April

The trip and getting back up to speed cut into the month, but I decided to start by using the Dremel and filling obvious bubbles before I finished sanding. I like to finish sanding, not filling, but of course if you fill too early and find some more . . .

I was pleased with the result. Hopefully the picture shows how you can see through the QF as it thins (yellow foam/glass color).

A close up with pattern from the stitched glass tow's and even a vague stripe to the right which is a seam between foam strips.

I do continue to learn about fairing and the rigid longboard (LB). I started out thinking: sand end to end, then back, then repeat. But there are a few nuances I've picked up over the last two sides.

First, there is more than one fair shape. We would like the one chosen by the designer and the one that has the least added fairing weight. I know my first side was fair, but likely not the best I could do now at achieving the other two goals.

What I've recognized is that the curved areas thin first. I've mentioned not feathering at deck and keel till the last step. A more subtle area is like the transition from bow section to center hull. I think my impression on the first side was that this meant I needed the slightly thicker QF between this thinning area (it must be high, right?) and the next thinning area, since when I checked it was 'fair'.

I've come to a different conclusion. The LB wants to remove high areas, easy to visualize on a flat surface. But on a complicated surface, say convex changing to flat changing to convex, the game changes. Let's assume that with a given grit and force an equal amount of material can be removed. On a flat surface the whole LB touches (for example 1 unit force/100 sq inches). On a curved surface the area significantly decreases, and with equal force on the LB the amount of material removed goes up significantly (1 unit force/5 sq in).

Now what happens is that instead of creating an ultimately flat surface, the curve is actually accentuated! Lower at the convex curve area as this is preferentially removed, and higher at the flat area as more is left behind. Its fair, it just doesn't meet our other two goals.

On the floats there are convex curves and lots of flat (fore and aft), but no concave. This means that you have to compensate for the above phenomena by either decreasing the force over the convex areas, or doing a 'double stroke' (or triple) and sand the flat areas for more time. Note: this phenomena is even more pronounced when you are sanding the strips by themselves, so that you start at a disadvantage which only becomes more pronounced.

(Likely, someone will make the argument, "thats what a flexible board is for." I suppose. But then you still have variables to control; stiffer for subtle curve?, more flexible for tighter curves?, should you still vary the force applied? . . . And I don't like it for flat – which is really what you have a lot of.)

In retrospect, it seems so obvious. I think when I started that I was blinded by the sand, sand, sand, and 'if it's fair I must be doing it right.'

There is also variable hardness in the QF depending when you get back to sanding. Although it cures enough to hand-sand at ~3 hours, it continues to cure to a harder state over the next several days. You can use this to your advantage by going after the mini-bubble fills early, but it can also be a disadvantage if sanding a larger fill patch where it is removed preferentially in comparison to the surrounding material that has an advanced harder cure.

This is just a picture of how I try and put down the stripes. I use a Ziplock bag with the corner cut off at 45º. I've found that the sides have a seam, but the bottom doesn't. If you hold the bag with the bottom against the hull the seam then makes the opening a triangle, giving the bead a nice wide base of attachment and narrow top. The QuickFair is so good at keeping its shape that if you were to do it so the bead was round, it would not slough down, but cure with a narrow attachment and overhangs above. These would later just be voids as it is very difficult to fill such small spaces.

Another time saver that gives superior results (gotta love something like that!) is to use a paint scraper or similar tool along the edge of the stripe instead of sanding. It straightens out imperfections, gives a perpendicular edge, and seems to be a perfect bonding surface. At least with my tool, I did not notice any damage to the laminate. Remember, leaving the stripes high does not mean the final layer will be that thick!

I reread the email from Meno (I recommend it, it is posted in 'January'). It is interesting that he went from stripes to simply troweling on material, and I've done the opposite. Of course it was his description of, "if you want to try candy-bag . . ." and listing some of the difficulties he encountered that has helped me feel I've become successful enough with the candy-bag method. For me, an extra investment in time getting the material on has been easier. Will I still think so after the main hull?

I proceeded to fill, then start making dust.

March

This is obviously the second time around for the shaping and glassing of the float, so just a few pictures and comments.

Last post I forgot to mention that I had constructed the second bow slightly different. The central core of four sheets were made at the same time. But on the second bow I attached the outer pieces with contact cement, like Ian suggested. On the first one I had used QF (thinking, 'how could contact cement be strong enough?'), which worked and shaped easily, but the contact cement is lighter and was easier to construct. There was no tendency for the pieces to slip in the 'garbage bag vacuum clamp'. I think it takes longer to cure to the same strength, but it held up great while shaping. As they say, listen to the designer.

Free-hand shaping with an electric hand planner is quick and more controllable than you would first think. You can see the desired profile penciled along the stem. Final shaping was with the longboard.

A small hand router with a guided trim bit cuts off the excess deck along the hull. After this I longboarded the upper hull to make sure I was happy with its shape since it will serve as final guide for the next step.

A 45 degree bit with roller guide starts the deck radius. This is quick and makes hand sanding faster and easier to control. I used the same radius sander made from PVC pipe to make most of the edge, but my final radius does change along the length of the boat and is finished with the longboard.

I think I learned on the first float to fair the foam more aggressively. Three-eights foam seems thin to be thinking of sanding too much, but its the high spots that make the low spots which will need filling. The risk seems to be that with only the interior layer of glass the surface can flex, specifically between the bulkheads. Hence the possibility of taking off more over the bulkheads, while in between, the material flexes away instead of being sanded off. Theoretical or real I'm not sure.

Finished shape.

I glassed in my usual fashion without any incidents. (Both pictures with plastic still on.) I'm not sure I've mentioned it, but somewhere along the way I've started blowing off the surface with compressed air. Even after vacuuming several times it makes an enormous difference, though it will foul the air for a while.

