Step 8: Flipping the Boat

With all the seams fiberglassed and the doubler installed on the transom it was time to flip this baby over so I could work on the exterior of the hull. With the help of a couple of friends we managed to flip her over. Surprisingly she's not heavy for a 15 foot boat. I suppose that will change when I add the interior seats and the like. Upside down, rails in place it was time to smooth edges of the plywood seams with a plane and to fill in the gaps. Here again a mixture of peanut butter and epoxy and an orbital sander made these seams nicely rounded. Below is the hull with the fiberglass tape waiting to be installed. Remember when I said the cloth was white and then became transparent? Here is where you will see the difference.

I thought it was pretty neat that the fiberglass cloth went transparent. The pictures above show the seams covered in fiberglass and the brown edges around the fiberglass is peanut butter used as a fairing compound. This was done in preparation of the next step......

Something to consider here is that fiberglass does not bend into or around sharp corners very well, so take the time to make sure the edges are well sanded and rounded before applying the epoxy and glass or you may end up with some large air bubbles in the fiberglass and this will not do!!

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