Chester Yawl fillets shape and glassing.

Builder's Forum
1

Hello everyone and thank you, in advance for the collective advice!

 

i have a Chester Yawl upside down on sawhorses and the laps "tack bonded." The stitches have been removed along the keel line and gar board seams, as well as the aft section, both of which will be ready for glassing once I have filled the wire holes with peanut butter.

 

According to the manual (when I zoom in on the BW picture in the electronic version) the seam fillets are flat (the epoxy fillet is flush with the edge of the plank, and flat as it meets the other plank; similar to stair steps). This looks neat BUT my understanding is that fiberglass cloth does not like to lay on sharp edges so, after glassing the keel line and when I add a layer of cloth at the stern overlapping the first layer and overlapping the first four planks on either side, said cloth will have to be laid over the above mentioned lap fillets. Should those seams be filleted round (like those of frames, bulkheads and inside  seams) or flat according to the picture in the manual?

 

Thank you, kindly for your thoughts on the subject!

Eric Du Pont

2

  I had the same trouble on mine: the cloth has a hard time making the sharp corner. I did my best and came back when it was green and sticky and pushed it down into the laps, still there were a few white bubbles in the morning. I just sanded them out filled them when I filled the weave during a later coat of epoxy. I have heard that a heat gun or propane torch will also soften things up and let the cloth lay flat and the resin flow out, but haven't tried it.

3

Thanks for the heads-up, Chester Yall! I will try that technique and rather than overlap the stern glass over the gar board glass on one step, I will likely do one, let it cure, sand and do the second, next.

 

With regard to filleting the laps on the outer hull, did you make them flat (staircase like) or rounded (using spatula/Popsicle stick or the like)? I could not tell from the pictures in huge annual.

 

Thanks, again for contributing your experience.

Eric

4

  I made them square, it was a lot easier to make sanding blocks that matched the angle of the laps if I used square laps.

5

Good point! Thank you.

Eric