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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on March 31, 2011 at 11:04am

Stephen, you have nice looking Douglas Fir plywood and protecting it with fiberglass and epoxy will keep it from checking and further damage. So the most important point is the protection and the difference in weight of fiberglass of secondary concern to that.

The fiberglass cloth will add some durability and protection from scratches and such, however its' main task is to hold the epoxy. So the heavier the cloth the greater the thickness of the protection. However the greater the thickness means; more weight, more epoxy, more potential for imperfections to be faired out to achieve a nice finish prior to the final coats that will protect your epoxy from ultraviolet light degradation.

 

The boat is a natural wood finish so I presume that you will want to keep that look. Varnish is a popular choice to protect the epoxy, however there are a number of alternatives available. Since these have been discussed in great depth on here already I suggest that you use the search function and look up those discussions. There are pluses and minuses for each finish and plenty of opinions to sort through.

 

The final decision will be yours as you know what you can afford, what look you want, what your skill set is, what tools and paint equipment you have access to and often the main consideration, how much money do you want to spend!

 

Best of luck,

 

Rick Newman

 

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Permalink Reply by chris towles on April 2, 2011 at 2:53pm

i second going the glass route. 6 oz glass will offer better protection, but the 4 oz will hide better and be less noticeable for a wood finish. i second ricks assertion that you should show that wood off, looks like nice old doug fir ply. one gallon of epoxy will probably get you by for just the sides. i would skip the fairing, the color of the compound will color the epoxy. just flow coat with straight epoxy, sand, and then varnish with spar varnish. as rick said, there are many options in the varnish dept. a quick search will probably yield some good info.

as for vendors, fiberglasssupply.com is a great place and they are in oregon. good cheap prices and great selection. goodboatgear.com is another place i have used and they are out of washington. better selection for boat specific stuff like adhesives and hardware, but less selction on epoxies and fiberglass. their prices are good though. also, if you have a west marine store near you, they should have a good selection of boat hardware and accessories. they also have a good selection of supplies in the caulk/adhesive dept and they sell west systems epoxy at retail price which is expensive.

as for epoxy, never heard of the aeromarine. from what i can gather, raka is the best bang for the buck, but you need to order it directly from them. system three is also on the cheaper side and of good quality, that is available at many places including some of the places mentioned above. west systems is really great stuff, potentially the best out of the bunch. its also the most expensive, in some cases considerably more than its competitors, you are pretty much paying for the name. for my next boat i think i'll skip the west and go with raka, but that mostly a dollars and sense kinda thing as many have reported great results with the product and the customer service. all of the above companies make nice fillers such as graphite should you want to put another flow coat on the hull..looks like the hull already has graphite on it.

as for the hull, looks like stuff is just coming right off. i'd keep going with it and remove all the old finish. give the plywood a sanding and just glass those sides. button up those chine caps and give her hell with the spar varnish. 4 coats probably, mabye more. she'll look like a new boat when you're done though.

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on April 2, 2011 at 6:43pm

Stephen,

 

what a cool boat you have. Why is it that feel you need to glass your boat? Seems your boat is in great condition but in need of only sanding/stripping and re-coats?

 

You mentioned that you've had the boat 12 years or so. That is a great amount of time for your varnish job to have held up that well or have you been keeping up the finish over the years? So, you might also consider that your beauty might just need a big varnish makeup (I'm pretty sure we're talking several coats) and that toasty garage. Hmmm, I better go put the boat in the garage too. Rain-hail-snow for 2hours and no kokanee. Not even a bite.

about your question as to whether or not to start a blog or just continue here. I'll defer to others  and continue to follow your progress either way.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Blalock on April 2, 2011 at 8:49pm

Thank you all for the advice and kind words!  She is a pretty boat and a joy to row.  I used epoxy, fiberglass, and varnish when I built her.  I neglected the exterior maintenance thinking that it was holding up very well but that was not the case. I think that sunlight broke the finish down and allowed it to be peeled off.  I have several places that plywood came off with the finish making a good clear coat difficult.  I worry that if I attempt to sand those spots smooth enough to glass and clear coat I will weaken it and end up with a weak ugly clear coat.  I will know more after a preliminary sanding in the next day or so. My thinking this minute is to sand, fair with epoxy filler, sand again, glass, and finish with paint.   My main objective is to have my boat outlast me.  Wooden boat people is a great sight! I have the bug again and am thinking of other projects a restore or wood sled/ skiff which I could run up the river to fly fish in the evenings without the hassle of a shuttle.

  I also will take some pictures of my Barkley sound Sitka Spruce oars that I am refinishing after many years of excellent service. I may use equal parts of oil, turpentine, and varnish method mentioned by the builder of the inspirational boat”Edith.”.    

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