I glassed the inside of Miss Nancy today. First I had to sand the interior hull, and I guess that took about an hour. I used up my last sheet of 40 grit paper and had to switch to 80 before I finished. That took about an hour or maybe two – I don’t know what time I started. But it was ready to glass at noon, and the temperature was right at 70 degrees – perfect.
But first I ate lunch. Once that job starts, there’s no stopping until the first layer of epoxy is on. First I cut the glass cloth to length and laid it in the boat.
Ready for epoxy
I smoothed it out as best I could, and then started wetting it out with epoxy, starting about a quarter of the way from the bow and working towards the bow stem.
Wetting out the bow.
Up near the stem was far and away the most difficult place. There’s not a lot of room there, and you can’t even think about applying the epoxy with the squeegee. I had to use a paint brush. I got epoxy all over my sleeves too, but I knew that was going to happen before I got dressed this morning. So I was prepared.
Once I reached the stem, I went back to the starting point and started moving towards the stern.
Moving aft
I cut the glass off at the sheer line as I progressed. That was because the weight of the dead glass was pulling the “live” glass off the hull up near the gunwales. Removing the weight put an end to that.
It took me four hours to get the first layer of epoxy down.
Ta-da!
Then I needed to wait three hours and add the second layer. By then Beth was home from school and excited about going to “Safe Kids 500,” a bicycle safety event at the New Hampshire Speedway. That was the first I had heard about it, but it sounded too cool to pass up. They would have helmet checks (etc) and then the kids got to ride their bikes around the racetrack. It was just over a mile long (Wikipedia says it’s 1.058 miles). It took her about five minutes per lap which I guess is about 12 MPH.
After the first lap
I would not have been able to go at all except that Eric and his daughter Joy were planning to be there too. Beth really wanted me to be there, and I kinda wanted to see it and get a few pictures. I still had two hours before the canoe needed the second coat of epoxy, so I was in.
After Eric & Joy arrived, I didn’t stay too long at all. Epoxy waits for no man.
Leaving the infield
I got home just in time for the second (and final) coat. That one only took about thirty minutes since the glass was all in place and it doesn’t need to soak in like the first coat does. I’m not sure I’ll be able to work on it any tomorrow, but if I do, it will be time to sand the epoxy. I didn’t have time to “scupper me gunwales” (which I like to say in a pirate voice) so that task still awaits. Once they’re scuppered, I can attach the inwales & decks, then the outwales, then the seats and thwart. Actually, I need to make a thwart, but that’s a fairly quick task since it will be a simple yoke with no seat (unlike Miss Emma’s yoke).
Jomegat's Weblog 
May 1, 2013 at 10:58 pm
I find it fascinating to see what all you have done to that canoe!
May 1, 2013 at 11:02 pm
I was worried about what the inside was going to look like. The last shot of the canoe shows the stern, and about where the stern seat will go is a yellowish splotch (on the port side). That’s where OB applied Bondo (?) to it. I was afraid that sanding that off might thin the hull too much, so I let it go. I hope the epoxy bonds to that, but it might not. At least the seat will hide the ugliness.
May 2, 2013 at 6:18 am
Sanding the inside must be a lot harder than the outside. Making sure the glass cloth is free of bubbles must also be difficult-it looks like there would be plenty of opportunities for folds and bubbles. The cloth straps to cradle it are a good idea,
May 2, 2013 at 7:12 am
Sanding the inside is a LOT harder than sanding the inside. I wasn’t able to do anything up by the stems at all. Bubbles are taken care of almost automatically by the squeegee, but one does have to be very careful about the folds.
The cloth straps are scraps of carpet. That came straight out of the book I bought back in ’98 when I built mine.