Joining The Two Halves Together.

With seat rail completed and given two coats of epoxy I fitted it into the boat. The whole of the inside was sanded lightly (120 grit) to prepare for the varnish. With the edges masked off with 40mm tape the inside  of hull and deck were given 2 coats of clear varnish and then a coat of satin varnish. After the varnish had dried the edges were roughly sanded (60 grit) in preparation for the seam tape.

Then came the part I wasn't looking forward to - putting the deck and hull together for a trial fit. Here's what it looked like at the beginning.

The gap in the middle looks bad but more troubling was the fact that the deck had spread widthways more than the hull.  The aim at this point is to apply fibreglass reinforced packaging tape (called filament tape) to pull the two halves together and hold them while the join  is covered with fibreglass tape on the inside. This was easier said than done!

Only having two hands I used a couple of ratchet straps to pull the halves together and then started applying tape. The front  half of the boat (left hand side) didn't have a big gap between the edges and it looked as though the tape approach would hold it. The back half  had a bigger gap and it was obvious the the tape wouldn't do the job. The idea is that the edges are pulled together tightly enough for the friction between them to hold them in position.

The reason that the gap was bigger at the aft end was that I stripped the aft deck with wider strips which were flat sawn (horizontal grain) to use the spectacular grain pattern in the original board (look at the post of May 27th below). That was a BIG mistake. Before I glassed the outside the aft deck was convex. After a few days with the glass on the changing water content made it go slightly concave by about 6mm at the widest point. I wasn’t too concerned about this as it was still quite flexible and the sides sprang in easily. Once the glass was on the inside springing them in was much more difficult. Using both hands I could just about do it but I needed two more hands to put the tape on. 

I work alone so had to resort to clamps. I tried various F and pipe clamps but they won’t stay in place. U shaped plywood clamps and wedges held the sides in and some tape could be applied
. 

I had asked Nick Schade (Guillemot Kayaks) about my difficulties and with his encouragement decided to proceed with this approach and abandon my idea of putting a few saw cuts through the glass cloth on the inside to weaken it and then, after the join was made, to put fibreglass tape over the saw cuts. The cuts would have caused a visible kink on the outside which I din't want.

So, I separated the halves again and masked off the insides apart from the edges where to tape would be applied.  Then set about joining them together. It took 5 hours of hard work to get them to line up. I used ratchet straps in pairs to pull a section about 600mm long together and then taped between the straps. Then moved one strap past the other and did the next 600mm. Starting just in front of the cockpit this approach got the forward half sorted out.

The rear part was more difficult. I made more of the plywood clamps and added straps between them. This got the edges more or less together and I put some tape on.

By this time I was pretty tired and quit for the day thinking that I would apply the tape the next day. This was fortunate because when I looked the next morning most of the tape on the forward half had let go. Had I put the tape on the epoxy would have set while the tape was letting the halves move apart. Off I went to the hardware store to buy more straps and, with them and a lot more tape was fairly confident that I could apply the tape.

This was the next step that I wasn't looking forward to. Applying 4 metres (13 feet) of tape to a seam inside a boat and then soaking it in epoxy didn't appear to be a simple job. Nick Schade explains how to do it very well in his videos which was great help. Basically you measure the length of tape required and mark the centrepoint. Lay the tape out on a plastic sheet and saturate it with epoxy. Use a brush on a stick to apply epoxy to the inside of the joing (this is why you masked the entire inside surface of the boat). Then roll the tape up from the ends to the mark at the middle and lay it in the middle of the boat. Roll the two sausages towards the ends of the boat, with your hands as far as you can reach and then with the brush on a stick. There is a lot of scope for things to go wrong but I managed to do the first join without any problems.

Here's a couple of photos from the outside looking in.

In this photo you can see the green tape which guides where the tape has to go. Also visible is the plastic film protecting the varnished surface from epoxy drips. It is harder to see but there is another line of the clear filament tape over the edge of the green tape. The filament tape is to stop the epoxy gluing the green tape to the hull. While the epoxy is still tacky the filament tape is pulled out leaving the green tape to hold the plastic film in place which the other side join is done.

Here's another view from outside. The box inside the boat is holding up a torch to provide light at the ends of the boat.

Once the first side's epoxy had hardened up enough to not run away from the tape the boat was turned and the other side seam done.

