Week 6: Starting On The Underside

This past week marked a sharp fall in the outdoor temperature; specifically, it fell below 55 degrees Fahrenheit most days. As I mentioned in a previous post, to achieve maximum epoxy strength, it must be cured at 55 °C for three days. As a result, I had to get the diesel heaters up and running again. In an uninsulated garage, I burn through diesel quickly to maintain an adequate temperature, and the price of diesel currently makes this project less affordable. Checking the 10-day forecast, it appears this will only become more of a problem, and this is certainly an issue I was not expecting to encounter, especially at this time of year. 

I spent most of this past week away from the shop, so progress wasn’t spectacular. I filled all the cavities between the planks on the outside of the boat with epoxy mixed with wood flour, then began sanding. The epoxy needs to be sanded down to the final shape, but I ran into an old problem in doing so. If you recall from my Week 1 post, the fore end of the garboard had snapped when stitching into position. I wrapped the cracked area in fiberglass cloth and then made the bend, but that fiberglass stiffened the plank, and the bend was slightly asymmetric. To combat this asymmetry, I used a fairing compound to add volume to the curve during sanding. See attached image of the repair area below. 

This week, I also filed down the boat’s stem to provide a surface for bonding the keel. I have been using a Japanese rasp to remove such large chunks of material precisely and quickly, and I honestly do not know what I would do without it; I might be days behind.

I mentioned earlier that I was away for most of this week, specifically, I was in New Hampshire, where I was able to take out a previous boat my dad and I had built, a cocktail racer. Riding around in that boat reminded me of the reward of building boats, and has only motivated me more to work on this project, as I can only imagine the fun it’ll be to drive this boat around the NYC waterways.