The skirt of painters plastic allows me work out the excess resin and not worry about messing the floor etc. From my experience last time, I would say that the extra effort of rebating the foam for extra layers of glass is well worth the effort.

Trying to go another step in removing bubbles that develop in the QF from mixing, I 'worked' the QF before putting it in the bag used to make my stripes. It helped, but at the cost of a smaller time window to apply. I'm not convinced I'll always do this.

The instructions say to apply multiple thin coats so you can minimize the bubbles. Of course I'm trying to avoid the multiple applications, and in particular the stripes are not 'worked' after applying. Would putting the material in a brief vacuum reduce them? In the end, fixing the few that are apparent after sanding is not really that big of a deal.

I advance guides forward to help keep them straight and the proper distance for my trowel. Quick and easy, but the real value is how this helps in latter stages.

This was the real test for ridged vs. flexible longboarding. I went after the surface with the ridged board, then checked it with all my straight edge tricks. **Success!** Fast, easy, and 100% fair! None of the fiddle from before. I would strongly endorse using a ridged board.

'Working' the material seems to remove the bubbles. A 45º action decreases the chance of getting air trapped along the stripe. A word of caution – it doesn't take long for the QF to become 'dry' in how it behaves with the laminate. What I mean is that it is still workable, but if you spread it out and then remove it to examine the surface, it will not have as wet an appearance as it does when spread just after mixing. I again recommend reading Wayne Hick's treatise, part of which I will quote:

"The most frustrating part is getting the micro to spread out evenly without it tearing, lifting up, or rolling up into a ball behind the trowel. The trick is to go slow enough to give the micro time to spread out from under the trowel and stick to the surface. You'll notice that the micro doesn't want to stick at first, but give it a few seconds. The epoxy within the dry micro will migrate outward and will wet out the surface. Once this happens, the micro will adhere and will spread out easier. (This is why some builders like the epoxy wipe.)"

So, I guess by his description, I'm suggesting that the epoxy 'migration' decreases the closer you get to gel, and may happen while it still seems to be spreadable. I think his material has a much longer work time.

((DISCLAIMER: My guess is that all builders will experiment with different techniques, and likely come to different conclusions. Experience, materials, tools, personality, and goals will influence choices. The value in reading each others experience is not to find a recipe, but to have a multitude of potential approaches and 'tricks' to springboard from (or things to avoid). This became very evident when I bought a new batch of QuickFair. I'm not sure what the reason was, but it had slight, but important differences in how it handled. For a while I felt like I was learning all over. Each builder will likely have slightly different experiences and draw different conclusions about how they want to approach similar problems -- by sharing them we all win. My own techniques are a first time builder learning from reading and doing. They will evolve as I push forward, and this commentary is on my experience and choices – which are not to be construed as the right or better way.))

I'm still marking the top of the stripes so that I can spot-sand any areas where the trowel may have floated high, like you can see here.

A reminder why the stripes have to be left high – they're the first to come off when the real fun begins.

Three long evenings after work: stripes, fair and fill, then fair. Looks like I'll make it with a single application/sand, though I won't know till later, as we leave on a trip tomorrow.

My wife and I took a trip to see our daughter in California. While last Fall I drove straight down, then explored the Sierras on my way home, this time we worked our way down, then flew home and let my parents drive the rig back up the coast several weeks later.

We crossed to the central Oregon coast (reliving part of our honeymoon, this just happens to be our 24th wedding anniversary).

Then diagonally across northern California. The west coast has a string of volcanos – here is Mt. Shasta.

My goal was to see Yosemite again, this time in the Spring with all the snow melt. So different than the Fall! Water everywhere.

Yosemite Falls with Merced River.

Breakfast under El Capitan.

Rainbows at every falls.

Evening glow from Tunnel View, Bridal Veil Falls.

Breakfast looking across Cook Meadow. In the morning, Yosemite Creek was frozen slush, and you would hear loud crashes as large chunks of ice were carried over the falls. Above the 3000+ foot cliffs is nothing but snow and ice. Tioga Pass which I drove last Fall just before it closed will not usually open till late May.

Hike to Upper Yosemite Falls with Half Dome in distance.

We crossed California yet again to drive the coast. The foot hills down to the San Joaquin Valley were full of poppies and red bud.

Walking against a strong wind at a beach along Big Sur.

One of the few mainland sea lion colonies. Mamas and young, but no bulls at this time of year.

February

Sanding gives you some time to think. So I was excited to start fresh on the second side. I wanted to try a couple of new ideas on top of what I'd already learned. My dream was to get all the QF on and then sand it off, all in two sessions (had I gone from depression to

mania?)

One of my first ideas was to fine-tune the guides. Several issues presented themselves.

1) I felt I was learning what the long board was capable of.

It's a great 'averager' of heights. While it can do some amazing things, if you give it a variety of heights (or in the case of stripes, even a variety of widths) you will get an average that is some place lower than the lowest height. (Or, "if you give it junk, you get back below-average junk.")

2) Getting out the straight edge is a necessity.

The first time I sanded down the stripes, I sanded till the long board had touched everywhere. What became apparent later was that sanding till it looks sanded isn't a very good endpoint. Many parts of the float are nearly flat fore and aft, and you can have a long 'wave' of high and low develop. And, with enough force it seems that the flexible board can dish-out areas (especially if you get confused and start sanding low spots, versus sand the high spots like you should). The straight edge doesn't lie.

Where on the first side I got the straight edge out near the end, my thought for this side was to use it at the beginning on the guides.

