Canoe! (Just Canoe)

[catsittingstill]

I started work on the canoe about 6:00 am.  I sanded the ends, then sanded the ends with 120 grit, then sanded everything lightly with 120 grit in preparation for putting on the sealer coat of epoxy.  I also wanted to put a strip of fiberglass down the keel line, since it could use a little reinforcement, and wetting out a little strip like that is no problem. 

However at 8:14 am I had to acknowledge that starting with the epoxy would be the height of foolishness since I had to be at the Rural Clinic at 9:00 am.  So I rolled out the fiberglass (had to make sure I had enough that I could cut my keel strips off the end without compromising the BIG fiberglass piece I will need tomorrow) and cut the strips and got everything together for the epoxying, but didn't start.

When I came back, I had lunch, checked whether anyone was wrong on the Internet, and then went and did the sealer coat of epoxy.  Twelve ounces of epoxy, put on basically as fast as I could move.  Before starting I used a dry brush to maneuver the keel strips into place and press out the ripples as much as possible, then when the epoxy was mixed I sort of patted and rolled it on with the brush so as not to drag the strips out of place.  When I had all the strips wetted down in the middle with epoxy I used the squeegee to drag the excess epoxy up the sides.  That covered about a third of the boat.  I mixed up the second six ounces and basically poured it in the bottom of the canoe and used the squeegee to drag it up the sides and into the bow and stern. I pressed the keel strips right down to the wood, so the fiberglass wasn't floating on any puddles of epoxy, and scraped the excess epoxy off, then ran around scraping up all the drips and putting the scraped off epoxy on any areas that looked dry.

I've got to leave it alone now.  Messing with it at this point would only make things worse.   Tomorrow I will sand and hopefully put on the big piece of fiberglass.

Comments

[boywizard.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see that you have made so much progress while I was on vacation. Have you thought about putting a rub strip on the keel line? I find that Kevlar works very well for this, although it's not so nice from a cosmetic standpoint. Sure helps with preventing rubthrough if you will be using the boat in rocky rivers or lake shores; silt-or-sand bottom lakes/rivers it's probably not needed.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I have thought occasionally about adding rub strips or keel plates of one sort or another, but don't like the look of them.

I think, since I have to revarnish every couple of years anyway, that I will be able to catch and patch any fiberglass damage before it goes all the way through. But if I decide I want a rub strip, I can always add one later (just have to sand off the varnish, of course.