The next day I took the boat out into the sunshine and propped it up against the end of the workshop. Two reasons for this, the warmth of the sun would cure the fresh epoxy more quickly and I hoped that the warmth would help the whole boat relax and get used to the idea of the new shape I had forced it into.

I stood it on end so that I could pour some epoxy into the end to fill any voids where the inner stems meet. Not a lot of epoxy because I didn't want to add unnecessary weight and I expected that some of it would leak out; it did but I know the inner stems have a better glue joint.

I

The Coaming and Other Stuff.

With the outside glassed the next job was to build the coaming. After giving the edge of the opening in the deck a final clean up I started putting the vertical riser strips in place. These are pieces of spare deck strips about 50mm long glued in place one at a time. Starting at the centre front the first strip was glued in place with hot melt glue and then the next strip was glued to it with PVA glue and held in place with hot melt glue. This strip by strip process continued until the half way point was reached. Then the second half was done working from the centre back. The final strip on either side needed to be shaped to fill the gap on either side. Here are the first few strips in place.

It took a couple of hours but here's what it all looked like. The top edge was trimmed and the outside sanded smooth.

Masking tape in place ready for fibre-glass (bias cut strips of 4 ounce cloth) to be added.

With fibre-glass done.

The excess cloth which overlapped the masking tape was cut with a sharp utility knife and removed with the masking tape. Next morning the excess cloth was trimmed at the top of the risers. The coaming rim was made from 9 x 2mm thick laminations which were put in place over a layer of plastic wrapping film. Once they were in place and correctly aligned the clamps were removed in sections and the top surface of the laminations painted with epoxy heating the strips before and after the epoxy is applied. The clamps were replaced with extras and the next section done. A gap was left at the front of the opening.

All done, lots of clamps!

Next morning the lip was removed, laid on the bench and the underside sanded smooth before applying a layer of cloth.

 

Next day the excess cloth was trimmed off , the edges of the lip cleaned up and then the lip was put back in place. With the height checked and the lip eyeballed for fairness the lip was spot glued with CA glue every 25mm or so. Again lots of clamps while doing this.

The ends at the front were cut off and tidied up with a plane. Nine short strips were clamped in place and flooded with low viscosity CA glue. The advantage of CA glue is that a squirt with accelerator make it set instantly so work can continue.

Here's a photo of the completed coaming.

The inside of the hull and deck can now be fibre-glassed. I did the hull first to get some practice laying cloth on the concave surfaces.  It looks a bit blotchy but I think it will be OK.

Before the inside of the deck can be covered the coaming was covered in bias cut strips. This was tricky! The inside and top of the coaming were painted with resin and the cloth strips put in place against the risers. once in place the cloth was saturated, first on the vertical surface of the risers, then across the top of the lip and finally over the edge and under the lip. That was the tricky bit but eventually it was done. The deck was turned over and the lower edge of the strips of cloth wet down on the inside surface of the hull. After that glassing the inside of the hull was relatively easy. The next photo was taken the following day. It looks OK but there are blobs of epoxy where it ran down the inside of the riser, easy to clean off when it is hard.

While working on the above there was quite a lot of waiting time so I worked on shaping the seat. The bulk of the work was done with the angle grinder using an abrasive disk called a "Holey Galahad". The disk is shaped like half a doughnut and can be seen in this photo of the seat.

Shaping the inside of the seat was relatively easy, the surface could be checked for smoothness with the hand and shape with the backside. Shaping the outside is more difficult, the hand can feel lumps but the the thickness is more difficult. Closed the edges finger and thumb can gauge the thickness but towards the centre it is harder. I'm still working on it.

I will mount the seat and foot braces on sliders on a rail fixed to the bottom of the boat. The rail will be T shaped with holes for adjustment every 50mm. Here's the current state of the rail. The holes were drilled 16mm without breaking through, then countersunk and filled with epoxy thickened with a mixture of graphite and micro-fibres. When the resin is hard the top surface will be cleaned up and the holes redrilled 12mm right through.

Last job today was the end pours in the deck. These are blocks of epoxy inside the ends of the deck to provide reinforcing where holes for rope handles will be. I shaped a dam from an old ice cream container  and taped it in place. The space behind it was filled with thickened epoxy. Needless to say, one of the dams leaked causing a sticky mess! I scooped up the epoxy and clean the surface, put the dam back wit more tape and poured the epoxy back in. This time it's holding, I hope!

The stern.

The bow, this is the one that leaked: obviously, it's harder to get at!