You can sight along the straight edge (SE), but better yet, listen. After a little sanding, you can rock the SE along the stripes from deck to keel and get a smooth, non-clicking motion. This is the easiest dimension to achieve. Do this fore and aft, and at first you will get a non-uniform motion with one or more slapping sounds. Keep sanding and an eventual fair shape will produce an even motion with an even clicking sound as you rock over each stripe in turn. A slap indicates the SE is rotating over a high spot or bridging a low spot.

Then I noticed that some graphite from previously marking along the SE was being left behind. I added more along the edge and marked the stripes by using a rocking motion starting at the deck and working down to the keel. The whole side was finished in a couple minutes.

Marks on all adjacent stripes means fair.

A stripe (or two) without marks means its too low, or one of the adjacent sides are too high.

Sighting along the SE at these locations usually suggested the appropriate action and I developed an easy marking system so I could go along and spot sand, fixing the problems. With minimal effort I now felt that I was starting with guides that were intentionally high, but fair.

I filled between the stripes as before. I think I forgot to mention that I would sand the edges of the stripes. Not really a fun way to spend an hour, but how could you leave a surface that you know will not bond secondarily?

In the picture below you can see a problem, similar to the other side, of a low area just above the keel. I could see this while I was planking, but any maneuver to fix it seemed to cause more troubles elsewhere, so here I am. Also (as seen in pictures further down), I discovered that feathering the stripes at the deck and keel like this before filling was a mistake. Leave them high until the end.

You can see in the last picture how I marked with pencil along each stripe. After filling, there will be some high ridges that are easy to sand away, but I was concerned about removing as much of the junk as possible before I actually started fairing. My plan was to spot sand down to the marked surface to increase my odds of starting fair.

You can see that after the first couple passes I need to correct some areas to be at the 'fair guide' height. Also you can see why high guides are important. And, you can see what is developing at the keel by having feathered the stripes before filling. Too much material is getting removed too quickly.

I'm already concerned that I didn't leave the guides high enough. Only moderate sanding and I'm starting to mark spots that I'm concerned about removing too much material. The glass showing along the keel is the edge that was wrapped around from the other side so as it shows I'm really just feathering its edge. You can also see how just above the keel, feathering the stripes too low (to clarify, sanded to the correct final height before filling) has caused a row of low spots.

At some point I decided to stop and fill. The rows of little dabs of QF are filling bubbles that were in the stripes. Obviously they showed up during mixing and came out the Zip-lock candy bag. I enlarged these with the Dremel as before.

Below shows an idea for trying to fill and spot sand a low spot to minimize its effect on lowering the finished height during final sanding. (I find sanding seductive and addicting -- a little more will . . . Now, before filling I again find myself almost, if not at, the stopping height.) I marked the surface with diagonal marks, sanded for adhesion, then marked the perimeter of the sanded area with a irregular circle. After filling a thin, but adequate amount, I removed the excess outside the circle with a putty knife.

Then I attempted to spot-sand, using the usual motions, until I was just sanding on the surrounding glossy surface left by the putty knife. I also spot-sanded the dabs filling the bubbles.

I think the above ideas were reasonable, but suffice it to say that all my efforts to do it in one big session - or now, even one spot fill - weren't going to work. I was forced to stop before I sanded on glass.

What I discoved (not a new discovery . . . sometimes we just have to experience things for ourselves) is that when you first sand through the fairing compound, it's tempting to continue on the epoxy. This hard spot can remain for quite a few passes depending on pressure and grit before any damage is done to the glass. You're thinking, "I'm not on the glass yet!" But of course you've disrupted your fair surface by adding in a new substrate with different properties. The surrounding QF continues to lower at a faster rate than the epoxy. The SE never lies. The only way I felt I could take care of little problems here and there was to skim coat again.

Here it is after a couple passes. What you see is a pencil mark through the skim coat, marking an area of concern, i.e. the top of a high spot. As the QF thins it becomes transparent and is a great help in knowing when the stopping point is getting close.

When it was close I changed to 60 grit and called it good. Not quite the one on, one off I had been hoping, but I was happy with the end result.

It was at this point I felt I had a major breakthrough.

I flipped the hull upside-down to fine-tune the keel. It seemed I had a couple of low spots, so I filled these, and re-sanded. This time it seemed I had different low spots. I knew that one thing affects another, but this seemed ridiculous.

The day before I had purchased a RIDGED 3M Hookit long board, thinking that it would be useful for the flat surface of the deck. I gingerly tried using it along the keel and immediately felt like it might be giving me 'truer' results than the flexible.

Before going too far I stopped to do some research, wondering about this whole flexible versus rigid thing. I had started thinking curved=flexible and flat=rigid. I came upon a website from the experimental airplane building community, part of Wayne Hicks' Cozy IV project. I read 'Chapter 25: The Contouring Process' several times. Part of me was sad because I had already spent so much time learning some things for myself (at least my thoughts weren't far off); the other part of me was excited to try all the new ideas.

I sent Wayne an email, and he responded in a couple of hours.

Wayne, enjoyed your site.

---> Thanx!

I am building a Farrier F-22 Trailerable Trimaran --

---> Cool! I've heard of 'em. I used to race Tornado catamarans.

My question was about using the flexible vs. rigid long board (3M Hookit). I have been exclusively using the flexible for the long convex shape of the outside of the hulls, but recently purchased the rigid as the deck on the floats is flat. Does the rigid board have any role for this curved surface?

----> I have found that the flat board works better than the flexi board when contouring large-area curved surfaces. Here's why - the flexi board is TOO flexible. The rigid board allows for better control. This is especially true if you overlap your strokes by an inch or two. They say the human eye can only detect imperfections in contour to about 3 feet. Even most large-area surface contours are effectively "flat" at that length.

I can't over-state how switching to the ridged long board helped improve the end result. I would also say that reading 'Chapter 25' is a must for all builders embarking on the fairing challenge.

