I really need the forum’s help on this one. After thinking I had everything sorted, and getting some good advice from Jay at CLC re: flattening my badly warped deck sections, I have more problems. 1) In spite of days of trying and thinking I had it beat, the aft deck section is still quite warped. It seemed to have got worse after fiberglassing. 2) The hull sides flared outward further than they are meant to. I am fairly certain that while the boat was upside down prior to tack-welding, the platforms I had it on put too much outward pressure on the hull sides while the planks were still wired. I was unaware, and made this flare permanent.
Here is the whole fit currently… fits up wonderfully everywhere other than the stern (I haven’t epoxied the deck down at all, the blocks are there in an attempt to get the deck to fit):
Port side aft deck showing ~5/8" gap to the hull sides. It takes even a little more pressure than these cinder blocks to deflect the deck closer to position, although it will never sit on the plank edge due to the flare. If pressed far enough down, it will slip past.
starboard side… same thing. good fit around the bulkhead, then the flare begins and the warped deck exacerbates the problem until we have a ~5/8" gap to the hull side. The flare is not as bad on the starboard side, and the deck will sit on the plank edge most of the way with enough downward pressure.
Just out of curiosity I pulled the hull sides in with a ratchet strap, and it fits pretty well everything forced into postion just so.
I’d love to hear from anyone who understands these materials and how they would deal with a similar problem.
Options I think I may have:
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Re-make the ill fitting section of the deck so that it is flat, and will accommodate the “custom” flared hull sides. This seems the most obvious choice.
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Glue a cleat to the inside of each hull side that would give the deck something other than the plank edge to attach to. I’d end up with a rather wide fillet to cover the 5/8" gap at the worst spot, and there would still be the issue of the warped deck, but I could position the cleat to accommodate some of the curvature. I’m not sure how feasible this is, or if it even makes sense, but avoids cutting up the deck.
Anyway, thanks a million for your thoughts whatever they may be. I’m adding this adventure to the list things I won’t be doing on the next boat.
I’ve used ratchet straps to adjust the flare until the glue cures. The boat turned out quite nicely.
Since the ratchet straps pull your pull into the proper shape I’d go with that. If you do do this, then cleats are definitely a good idea. Another thing would be to glass the seam between the deck and the hull. I’ve also done that on some of my boats. You’d still need cleats to keep the deck at the correct level, but the bulk of the attachment strength would come from the glassed fillet. But the cleats by themselves should be enough and by pulling in the sides the fillet width should be reasonable.
You have to be careful that you do not build in an asymmetry. You’ll need to make your adjustments so that whatever happens on the port side also happens on the starboard one, as well. With these kind of small boats, symmetry is more important than the actual shape (within reason).
Good luck,
Laszlo
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if you can pull it into shape with a ratchet, i would second Laszlo’s recommendation.
as he mentions, just confirm, as part of that process that you are symetical and not locking in a localized depression or other ‘un fare’ curve into the boat.
i would also mention, just for readers here, that one should generally move through certain phases relatively fast to prevent hulls or boards from warping…and that if you need to put things away for a while, there are certain ‘good stopping points’.
one of the things you mentioned is that you had one side glassed/epoxied and the other of the board not glassed. if the piece is not locked into shape when you do this, one side of the wood can still ‘breath’ and take in air/moisture while the other side of the board can’t, so you can get a lot of warping happening depending on what’s happening with the temperatures/humidity relative to when the other side was locked in.
having a hull done that is not ‘stable’ one side glassed, the other side open…is also a ‘not good’ stopping place.
i am currently on the final steps of a kayak and did not follow my own practice of being sensitive to good pausing places… and have quite a flare (like you) in my hull piece that i need to overcome. i am using fibreglass reinforced strapping tape to pull it into shape. the strapping tape is like straps…and its a pain…but have done it before and i am confident that it’s the best way to go to have a nice build…relative to the other options.
that said, with the pressure involved, do make sure to have proper, strong fillets as part of your process.
picture below is similar to what laszlo is showing using glass reinforced ‘strapping tape’
h
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Thanks for the advice. I’m glad to hear that the ratchet straps can be a good idea. Once I am ready to attach the deck, I’ll pull the sides in if not all the way, enough to close the gap a bit keeping symmetry in mind. I also hadn’t considered glassing the seam. That sounds like a good idea as well.
I made these cleats to space out along the top edge of the plank that the deck should sit on. They match the angle of the hull sides and are short enough to not worry too much about matching the curve. I’ll make sure there is good coverage wherever the deck needs the most persuasion.
I’ll experiment with pulling the sides in slightly before finally glueing the deck down.
The cleats are definitely a necessary step. I also will need to either a) pull the sides in a bit as discussed, or b) shim up one side by ~ 1/8" so that the amount of “bulwark” above the deck matches on each side, and the deck is not slanted. I honestly cannot see it from any angle, but if you put a ruler or level on the boat you can tell. Some combination of both pulling and shimming is probably what I’ll end up with.
It is nerve wracking to consider setting it all up with the epoxy in place. I’d hate for anything to move while the epoxy is curing and have it come out crooked. For that reason, I almost want to just glue it down and live with the imperfection. Still pondering, and aside from attaching the cleats I haven’t had enough time to carry out a plan yet, I’ve just been noodling and dry fitting.
