CHESAPEAKE LIGHT CRAFT - SASSAFRAS 12 CANOE PROJECT

Day 23 – 3.5 Hours

Before I outline today's work, I feel it is time for me to redefine why I am writing these reports. It is not to show how good a boat builder I am or to flaunt the merits of a particular kit but to point out the pleasure of building your own boat and the moments of not so much pleasure. Today is a good example of that. Parts of this build have been very rewarding, today's was not. Learn from my errors, don't repeat them.

Today I sanded. Not the boat, the fillets and I am not done yet. The instructions say to thicken your epoxy with silica to the proper consistency, which I did (I thought). You then fill the fillets so that the normal wetting action of the epoxy, as it dries, pulls the epoxy up the sides of the adjacent plank forming a perfect curve. The problem is the epoxy supplied with the kit is slow cure (which is GREAT to work with). If you do not get the consistency just right, when you come back in 4-5 hours so see how everything is going, you find the wires have formed smart little dams and you have a neat set of terraces parading down the length of your joints. Some have even held back enough epoxy to run down the side of your hull making even more of a mess. I might suggest not filling the areas completely up to the top of the planks. Apply enough epoxy to seal the seams. Remove the wires after it cures and then complete the fillets (thickened a bit more). This would also make removing the wires much easier.

Grinding them back down to size is another problem. This stuff is hard. I ended up using my Dremel tool to reduce the amount of material and I did get some gouges in the surface which will have to be filled and leveled before painting. This has not been a great day but the hull is coming along.

Day 24 – 1.5 Hours

So I didn't miss them, I marked all the low spots on the fillets and imperfection with painter tape before I mixed the epoxy. I then mixed a very thick solution of epoxy and silica and started to fill the areas. It was thick enough that I was able to use one of the stir sticks to spread it out, trying to blend it in with the surface. Tomorrow I find out how it worked.

Day 25 – 2 Hours

Well, it came out pretty good. I did a light sanding with 220 grit paper and there are a few areas that could use a little more work, but not bad. Next step is to shape and install the outwales.

Day 26 – 2 Hours

Started working on the inside of the hull today. I still have more to finish the outside but it can wait until I am ready for the fiberglass. The temporary brace was removed and replaced with a new one that isn’t epoxied in place. Lots of internal runs! If you don’t have one, purchase a cabinet scraper. It reduces the runs down to a workable size quicker than anything I have tried before and is gentle to the wood. I did cut the outwales to length and started to make a jig to help in rounding them over. I will show more of this later. This was a good day.