The first new idea I wanted to try was the "skim coat before raw epoxy finishing technique" for scratches and pin holes (see step 5 in chapter 25). After all the effort of fairing the sides, I was anxious about slathering on some mixture with a squeegee, so decided to try it on the deck UNDER the QF. I had a couple of areas that had something similar to pin holes that I could experiment on (and I had previously found QF was difficult to get into very small imperfections). I did it just like he described, and it gave me enough confidence to plan on doing the whole hull. Here is a close up.

Before it cured I did a skim coat of QF over the deck and transom. I'm still sold on the candy-stripe method for curved surfaces, but I know what Menno was saying about the extra work and so I tried without.

It was four days before I got back to it. QF gets harder! Still, the end result worked out well. I played with what direction to work the long-board. The usual orientation of keeping the long-board pointing towards bow/stern could leave a camber in the deck. I countered this by also adding a motion that was bow to stern, with the board oriented at 45 then back the other 45. The skim coat method worked well, given that I was sure the deck was flat by rebating the foam in areas with two layers of glass and having it flat against the strong back while attaching it.

QuickFair requires several coats of epoxy sealer. Originally I had figured that any scratches from sanding would be taken care of by these layers. After reading Wayne's advice, I modified this to include a skim coat of low-density filler of a soft, creamy consistency that I applied with a squeegee, just like I had experimented on the deck.

I would work it into pin holes etc., smooth uniformly, then remove with a forceful drag of the squeegee. What I removed was moved forward to a new area. Very little material was actually used. I did discover that the QF (I assume) slowly absorbed the epoxy, causing the mixture to become thicker so that after moving forward several sections it would need to be discarded for new mixture. Using a resin mixture with a long work time was so pleasant after the 10 minutes of QF.

What a great idea! I was pleased with the results. It seems my 36 grit has some clumps of abrasive which I'll try to watch for in the future, but I think this technique is a great way to take care of these and other small imperfections.

When this got tacky, I rolled and tipped a layer of epoxy. Seeing that first, shiny coat was pretty fun. When cured enough I put on a second layer. After this layer, all the imperfections were hidden.

Off to storage, switching places with the other float.

The second float seemed so far behind. Luckily I had done all the interior work. Having done this once before, I was able to be more efficient with certain steps. Here I filled screw holes.

Fitting my three deck pieces together and cutting out the deck flange for the stiffeners. (I joined the pieces while the hull was upright, but I did the interior taping while the deck was flat on the strong back, just before joining to the hull. I had previously rebated the pieces so as to not make high spots on the finished deck.)

Between steps - while things cured - I began to think about other small parts. Below is the mold for the rudder gudgeons.

Since I had made two foam bows, it was a simple matter to attach it before the deck bond had even cured.

January

I took a couple weeks off around the Holidays. This marks a year of work -- I'm still having fun, a fact I attribute to a generous and understanding wife and family. And a well thought out design and set of plans. The only times that I haven't enjoyed myself so far are when I find myself stressed about the 'schedule'. My New Years resolution is to continue making goals, but not worry when I fall behind. When I started, people would ask, "how long?" and I would say, "a couple years." I'm still responding, "a couple years." Life happens, and I don't want to miss it.

I did a wet lay-up for the wingnet rail -- peel ply, cloth, peel ply. With a little help I moved the whole lot onto the form, then used my usual plastic and squeegee to compact the layers and remove bubbles. Worked great.

I mapped out what size I wanted the cut-outs to be. The important areas seemed to be the rigging and hatch. One thing to remember is that the deck/float is tilted, so the clearance for the rigging is better than it would first appear. Like severals others, I chose the Tempress 1317 Marine Hatch. It fits the space, has two cams, and a gasket around the edge. It actually looked better (stronger) than I thought it might. Hopefully it will hold up to the UV and not leak too much. It's much lighter (including on the pocket book) than the aluminum/glass options that I saw, and I didn't really want to make my own.

Using double stick tape to hold sandpaper around the circular template makes a great sander.

(There was a reason that I stopped and made the wingnet rails before glassing the deck. This is not in the plans and I won't know if the effort is worth it, or what trouble I've caused myself until later. I evaluated where the feet of the wingnet rail would fall -- they happened to be over stiffeners and doubled glass, or bulkheads -- so I decided to rebate the deck and potentially make the fairing easier. This isn't something that I'm advocating, I'm only admitting to it since it's visible in some of the pictures.)

My plan had been to vacuum bag the deck. It would be a change of pace and seemed easy enough. I had PP around all the edges to make the seal good and the tape easy to remove. I cut all the supplies, mixed some resin and had at it. Luckily I started at the stern, where I saw the air vent hole which I had forgotten about (remember Jay's experience with the bloated float and Tor's with the collapsing float . . .). I did a quick switch-a-roo and started using the cut bag material to do my usual PMVB. My first thought was that this was going to be the 'premium' material, but remember how my stretchy VB material effected my vacuum infusion results? Well, the force of the squeegeeing action stretched the material (which was not evident at the time). Then, since the edges are not controlled, it gradually pulled back, making enormous wrinkles! But what seemed like a nightmare turned out like any other wrinkles I've had which are caused by the plastic -- a collection of resin above the PP which just pulls off.

The lesson is that thin or stretchy plastic, which at first might seem good because it can conform to curves, actually is not what you want if you are going to work the surface with a squeegee. Thicker plastic that is cut into appropriate sized, overlapping strips is best.

I insulated the carbon of the chain plate cut-out at the same time.

The glass was feathered over the radiused deck edge with the long board. Watching how fibers with different orientations show up during sanding helps in deciding how much has been removed.

A great moment -- removing the PP from the side of the hull. Its hard to capture the shape in a picture, but I'll tell you it looks nice.

