Doing the old double check and confuse myself

[skoonz]

I am building an UJ 16 foot X 32" pirogue. I have the ends joined to the stems and five ribs in place. I will soon finish the gunwales which will bring the sides to 12". Knowing that I will soon be epoxying and glassing, I called Raka and spoke to "John" (I think, I know it was not Larry). I was concerned about wetting the wood and whether I wanted to cut the glass into separate pieces when doing the inside around the ribs.

He said he was building two for the boss and that he didn't put the ribs in until after glassing the inside of the hull and that he glassed the bottom flat on the table before joining it to the hull. Since my ribs are already glued to the hull, I can't do that. But I think the idea of doing the inside of the hull and the bottom before joining sounds pretty good. John also said that wetting the wood and laying the glass into the first coat would work just fine.

Comments?


Clark

 

[oldsparkey]

Someone on here did that and if I recall it correctly they said it made the job a lot easier.

I leave the bottom wider then it needs to be (about an inch on each side ) when attaching it and then trim it to fit. I think having it epoxy saturated and glassed would make that step a lot harder and a lot more work.

It's not that hard doing it with the ribs in place , just requires some careful trimming and possibly an extra fillet of wood flour and epoxy if a person wants to. So far I haven't had to do that , just trimming of the glass.

Chuck.

 

[skoonz]

Chuck,

Do you glass over your ribs or just up to them? I was thinking that the overlap from one piece to the next could be on the top of the rib and thus make it thicker and more resistant to wear.

Clark

 

[oldsparkey]

Just up to them , I was thinking of covering them but with my luck the glass would of pulled and created some voids so I did it the easy way.

After the epoxy cured then I went back and brushed some epoxy along the glass and ribs to seal it and get rid of any voids , air pockets or sharp pieces of epoxyed glass.

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Skoonz,

The plywood needs to be reinforced with glass, inside and out. Ribs do not. They are already thick enough. A separate piece of glass would help them, but it probably has no need.

Much more important is the bond between the ribs and the boat. That will provide much more strength than a layer of glass over wood already strong enough for its intended job.

 

[skoonz]

Thanks much guys! I will try to follow up with updates and pictures as time allows. I would like to get this boat wet before I use it as a tobaggan.

Clark