| 09/04/29 |
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After one more sanding, I applied a new coat on the fillets on the sides of this Annapolis Wherry's skeg and on the stitches holes. I also nailed and glued the wormshoe. Like its name indicates, it is a sacrificial piece made of hardwood. |
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I am building this Wherry for Marcel Willen, who is going to row it on the lake of Saint-Point. On this picture, I am about to saturate these pieces of fiberglass cloth to strengthen the skeg on both sides. |
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Here it is full of epoxy. The cloth becomes almost invisible. |
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Click on the photos to see larger versions. |
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A few hours later, I applied a second coat of epoxy on the "new" fiberglass and all the rest of the hull. |
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This close-up shows a few interesting details (are they, really?) In the top part of the picture, it's the joint between planks 1 and 2, with the edge of the bottom fiberglass, with the weave clearly showing. The twin pink dots are the ends of a frame stitch, which was totally embedded in epoxy and which I chose to leave in the finished hull. Above the right one, it's a plugged stitch hole. |
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And here is the Youyou, right after her first epoxy saturation coat. |
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Evening light in my new shop: the front face south-west and the sun shines in at the end of the afternoon. Meanwhile, some neighbours are making 30.000 euros worth of damage at the local sous-préfecture... For those of you not following French news, they are employees of the German tires manufacturer Continental, who just decided to shut down its Clairoix plant and lay off 1100 people. |
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I check the weight of my Wherry: 1 kg above the "official" weight. I don't see whence comes the surplus because I have been careful with the epoxy. |
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I have cut the fiberglass cloth for the Youyou's bottom. According to the manual I should fiberglass only the two center planks, but I have decided to extend it to the second set of planks to better "armor" the bottom. |
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I never tire to show you stupid pictures of epoxy flowing on fiberglass, making it transparent... In fact it's stupid to let epoxy flow freely, because it saturates more thoroughly the fibers on which it flows, and it causes differences in shades of the composite, a bit lighter where the epoxy is later pushed with the squeegee. If you want to finish it clear, the difference will be visible. |
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Here, I have started to spread it with the squeegee. The diificulty to extend the fiberglass to the second plank is that it must "jump" accross the joint between the two planks, which the fiberglass doesn't like, and it bites back by making air bubbles along the joint! |
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I finished saturating the cloth on the bottom and I am now adding a fiberglass stripe along the bow. |
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Click on the photos to see larger versions. |
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| And here is the last picture of the fiberglassing. I saturated the bow with a brush, because that's typically a place where you can't use the squeegee. |
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I am done with building the Wherry: I just applied the last coat of epoxy, and I am curious about the result because there was so much wind I had to shut the doors to avoid getting dust all over the fresh coat. I had therefore to paint in the dark and I found it very funny! |
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But I am so happy with the result: it shines like crazy! |
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| I masked to apply non-skid in the Youyou. In front of the middle frame, you can see my GMSD, Glass Micro-Sphere Disperser, the very sophisticated tool which lets me spead the micro-spheres on top of the fresh epoxy coat. When it has hardened, I brush and vacuum to eliminate the "loose" micro-spheres, and I apply a new coat on top to fix them and lessen their "bite" for the future users' bare feet. |
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They'll soon call me Zorro, the masked avenger: I mask again, this time on the Wherry transom perimeter, before applying the primer. Indeed, if the the plank ends will be painted, the transom will be varnished as well as the rails (except for their lower side) and the whole inside. |
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There we are, I have just applied the second primer coat. I am going to start on the varnish to let the primer harden because I'll have to sand it before applying the finishing coats. |
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| I turned the hull to do a little sanding (it's been a long time...) on the last coat of epoxy, to get rid of the last minor imperfection and to give it a bite to hold the varnish. |
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The first of six varnish coats is on. I hooked a powerful light to my crane to see what I am doing... |
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In the foreground, the Youyou is not yet ready to varnish, I still have to plue in the seats and the rails. |
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Click on the photos to see larger versions. |
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| Adjusting the middle thwart in the Youyou: I am tracing the outline of the sides to fine tune it. |
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I rounded off the forward tank top "nose" to fit the bow joint. |
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These attachments on the middle framegive a good landing for the middle thwart. |
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| The middle thwart is glued in place, as well as the aft tank top. |
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I glued the forward tank top as well. |
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And to finish, a last picture of the Wherry in his third coat of varnish: three more to go! |
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| The next three pictures are sent by Philippe, who continued to test his new Wherry through Easter weekend. |
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100% pleasure! |
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Time to go home...
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| Back to the future |
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