My second float is stored outside with the interior finished but the deck/bow not yet attached. I plan to fair and seal this one, then switch them out.

I'll admit to having a sense of dread about the fairing. It seemed that people talked about how it was a nuisance, a lot of work, etc . . . but I hadn't picked up enough facts or tips to feel like I could just jump in.

First, it seems like most people end up trying a couple methods, settling on something that matches their personality and material. Some, the 'sanders', tend to put on most or all of the material first and then sand. Others, the 'fillers', will sand then fill, then sand, then fill . . . I thought of myself as a little more of a sander than a filler.

The general advice is to put on some limited material which is faired - and acts as a guide when applying the bulk of material. This is to limit effort and waste (QuikFair - QF - and I'm sure all premixed materials tend to be very expensive).

Then of course, you have specific limitations from your fairing material. QF has a limited work window -- 10 minutes -- being hand sandable at 3 hours @ 70º F. It has to be sanded between applications for adhesion purposes. When I first contacted System Three they said, "there is no window of time which allows a second coat, and it MUST BE SANDED" (capitals are theirs).

Ian's building manual describes one way to produce guides. Put on the first layer with a notched trowel, sand the tops to achieve a fair surface, then fill the grooves before the final sanding. While this might work if done within a cure window for some systems, QF did not seem to be one of them. Since this technique was mentioned in the System Three Epoxy Book also, I contacted S3 about my concerns of the interior grooves not being sanded before the second application. Their response:

"You raise an excellent point. But there is a way around it. Before sanding, scrub the QuikFair with vinegar then rinse with water. Allow drying. This will make the unsanded QuikFair surface bondable with additional QuikFair. Vacuum the dust before applying more QuikFair."

Two things made me stay away from this. One was this comment by Oliver Blanc (a Scarab 22 builder, made on a nonF-boat site), "Be careful with that method. The second application of bog does not bond well inside the grooves of the first application. I have seen old cedar strip F-9 floats done that way that had to be redone after a few years." And second, I had a house that had peeling paint not matter what you did . . .

So I decided that if I used guides, I would do a candy bag method similar to Henny and others.

I reread several blogs and decided to contact Menno for some specific advice since he had just finished final fairing. Here's his email reply:

Andrew,

As you can probably see reading my blog I'm not an expert building with fiberglass, so I can't quarantee I did it the right way. Anyway, here are some thoughts I have on the fairing.

I stopped using the candy-bag method because it was extra work and I didn't really notice the benefit of it. Also the guide lines tend to cause a lot of voids and cracks in the putty along the lines because when 'filling up' air tends to get trapped alongside the lines. Hope it is clear to you what I'm trying to explain. It's not fun backfilling all the small voids after sanding. I guess using the 'notched spreader' method will also give some problems with voids.

If you want to try the candy-bag method, make sure to put the lines not too far apart(when I would do it again I would go for about 10 cm apart maximum) and make sure they run all the way from the top to the bottom; lines with a gap will cause the trowel to 'hang' and give nasty depressions which you'll have to back fill later on.

Just putting on a fairly thick layer of compound (using a big sturdy trowel, dry-wall style; you'll get better at it after some practice) and then sanding back as far as possible with the longboard (until you're almost at the glass) worked fine for me. It's probably a bit more wasteful then the candy-bag method. I wouldn't worry about the possible extra sanding that's involved. The first rought passes don't take up that much time. With a longboard and grit 40 you'll remove the bulk of the compound in (relatively) no time anyway. I found the last part of the sanding most time consuming.

With both methods (with or without candybag) I felt I was using quite a lot of compound per square meter, but a lot is sanded off eventually. On the cutout sections of the hull (windows) it's clear to see there's only a minimum of faring compound left.

An idea I read about but didn't use - maybe I should have - is to put some dark color on the glass before putting on the fairing compound. That way it's better to see when you are almost through the compound and sanding glass. When sanding with the rough grit sometimes you're there before you know it, and it doesn't take much to sand through the glass.

Sanding. Of course you'll have to use a longboard. The float sides are little curved, in fact they are almost straight for long stretches. You can use a big longboard for those. I did, but I'm not sure it's necesarry. On the main hull I mainly used a smallish longboard (about 50 cm long and about 6 cm wide) because the bigger boards would just not fit in all the curved sections. Final paint is not on yet, but I'm quite sure it's all fair. Because of the vertical planking the hulls should be fairly fair anyway, and with the 'fairing' you can only get rid of the last small imperfections.

I did all the sanding 'diagonally'. Start at one end with the longboard just pointing straight ahead), make a diagonal sanding movement (keeping the longboard pointing forward), put the longboard about 2 cm further forward, repeat till you're at the end, then do the same thing with diagonal strokes in the opposite directions (thus sanding an 'x' pattern), and then again the other way around, etc. etc.

I hope this is of any help. If it is let me know, maybe I can put this text on my blog or the builders group....

Good luck building

Regards

Menno

(As you can see, since it was a great help, I took the last line as his permission to publish this.)

So I decided to try a small area. I knew that the area where the foam bow and hull attach was slightly low, and this seemed like a place to start.

I hadn't gotten far before I had my first feelings of foreboding . . . how thick was was this material going on? Even with a wide trowel it had grooves and transitions. And although I didn't notice them at first, bubbles. Needless to say I was glad that I was only trying a small spot. Then I sanded . . . and sanded. I started with 36 on a flexible 3M Hookit board. An early mistake was changing to 60 too soon. And bubbles! I extrapolated this experience to the whole boat, and was quickly depressed.

I was telling someone at work the next day about my experience [I say 'telling' because I know I wasn't complaining ;-) ] and the response was, "You knew when you started the project that you were going to have to do this, and its just part of the process, right?" 'Yeah."

