearing the cockpit out. Guess where that stuff went.) What did I have that was stable, secure, and highly mobile? TV trays, of course. Alas, it got pretty windy and that wasn't going to work. So, out came the plywood from the original delivery and I moved everything to the ground.

Three TV trays support the rails. Or not.

Moved to the ground.

 After that, it wasn't too bad to get these to clamp together.

Clamps do their thing.

In reality, it's just the tops and bottoms of each one, plus the outside face of the last one, that need to look good. This allowed me to slather on the epoxy for the internal ones which I'll sand back down when cured. I'm hoping to get to the cockpit glass tonight and have these attached by early next week if all goes well.

* Thanks to craig, a fellow builder, for pointing this out.