Maritime Malahini

[hoodman]

Nice job on the planking!

[acflynn]

Looking good and making good progress! I especially like how you use green tape with a note to fix something later.

I use blue tape

[mrintense]

Also cool to see these saves of something that scares the pants off of you. Good recovery. Planking looks like it went down well. I remember those days.

[Milhouse]

I saw these pics above with the blocks next to the epoxyed seam and it scared me a bit. I recommend putting clear packing tape (the stuff that is just clear and sticky, no reinforcement strings) on all these sorts or blocks so the epoxy does not stick to them. It would SUCK To glue a big block to the boat by accident.

Maybe you did it and I cant see it i the pic.

Looks great so far!!!

[JimK]

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

My wife won’t let me use any of her expensive blue painters tape! I have been using her baking parchment paper when I epoxy though.

It was a hot day when I attached that middle panel and the butt blocks. I was afraid the epoxy would harden and was rushing and forgot all about the parchment paper. Luckily the small blocks didn’t stick or damage the plywood.

What an awesome stressful journey boatbuilding is

Jim

[JimK]

I have an epoxy question (West System):

Some of my bottom frames and battens appear to be uneven - due to excessive fairing and apparently issues when scarfing the longer battens together.
To fix this - can I add 1/8 to 1/16 of thickened epoxy to the low areas before attaching the bottom panels?

Is it better to add the epoxy, let it set up and sand/scuff it before attaching the bottom?
Can I just add the thickened epoxy a few hours before hand?
Should I just attach the bottom and level it off later?

Thanks
Jim

[neel thompson]

Whatever you do Jim, don't attach the bottom plywood before the battens are fair. The best way to handle your problem is to add a 1/8" strip of mahogany, the same width as the battens. cover the entire area that is low and then fair everything out again. You can use thickened epoxy to areas that are low, but I would advise using wood instead. It will be less messy and sand much easier.... Neel

[denbrlr]

Jim,

Ditto to what Neel said. Epoxying a thin piece of lumber works really well. I did this in several places on my Monaco including on a batten, on the chine, and on the sheer. Here is a picture of where I did this on the end of one of the battens.

Lee

[nc721]

I agree it is better to shim with wood and refair. I had to do that on my chine where I got a little carried away with the planer.

[JimK]

Something clicked when I read what Neel said “don’t attach the bottom plywood until the battens are fair”
- I had been trying to level the bottom by fairing the FRAMES. I’m not attaching to the frames - I’m attaching to the battens!
I have now levelled my BATTENS from transom to stem and everything looks great.

I still had to fix my “over fairing” on the keel and some notches for my battens ... but we’re back on course!

Thanks again forum
Jim

[hoodman]

Sounds like your on the right track now. Press on!