Outboard Trawler Build - Taping the Dinghy -
January 27, 2023
Yesterday we put in a full day on the dinghy. We turned it upright and I removed all the zip-tie stitches. . . and. . . it stayed together!
We also weighed it. Even though the plans state the weight as 28lbs, we are already at 33lbs and there is a lot more to add. She'll be closer to 50lbs. Still not bad though.
I used a very coarse sanding belt and smoothed all the inside epoxy tabs.
We cleaned all the debris and set the house up for applying epoxy and fiberglass tape. We ran the house ventilation full blast. We also opened a back window and ran the kitchen exhaust fan.
To ensure the glass tape would sit well in the seams, we first ran a bead of thickened epoxy over all the joints and used a tongue depressor to round out the inside edge.
Donna and I worked together to apply the fiberglass tape on all the seams.
Before the glass and epoxy set up hard, we added another coat of epoxy, this time thickened only to a soupy consistency.
This final coat will enable us to sand the taped seams before eventually painting the interior.
We clamped some upright sticks to the areas where the fiberglass tape finished above the gunwales and covered the boat with plastic to contain the fumes and smell.
We left the ventilator on full overnight and checked the boat this morning. It had cured nicely so I trimmed the upper edges of the taped seams.
Then we walked it into the garage and stood it against a wall.
We cleaned up the work area and now we have our living room back.
Seeing her beside the car gave me an idea for transporting the boat from here to the club. We'll get a set of those 'canoe foam things' and strap her to the car's roof.
We'll leave it to fully cure for a week or so in the lukewarm garage. The next job will be to repeat the whole process for the outside of the seams, with the added job of rounding all the outside edges with a rasp or sander. We'll wait for a warm dry day to do that outside.
Music
There was no open mic this week but we continue to work on the list of songs for our March 11th gig.
I had hoped to have someone from the Red Cross come to receive donations toward helping out the people of Ukraine but that didn't work out. Trish (owner of Sam's Brass Racks) usually donates to the local food bank, so that's likely what we'll do.
Thanks for reading our blog!
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