Hull Panels Stitched Together

It's taken me almost two more weeks, but I've finally completed drilling all of the hull panels and have them stitched together.  This has been a time consuming effort for me.  Altogether, nearly 500 wire stitches completed.  Here are some picture showing the progression.

Above shows the #1 L&R keel seam hull panels stitched together, with the center temporary frame loosely attached.

Here, I have the #2 L&R panels stitched to the #1 panels.

And this one shows the #3 L&R panels stitched to the #2 panels.  Starting to look like a boat!

And finally, the #4 L&R panels attached.

I've also stitched together the bow and stern end sections.  I think I was supposed to be doing this with each panel installation, but didn't figure that out until I had all the panels for the hull attached.  Wasn't that clear to me in the instructions.

I've also securely wired the center temporary frame to the hull.  Next step will be to install (wire stitch) the bow and stern temporary frames and then go over all the "inward" stitches to tighten them.  And then begin the gluing the inside of the keel seam.

Bevel Sheer Edges Complete

Above, you'll see the result of the beveled sheer edges.  Top picture is the bow end of panels #4 and #5 L&R.  Bottom picture is the middle butt seam for the same panels, just the left side.  Pretty good job, if I say so myself.  Altogether, with the 4 panels being 17 feet, it was 68 feet of beveling with a rasp file and 60 grit sand paper.  Took me about 7 hours of work to complete this task.  I was probably being a little too careful here to make sure I didn't screw this up, which is why it took so long.

Next step is to drill the holes that I will be using to stitch the panels together.  Looks like a fairly delicate and time consuming process.  I have house guests arriving soon so might be a few days before this task is complete.

Two Weeks Later....

Finally,,,,,,,,  I've completed fiberglassing and epoxying all of the butt seams.  This took much longer than expected.  Altogether, it was 48 seams to align and glue.  And I could only do 6 at a time (a day)with the limited amount of work bench space.  So, simple math reveals that I should have completed this task in a little over a week.  And that might have happened if I had not screwed up!

Screwing up means two things.  First, somewhere in the middle of this process (I think I had completed all of the left side panels) when I was doing the first 3 right side panels, I incorrectly mixed the epoxy and hardener.  I think I did 4 parts epoxy and only 1 part hardener (instead of the correct 2 to 1 ratio).  Don't know what I was thinking.  So, by the next day, the epoxy did not harden.  Also, before I applied the epoxy I decided to use Ziploc bags instead of the Mylar sheets provided with the kit.  The Mylar sheets were already used with the left side panels, and looked a little grubby.  And the manual noted that Ziploc bags could be used in their place if needed.  Well, that's almost true.  The manual says to use the Ziploc bags on the underside.  A point I failed to understand.  So I used them on both sides.  BIG mistake!!!  What I ended up with was halfway hardened epoxy that was "wavy" instead of flat and smooth.  All of it had to be removed.

First call was to Pygmy.  Help!!  Fortunately, I got Laura.  She had me get lacquer thinner and Scotch Bright pads.  It was the only thing that will work to remove the epoxy and fiberglass.  I had to clean both sides of the panels.  That was a complete day lost.  She also sent me a care package of new Mylar strips.  Another day lost waiting for the mail to come.  And I took 3 days off over the next week for bike rides.  A couple of which that were very enjoyable.  One day around Lopez Island (35 miles).  Another day doing a roundtrip on the Centennial Trail between Stanwood and Snohomish (50+ miles).

But once I got back on track, I got the task completed.  All panels, left and right, inside and outside, aligned and epoxied.

The next step in the process is the reinforcement of the bow deck panels (#5 and #6).  Simply put, this means gluing (mixed epoxy and wood flour) a piece of plywood at four locations.  This is what it looks like.



And the next day after the glued panels have hardened

So that's what I've been doing the last two weeks.  The inside panels above are #6 L&R.

Next step will be to bevel the "sheer" edges of the above panels at a 45 degree bevel.  That would be the outside edges of the two outside panels (#5 L&R) above.  And the inside edges of #4 L&R (not shown above).

This, I hope to get completed tomorrow.  I'll let you know.

Day 2

Today was not all that involved.  I had to clean up the 6 locations that I applied fiberglass and epoxy yesterday.  Then turn over the 3 panels and repeat the fiberglass process on the outside of panels #1, #2 and #3.

Cleaning up the panels involved removing the bricks and wood blocks, and peeling off the mylar strips from the fiberglassed seams.  It looked really good.  The fiberglass was essentially invisible.  I then cut the extra overlapping fiberglass off of the panels.  I also had to file the edges of the panels with a fine rasp file to remove the excess epoxy.

Next step was to turn the 3 panels over and repeat the fiberglassing process at the 6 seams.  No big deal.

The above picture shows that process complete.

The next several days will be the same process on the remaining panels.  So I'll hold of posting any more information until they are all complete.