I've been in denial for the last month or so, but it's finally time to face the ugly truth...I'm probably not going to get this boat in the water in 2009. It is gradually inching along, and I'm trying to adopt a philosophical attitude about it-- just get as much done as possible before the cold puts an end to the epoxy work, and look forward to the Spring.
The deck is finally "finished"--glued in place and both sides are covered 6oz 'glass in epoxy. Of course it still needs to be sanded and varnished, but at last I can see what the final color of the cedar strips will be and therefore start thinking about what color to paint the outside of the hull.
More so than ever, I'm having to put alot of thought into the order in which things are done from here on out...for instance, I wish I'd have varnished the inside of the foredeck storage area before I put the deck on, as it'll be more difficult to reach inside now.
Getting the deck in place was alot harder than I expected. After getting all the individual strips glued into place, I had sawed
, rasped, and sanded each half so it was an (almost) exact fit and flush with the outside of the hull. Each half was then removed (I used strips of plastic bags and packing tape to prevent the glue from sticking to the frames), and over the course of two weekends, I 'glassed and epoxied the inside of each half, allowing it to cure for several hours so that it still retained flexibility, before flipping it and glueing to the hull with thickened epoxy. I was surprised to find that after the 'glass/epoxy treatment, the deck halves no longer fitted the hull "
exactly" as before--apparently, there was a bit of expansion in the cedar as the epoxy soaked into it. In the end, it worked out fine--it just meant I had to re-shape the edges after it cured into place, and I spent some anxious minutes trying to force the second half into position before it cured completely. Once again the extra 5 and 10 lb dumbbells laying around the house came in handy.The other problem was the seam between the two halves...I had achieved a pretty tight fit before the 'glass/epoxy, but now it looked pretty ragged, as I wasn't quite able to get the two halves on exactly as they'd been dry-fitted. It was tempting to just fill it in with some epoxy and move on to the next part, but I'm glad it took
an extra hour or so to cut a gap at the seam and fill it with a strip of cedar, layed edge-wise...it was well worth it. The outside layer of 'glass/epoxy was much easier and I finished it late in the day so there wasn't too much bubble formation...I did miss a few small ones, but overall I'm pretty happy with it so far.
