Arctic Tern Build

May 23, 2017

Epoxying the Port Garboard Plank

After some additional sanding and planning on the port Garboard Plank I clamped everything in place and was pleased with the fit.  Most of the additional planning was on the keelson to remove a crown so that the plank would be flat against the keelson.  Once the crown was removed the plank fit much fairer. 

 

Placed packing tape on all of the forms to that the epoxy would not glue the plank to the form.  I then prepared everything for the epoxy of the plank.

With the assistance of my wife we mixed up two batches of epoxy with filler to a peanut butter consistency and I spread it along the keelson. 

Once spread nice and thick, we carefully placed the plank in position and clamped it at form #4 and #5 (pretty much the center of the boat).  I then screwed the plank to the keelson beginning in the middle and working towards the bow and then the stern.  It was very helpful with my wife watching the edge of the plank as I put a screw in and began to get a squeeze out of epoxy.  She would let me know so that I did not over tighten the screws.  I realized that it is a two person job to glue the planks in place so I plan to have my wife assist me with each plank that is placed on the boat. 

Once everything was clamped and screwed in place we began the clean-up of the squeezed out epoxy.  After scraping as much off with scrapers we then wiped the joints with denatured alcohol.

I let everything dry for two full days before removing the clamps and the screws. 

It is exciting to start to see the bottom of the boat take shape.  I am looking forward to fitting and epoxying the Starboard Garboard Plank next.