Putting an Accent Strip on a Stained Hull

Like the feature line on the deck, I wanted to have a bright maple accent along the sheer line between the deck and hull. Since the feature on the deck was in the middle of a stained area I had to stain the accent strip and then scrape the stain off. This never works as well as not putting stain on at all and leaves a little color on the accent. On the sheer it is a little easier because I can add the strip after the hull has been stained.

I started by just doing a rough scraping of the hull. This was not necessary but the curly maple I'm using for the accent does not like being scraped much so I prevented some potential tearout by this initial scraping. I have a variety of scrapers, with some that I have modified slightly to conform to various shapes. A single-cut "bastard" file makes quick work of keeping the scrapers sharp.

Laying on the accent strip just requires cleaning up the top edge of the hull, removing any fiberglass and epoxy drips. I then applied glue and taped down the 1/16" thick strip. Since the strip is very flexible I used a lot of tape to make sure it conformed to the edge and didn't lift off in places. The maple I had was not 17' long so I needed to piece together the accent. I clipped one end of the first piece at a slight angle, then used the off cut piece as a guide to trim the adjoining piece. A little glue, a lot of tape and the accent is done.

After that I sanded the inside normally.