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Don Builds a KIT!


Don Silsbe

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Well, we rolled her over, and I glued up the transom and stem.  They tell me to remove twist later, which makes me nervous.  
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F9CF412D-97F0-4EE4-BB14-A882C3A551EB.thumb.jpeg.d6d8a8721719bf2850c88079bed86190.jpegThe owner selected some beautiful bronze fittings:  
757B4B5B-5F17-4F52-A203-9B55DC235FEA.thumb.jpeg.88076a36fcc4f5203c013bf294d80add.jpegThe bow eye is a problem, because this boat is so skinny: 0AB02CDF-0521-41D7-8417-618FB1841D8F.thumb.jpeg.9f265eeed3186c1321bd7db9db1dee19.jpeg This is my preferred solution (side cheeks), although there are three ways to fix it:DEFD62D3-C508-4CFB-97EF-F20420B0FFD7.thumb.jpeg.31ed91f6347d587839457cca6c80ddf1.jpeg The black panels are a mock-up I made.  I didn’t want to screw up the kit while trying out various solutions. Waiting on the owner.   We’ll make this decision together.

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@Hirilonde—This is an interesting build.  They have you epoxy in the stem, transom, breasthook, and quarter knees.  Then, you flip her upside don and epoxy the laps.  THIS is when you are supposed to take out any twist (which it has).  A little voice was telling me to correct the twist earlier, but I believe in following directions.  BIG MISTAKE!  Of course all that epoxy stiffened the boat up, especially the breasthook and quarter knee glue-up.  I hope my device corrects the condition.

D51A2621-BF6D-4293-956D-E795C0E9E672.jpeg

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@Hirilonde— here’s how they have me gluing the laps.  She’s upside down.  Here are the lap-gaps.

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You’re supposed to make a medium-thin epoxy batch, and shoot it in there with a syringe.  

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They supplied me with some tiny syringes.  I had a turkey injector that accepted 4 times as much epoxy.  At any rate, it came out great.  I took out the wires, except for the bulkheads.

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 I’ll come back later, and pretty up the seams.  Now, I’m to flip her back over, and fillet in the bulkheads.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So, it has been a while.  I made fillets for all the bulkheads, and filleted the seam between panels #1 & 2.  Then, I laid down some homemade fiberglass tape, to join the pre-glassed panels one and two together.  Then, per Russell Brown’s method, I laid Peel Ply over the top.  MAN!  That worked great!  Just know that this cannot be done with glass tape off a roll.  In this case, I did not want to glass these panels once assembled.  Sanding narrow concave surfaces narrower than my ROS did not sound appealing.  To top it off, this area will be varnished, so I wanted it to be as perfect as it could be.  This method worked out very well.  Here are some shots.


The filleted seam, before sanding.1F5036C1-FC98-4C98-98D1-4723B7771E26.thumb.jpeg.e1d9af39fd862d9c65e38bce253b147a.jpeg

 

Saturating the tape with epoxy.

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Tape in place.B76890B0-2D46-4861-9BF8-1DD9FBE96FAD.thumb.jpeg.f3f55089db7c92073fdae77af9a03b78.jpeg

 

Peel Ply in place.379B0652-10C3-47A5-A042-F72135DCA3C2.thumb.jpeg.668308b97d03f4d96186f182e48d1aa6.jpeg

 

Peel Ply removed.D76AEE16-E491-499E-A3B3-1DFAFB18AC00.thumb.jpeg.7d40a635be15b49fe7546c1049613761.jpeg

 

This is what it looks like when you don’t use Peel Ply.  See how the tape feathers out, instead of having a big lump at the selvage?  If I gave this another coat of epoxy, it would sand much easier than regular glass tape.  This is an area that will be enclosed, so Peel Ply was unnecessary. I am impressed!8B6FB51F-2FC0-4205-A6B5-5B368C4EB252.thumb.jpeg.c38374472b5b74a7b998e5addb67b721.jpeg

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Skeg time!  Contrary to the instructions, I reinforced it with glass.  CLC adds a mahogany strip on the sole of the skeg, calling it a wormshoe.  The bungees hold that in place to the previously filletted skeg.

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Then, I added the reinforcing fiberglass, per R. Brown’s method.

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Then, I applied Peel Ply to the seam, making sure to dan the fabric into the epoxy.  Hopefully, this reduces the amount of sand I need to do.

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  • 1 month later...

Seats are in, and filleted in place.  She just got her final coats of epoxy.  Final sanding and applying finish comes next.  
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The Russel Brown technique wasn’t quite as successful as I had hoped for.  There were high spots along the edges.  They were easier to sand out than a ridge of glass tape would have been.  There was still more sanding than I was expecting.  Would I do this again?  Yes, probably, to see if I couldn’t do a better job.  
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I’m into the paint and varnish stage.  In the end, the interior came out nice.  I don’t think I was any further ahead pre-coating the panels.  Not sure if it was easier pre-cladding the fiberglass or not.  I’d have to build one to spec to know.  One thing is for sure— homemade glass tape sands much more easily than tape off a roll.  If I’m going to varnish a taped seam, I will definitely cut my own tape.  
 

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These narrow lapstraked panels required hand sanding.  UGH!  If you look to the right of the sanding block, you can see a ridge in the epoxy.  These had to go.

 

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All that hand sanding paid off, however.  This is after two coats of Petit Flagship High-build.  After the third coat, I will switch to Captains.  
 

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I love the lines from this angle.  

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