Woodstock Begins Taking Shape

When a router works properly the results are sweet. However, the temptation to take experimentation too far sometimes leads to problems. For instance, in contrast to just knocking off a sharp edge I’ve really grown to like the look of a completely rounded (i.e. half-round) edge on the transom, skeg, seats, transom knees, etc. But, while the pass on the first side goes fine (left diagram) the pass on the back side cuts into the workpiece too far because the pilot bearing now rides on part of the roundover produced by the first pass.

That’s what happened to me with the hole in the front transom knee. I had to use a hole saw to eliminate the ridge produced in the center of the hole. That resulted in a larger hole and I was concerned whether there was enough material between the hole and the edge of the knee to provide enough strength for the forestay. I decided to use a variation of the “drill and fill” technique used to provide waterproof anchoring for screws in wood where the hole for the screw is drilled oversize and then filled with epoxy. The proper size hole is then drilled in the solid epoxy. In my case I placed packaging tape on one side of the hole I had created in the transom knee. I then mixed up a small amount of epoxy and, with the transom knee laying flat, I poured the epoxy into the hole until it was flush with the top surface of the knee.


I now have a “reinforced” liner in the hole which should be (?) more durable than the original plywood in terms of standing up to the forces produced by the forestay.

In other activity, I’ve begun coating the top three hull panels with epoxy as well as coating whatever the left over epoxy will cover (e.g. rudder, daggerboard, transom). Most of the hull panels soaked up the epoxy and produced a rough surface as expected. However, one panel that was distinctly lighter in color produced a fairly glossy finish because it didn’t absorb the epoxy to the same degree as the others.

I have also had the chance to stitch the #1 hull panels to the bottom.


As you can see, the entire operation had to be relocated to the garage. There was a time when I entertained the idea of building the boat in the basement and then bringing it up the stairs, through the kitchen (the stove could be moved of course), and out through the living room. But when I brought some of the hull pieces upstairs for sanding outside, I discovered the turn at the bottom of the basement stairs allowed for 8’ sheets of drywall but a finished boat nearly 12’ long was not a possibility.

By the way, rounding over the curves on the bottom edge of the transom doublers should be done BEFORE they are glued to the transoms. The pilot bearing on the roundover bit extends too deep to trim that edge once the gluing is done. Some very sharp chisels and some coarse sand paper produced an acceptable roundover.

I was a little reluctant to go at the first coat of epoxy with sandpaper that was too coarse so I started with 100 grit. Two feet later, when the sandpaper was all gummed up, I switched to 60 grit and made much better progress. And yes, budget for sandpaper and vacuum the surface often to prevent loose epoxy particles from gumming up the sandpaper prematurely.

Gosh that wood looks good under the epoxy!