"Then it sounds like you need to suck-it-up-and-drive-on!"

I'm not sure where that comes from, but I've felt better ever since she gave me that advice.

Here's the section. I was pretty happy with the shape, but didn't know how much further I was going to have to sand -- and bubbles! I decided to try something different and come back to it.

I might be a 'sander', but I needed guides. I heeded Menno's advice about straight, close, and continuous, using a Zip-Lock bag to place beads of QF.

And then sanded with the long board. I knew about a couple problems near the keel where it was a little concave, and nothing shows them like sanded candy stripes. And there were other areas, nothing drastic, but the matte surface left by the PP hides the imperfections that need to be taken care of.

Then I filled between them with a narrow trowel. The process seems to have two parts: getting it on and giving it a finished surface. Applying it at 45º to the beads minimizes the air trapping along the edge. Working the material helps remove any bubbles (all the product instructions say, "mix so that no bubbles form," -- good luck -- when the clock starts ticking and you have ten minutes to get it in the bag, on the surface . . .). A final pass with minimal material on the trowel gives a nice finished surface.

It's well described in other blogs how the material will be low between the guides. This has several causes.

1) Flexing of the trowel (and the angle of attack).

2) The curved hull areas are convex, so by definition the area between the stripes will tend to be too low if you put a straight line between them.

3) And the viscosity of the material affects how it stays behind or gets carried along. If too much material is being moved, it will begin to 'roll' under the trowel and the mass of material effectively leaves the surface depressed.

Some material on the trailing side of the trowel that is left behind is OK, but don't accept low spots -- like tipping paint, if the material is still workable, keep at it. You want it to be right. Obviously it took many batches because of the short work time.

Here you can see large areas where the guides were sanded too low and I couldn't reliably leave material behind. It was tempting to let the trowel 'float', leaving more material behind, but unsystematic high spots don't help.

After fairing, it seemed so close. But I had many low spots and the bubbles near the bow to fill (I had sanded that down till I could see glass in areas, then opened and enlarged the bubbles with a small burr on a Dremel). I decided the best way to solve all these problems was to prep the low spots, then skim coat the whole side.

I learned several lessons here. This material likes to be worked! A soft touch doesn't give the best result. This is when I remembered, "thixotropic: the property of becoming less viscous when subjected to applied stress, shown for example by some gels that become temporarily fluid when shaken or stirred." Previously, I had really only thought of this in the 'can be applied, but doesn't sag' version. Now it was, 'push harder so it flows better'.

I found that putting parallel beads of QF controlled for an even volume. Adding a 45º crisscross motion to the trowel, vs. just deck to keel, also increased the uniformity of the skim coat. I finished with a continuous, firm pressured swipe from deck to keel.

Sanding: 36 grit, board parallel to deck edge, with an alternating 45 - 45º motion. Start at one end, advancing ~1/2 inch with each 45 till you get to the other end, then back with the alternate 45º.

It's taking shape. It seems that it goes slowly at first (low actual surface area of board touching because of high spots?), then material starts to be removed faster. It still takes hours. If I felt discouraged or felt like stopping, I found that changing to a new piece of sanding paper would improve the speed and my outlook.

My feeling was that to get a uniform finish I needed to take care of any low spots early. You can see some below.

It's easy to get focused on the low spots when sanding. But remember, you can't sand a low spot -- you can only sand the high spots. Truly low spots have to be filled. Since the last step is sanding, not filling, I think stopping to fill early is likely better than hoping the low spots will disappear before you are forced to stop sanding because you are on glass. You have to stop when you see glass, though if low spots remain it can be so seductive to try just a little more.

I probably filled some that were going to disappear before I stopped sanding, but I was becoming determined that this was it, no more rounds of QF!

Tired sander, but happy to have sucked-it-up-and-sanded-on. (And yes, it seems I tried a couple of different methods too.)

Several interesting observations from my patch-work of filling.

1) By the time I had spot-sanded the 'low' spots for adhesion purposes, they were now low for sure.

2) When sanding at this stage, more gets removed than just the high spots (which are now the slightly proud filled areas). The grit also moves across the previously faired material, making it go down also. The high spots are removed, but not at the same rate as happened during the initial sanding. (I hope this makes sense . . .) Said another way -- after filling, the new faired shape/depth will be lower than where you stopped before filling. So, fill early.

December

I built several radius sanders, and settled on one that approached a 2 inch radius, was stiff enough and had an ergonomic handle. A partially used hook and loop 36 grit sandpaper was cut to size and is held in place by a strip of double-sided carpet tape. This makes it easy to change paper when necessary.

This model was then further modified so that it was not a full quarter round. Like I mentioned before (when placing the foam filler for the deck flange), the deck/hull angle is greater than 90º in areas and you can see how easy it was to make accidental grooves in the hull side. The modified version worked great, but I needed to be ever watchful -- things happen fast.

This shows the finished radius. The 'center' foam stripe is the foam filler for the deck flange with the QF attaching it to the hull below. The QF above is why I used two types of epoxy to join the deck – if this layer had been hard to sand you can see what a nuisance it would have been. When using the radius sander I did not notice the QF. But when doing the finishing touches with the long board, its just like the keel – any QF that runs parallel to the long board can stay proud/high as the board rotates quickly over the slightly harder QF.

Once happy with the shape, the extra schedules of glass were placed on the bow cap. I placed a rebate in the foam to hopefully make it easier to fair the final layer of glass. I've seen the glass placed different ways. I placed the glass folded across bow, tucked the keel, and didn't bother with going onto the deck except to overlap the join. This minimized cutting, shaping, and overlaps.

