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After spending a good part of the weekend fairing my Outer Island (and annoying my downstairs neighbors with the endess hours of orbital sanding, to be sure), I'm ready to start 'glassing. In the free state, not on the strongback, my hull has a tendency to bend inward reducing the beam by as much as 1 inch. When I do the epoxy/glass work, it will be on the strongback, where it will take the desired shape, but I have a feeling that it will still want to spring inwards after the 'glassing is done. Is there anything I should do at this stage to help things out? Like put some 1/2" shims on the forms to force the hull a bit wider? The Outer Island has a very flat aft deck, so pushing the deck inward to meet the hull isn't an option. If the hull ends up too narrow, I have to pull it outward, which is tougher than forcing the deck inward.
As a side note, I used the T-beam strongback, which I don't recommend to future builders. This method is fine in the stripping stage, since the staples in the hull hold the forms in the right place when the strongback is removed to strip the deck. But once the staples are pulled to start fairing, the forms come right off. I ended up doing almost all my fairing without any support, just the hull or deck on the sawhorses. It was a pain, but at least I'm past that stage now.
Dean
This is an archived message from The Kayak Building Bulletin Board.
Guillemot Kayak - High
Performance Wooden Sea Kayak Designs
