Day Seven - end of project

First job of the day was to epoxy the entire hull. This I did using a spreader and smoothing off with a foam brush - it seemed to work quite well and I made some drip barriers with masking tape to stop runs down the sides.

In hindsight I'd have been a bit braver with the amount of epoxy - it was ok but I could have flooded the surface more - I was conscious of the amount of resin I had remaining so was possible over cautious.

I used the remaining epoxy on the decks and as this was the last bit made sure I used it all up which gave a better finish - but there was still the varnish to come.

With the current pandemic I was unable to get traditional varnish at the moment so I used a water based outdoor varnish to give a protective coat to the epoxied hull.

It is very thin ans whilst it probably does the job I will be over coating the hull with some 'proper' varnish as soon as I can get some.

But seat fitted - footrest in place - job done - waiting on some fittings for attaching the painter but ready for her sea trails as soon as lock down permits.

Day Six

Started by sanding the whole hull ready for taping the joints.

I then covered all the joints with glass fibre tape and epoxy.

This involved nearly 25 metres of tape...just putting my back into shape with a cold beer.

Tomorrow - sand the hull to smooth out and epoxy runs and take the edge off the tape and then an overall epoxy coat. - and leave to dry

Day Five - well six really

Took a day off yesterday to do something else that needed doing so Day Five in build terms,

The decks went on last thing on Day Fur but I forgot to take a picture of them

They were bonded and nailed to the inwhales and left to cure.

Today I trimmed the overhang and sanded the deck joints fairly smooth - the whole boat will need a big sand before the next stage

I then fitted the coaming around the edge of the seating position this was a pre formed double section that needed to be encouraged into place and secured with screws into the deck beams

Over the top edge of this I fitted the lip that would take a skirt if I needed it to - again two parts of pre formed trim screwed into place with some clams to help it take up its shape.

The whole thing was then coated with clear epoxy which when tacky had a a fillet of thickened epoxy  pushed into the joints. I will leave this over night to cure fully.

Tomorrow's jobs will be sanding and shaping the coaming followed by a full sanding of the boat, before I glass the external joints and give the whole hull a good coating of clear epoxy prior to several coats of varnish.

Day Three - Kayak Project

Mixture of sunshine, showers and strong winds today - at one point I was holding the tent down as it was in danger of taking off.....

After cable tying the panels yesterday I employed another trick learnt from YouTube.

Mitre Joint glue

I used it to tack the panels together so I could remove many of the cable ties to make filleting the joints easier - it worked a treat.

Next in with the fore and aft deck beams.

Deck beams roughly in place

She is starting to look like a kayak now.

I removed a few more of the cable ties and tidied up the bow and stern panels using the mitre glue and some clamps before mixing up some epoxy to coat the inside of the lower hull.

Some thickened epoxy followed which I ran into the joints of the panels to give an initial fillet.

I will leave this over night and tomorrow I will remove all the cable ties and run a thicker fillet of epoxy along the seams as well as some glass tape to bond the underside of the deck beams.

Progress is good.