I used the PMVB which worked perfect for the leading edge and sides. It becomes more tricky with complex curves and angles. I used multiple pieces of packing tape to help hold the complicated edges, but I must admit that I got a couple small waves or wrinkles from the tension or pull that I applied to these. This aspect needs further evaluation.

My glass comes in 50 inch widths. In preparing to glass the sides I cut off a strip that was wide enough to make the wingnet rails. Doing this to both sides produced enough for one rail, and I plan to cut one 50 inch width in half to produce enough for two decks. This really leaves very little wastage except shaping the sides along towards the transom.

Repeating my usual technique: wet foam, wet glass, *trim edge*, wet peel ply, (trim slightly larger), place plastic (trim slightly larger), wet plastic . . squeegee out excess.

I emphasized trimming after wetting. It is much easier to trim odd angles (anything other than 90º) to shape after wetting -- the viscosity of the resin tends to hold things together. The down side is that it does make it harder to save glass remnants to use latter. Also, when stitched fabrics are cut at oblique angles you invariably have some long strands that are not held in place. With PMVB the forceful squeegee action is often perpendicular to these strands and can force them out from the edge. Given that the edge will be feathered/faired I don't think we were counting on these strands for any strength, but they can be an occasional nuisance.

You can see how the glass has to wrap around and under the keel. I found it easiest to wet the glass while holding it out from the boat, cut to shape, squeegee in place. Gravity slowly removes resin from the glass while on the verticle/upside down edge. And glass doesn't like to hang upside either. PMVB helps in both cases -- just make sure there is enough resin before placing the plastic.

I like the shape! You can see cured resin beaded on the plastic.

For working with edges that are on foam (verses overlapping another laminate layer) I used a painters tool for dispensing tape and plastic at the same time. All the layers of glass, pp, plastic went over this. I was easy to trim this with a sharp knife while green. It leaves an edge thats easy to feather on the radius and all the other foam is clean.

I've so far been hesitant to do this if over a cured laminate layer for fear of cutting the layer below. I still place the tape and plastic, but I only let the PP overlap the tape so no cutting is involved. The PP leaves a clean surface for secondary bonding and any sanding is just to feather the laminate edge.

Here you can see the feathered edge on the underside of the keel. My overlap may be excessive here, but at the time I was thinking cruiser strength not racer weight.

Here's the back side of the bow after clean up. The two broad stripes of QF are fairing the rebate areas. Glassing the second side went the same way.

Before glassing the deck I decided to make the two wingnet rails. Angles and measurements are from full-size patterns. I used a couple pieces of MDF molding run through the table saw. One trick for glueing these together is to lay them out flat with open angle next to table and tape them together. This tape acts like a hinge, holding the edge during glueing.

I used hot glue, thinking I didn't want to wait the 24 hours for my other glue to set, but I wouldn't do this again (at least at the temperatures of my garage). The glue would stiffen up before I could place it along the entire edge and close the joint (this even with a 'special' wood working, extended open version). This made it hard to keep the same angles I cut. I purchased some 5 minute epoxy for the next time I have a project like this.

I routed the 90º edge, long boarded the other, and filled the last with QF.

You can see the float suspended above the work table as I get ready to do the lay-up.

November

Since I only have space to work on one float at a time I switch them out as I'm moving along -- this may make the pictures seem like they jump slightly -- I'm trying to not report on progress twice unless I've learned/tried something different.

This side I filled screw holes and gaps before any attempt at fairing the foam.  I think last time I was so excited to see the shape develop I filled after and of course will have to sand/fair twice.

I use a syringe with narrow attachment to get the QuickFair into the screw holes.  They are deep and narrow so filling them from the 'inside out' is important.  Remember that vinegar (any dilute acid) easily cleans tools, skin, and spills of uncured epoxy (which is a base).  So, if you have a limited supply of that special tool (ie., the narrow tip attachment) you can reuse it as long as the acid is rinsed off before its next use.

Here I'm pre-wetting the tape for inside keel join, including an extra layer along each side at the transom.  Prepping this area as much as possible before the join obviously makes life easier.  PMVB as usual.

My plan is to post-cure the SilverTip laminating epoxy that I am using.  When initially researching this I wanted an epoxy designed especially for a fiberglass composite construction – the skins are the strength, not just protection, as it would be for a wood boat.  SystemThree has several options, its PhaseTwo (special order, expensive . . .) and SilverTip.  They state, "SilverTip 'Slow' laminating resin excels in application for composite-cored boats, exhibiting excellent mechanical properties, following a moderate post-cure."  Moderate means 140ºF for two hours.

Since the foam is a great insulator and the hulls will have limited air flow after being closed up, I decided to cure the interior of the hull before closing it up. A little jury rigging and . . .

Its relatively easy to shape the keel using the guides for frames 2, 7, and 11.

I liked Tor's technique of having the deck flat and pulling the hull against it.  My deck was in three parts which I fitted and glued while on top of the hull.  It was then moved to the strong back and taped together.

My plan was to put the joining bog mixture on the hull flange and then flip it onto the deck, align the beam mount pins with their respective holes, then clamp with ratcheting tie-downs.  After a dry run it seemed possible.

No pictures because we were a bit rushed.  I wanted to use a 'strong' material at the flange, but a 'sandable' material at the foam-foam join.  As usual, the 10 minute work time with QF was the rate limiting/stressful step.

Of course the question of 'how much' seemed difficult to know.  You don't want too little as the deck flange is only two layers of glass so its a bit flexible at its outer edge, and not always exactly flat (ie., a slight gap at the inner edge if you put a straight edge across).  Given that you can't clean up the inside squeeze-out, you don't want too much.  Just the best you can I guess.

A rush to apply, a two person flip (now at the weight limit of what my wife wants to do), a slight jiggle to align the pin and holes . . .

