I actually did a little bit of
"fairing while still building the deck. In retrospect, I should have
gotten the alignment of the the strips a little closer, because while I
never "ran out of wood', I had lots of wood to remove in some spots.
I used shrink wrap and duct tape to glue the deck on. I should have started in the middle with the shrink tape, because the duct tape "let go" a little,
causing a small gap to be filled.
I made a "fairing board" of plywood that holds two half-sheets of sandpaper. After using Every Tool In The Shop, including my beloved cabinet scraper, and hated random orbit sander, I found that it works the best, albeit tediously.
It looked and felt pretty smooth. Yes, there are some glue lines, but I'm gonna just have to live with them.
Somehow, this boat looks shorter and fatter than my first build.
It may be because the light-colored strips around the perimeter accentuate the curves?
The deck 'glassed. I had miscalculated fiberglass usage, and had to use two pieces. This time, I used a masking tape that (I hope) will remove cleanly, and not self-destruct.
As aforementioned, I milled the strips too thin to use cove-and-bead, and decided to go for the "rolling bevel" technique.And as always, the parts I thought would be difficult were easy, and vice versa.
The boat-length strips were the hardest. Each strip seems to take a twist aft of the cockpit, and it was difficult to get the cut ends to meet neatly at the bow & stern. The usual motley assortment of clamps.
Starting from the King Plank, I was able to use C clamps for a while. I also used these little L-shaped brackets for subsequent planks. The tape and block is an attempt to hold the end joint flatter. I figured that I had enough thickness/ overlap to be able to fair those joints from both sides.
The "rolling bevel" is easier than it sounds, when I got to shorter strips and (softer) Red Cedar.
A few strips a day.
The rear deck was easier. I had some extra-wide material left over from when I milled the strips, so I used it for the first odd-shaped plank.
And of course, the Obligatory Whiskey Plank Photo.
I managed to get the deck off in one piece, without sticking. It was slightly heavier than expected, due to the Yellow Cedar. I was actually surprised at how uniform the inside was, until it occurred to me that it should be, since I had laid nearly every plank flat on the forms.
The uneven areas at bow & stern didn't seem too thin after sanding, but I reinforced them anyway, with a little thickened epoxy.