In the end we had squeeze-out along most of the outer edge, I won't know what the inside looks like till I cut the access hatches.  Some areas where I had left the hull planking slightly short (from early planking when I was learning) had a larger area and consequently a void.  I think that when sanding the radius to the deck edge this will disappear.  Next time I think mixing my own bog and having a longer work time would decrease the stress.

I found that it was important to have a slippery material between the tie downs and the foam as this ensured that the force was equalized on both sides, verses tight on the ratchet side and weak on the other.

To make the foam bow caps I first made a blank from scraps four layers thick, then estimated additional pieces for the outsides.

I used a large garbage bag as a 'vacuum clamp'.  I think I first saw Meno do this.  Two zip-ties with a twist to the bag in-between was adequate since a small leak was inconsequential.

I extended the centerline forward with a straight edge and then a plum line to make sure it wasn't cock-eyed.  A little of the QF and . . .

The builder happily shaping.

I used a power planer and long board to contour the bow.  Now we're starting to look like a boat!

I had rough faired the hull before the deck join.  Two passes with the router started the shape of the deck radius.  First a flush cut bit to remove the edge, then a 45º bit with guide to remove material to make hand sanding easier.

October

I didn't seem to get any action shots -- its hard enough to get yourself in the upside down hull, let alone a camera.  I was able to accomplish all the 'inside' tasks: making fore and aft beam mounting flanges, deck mounting flange on center BH and transom, compression strut between bow stiffeners, tapping plate for deck eye, and sealing coat of resin along keel.

T6061 aluminum plate was mounted under flanges (best done upside down).  A trick I used in hard to reach areas of bow and transom -- take a cloth towel in a plastic bag and shove, wedge, or brace into the small place.  It works wonders to hold tape, plus or minus peel ply in place and removes easily when the resin is cured.

Strut at stringers.

Forward and aft beam mounting flanges.  I would pre-wet the glass on a sheet of plastic, then place each layer individually.  For the double bias I cut the plastic around the glass then applied both, removing the plastic before the next layer.  This plastic backing kept the pieces full size as they were applied.  In the smaller confines of the aft/transom area where I could sometimes only get one arm and shoulder in at a time, this helped with even the bi-directional.  I finished these with the usual poor man's vacuum bag.

I wanted to shape the keel before putting on the deck in case I sanded too close to the interior laminate.  The keel foam was rough cut with a Japanese pull saw. Then attacked with the long board and 36 grit.

Templates at several form stations help guide the final shape.  Just starting here with the keel still square.

I will make a qualification on my previous statement of the sand-ability of QuickFair.  Its not exactly like foam.  For the screw holes and vertical plank joins, its as if they aren't there.  The longboard is going perpendicular to the join at all times.  And the join between the halves was easy.  The join where the planks butt against the keel foam required some extra attention.

They are parallel to the action of the long board and it is difficult to control the rocking motion as the board goes over the slightly harder QF.  This can leave a slight hump or angle instead of the smooth curve that would naturally develop it it was exactly the same as the foam.  I broke the rules and with light pressure went perpendicular to this seam just before my last pass of the board -- it disappeared.

This was my first experience with the long board.  An amazing tool.  I have the 3M Hookit - flexible.  I caused myself a little grief right off the bat by turning the board perpendicular to the keel and sanding the keel to match the hull side up near the bow. Of course, the side was a little low, but I didn't want the keel low there -- I just hadn't started thinking (I wanted them to match, right?).  Lesson learned.  You can only sand high spots, and if you use the tool wrong, you get the wrong result.

Here you can see how thin I needed to sand the foam to achieve the desired shape (that's the shadow of my hand).  The plans call for some extra reinforcement if you sand to (or through) the laminate in the keel area.  I decided to place an extra piece of tape on each side near the transom.  You can see how using the 3/4 inch foam at the keel gives a larger flat surface, so the tape does not go up on the hull sides near the transom.  I will place this extra lamination on the second float at the same as taping the keel.

The final shape at the transom.  The deck will be next, then final shaping before glassing.

I took a trip down to California to see my daughter at college.  I drove straight down, toured the campus, camped at the beach with her for several days, and visited with my brother and sister-in-law.

I'll share a couple pictures to entice people to visit the West Coast.  These pictures are all California -- the rest of the time I was making miles (3000 in 11 days).

Big Sur, a wild part of the southern coast, visited on the way down.

After leaving Santa Barbara, I went to Yosemite -- a National Park and World Heritage Site.  I'd never been to Yosemite.  Having the Eurovan makes me realize I've done a lot of international travel, but seen only a fraction of my own country.

Taft Point (behind me is the view point) with a 3000 foot drop to the valley floor where I camped.  El Capitan is in the distance across the valley.  Mid 70's and sunshine every day.

Half Dome as seen from Glacier Point.  The pass to the eastern side is in the distance.  So much granite!

El Capitan, Half Dome in distance, at sunset from Tunnel View.

El Capitan, at sunrise from Valley View with Merced River.  One of the classic sights of Yosemite is all the water falls coming over the high cliffs, but there is very little water after the end of summer.  I plan to return in the spring.

Cathedral Rocks by (full) moonlight, from valley floor.

Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoia (largest living organism by mass, found only on west side of Sierras.  The tallest is a relative, the Coast Redwood, also found in California).

I drove east across the Sierra Nevada on Tioga Pass.  Here's lunch at 9950 feet.  This road closed because of snow two weeks later.

Searching for Fall colors.  The classic in eastern Sierra are Aspen.  I was a little early, but they were still pretty.  Lee Vining Valley.

Mono Lake with tufa looking at Eastern Sierra at sunrise.  The ecology of the Great Basin is amazing (200,000 square miles with no outlet to the Pacific).  I stopped to hike in several more valleys, then headed north.