New Builder struggling

[BJA1]

Hi all. I’m building a Wood Duck 12 Hybrid. I’ve never done anything like this before and considered it WAY outside my skillset. However, I’ve enjoyed it and am happy with how things have come along so far even though my project is riddled with imperfections. I started this at New Year’s and last worked on it late Spring. It’s sat for the summer because I just haven’t wanted to be in my basement while the weather was nice. So now that things are turning where I live it’s time to get back to work. Unfortunately, I left off at a point that intimidated me for two reasons so I’m going to ask about 2 separate things in this post.

1. I’m at the point where I need to cut my hatch and then epoxy the deck to the hull. When I removed the forms from the hull, the width of the hull decreased considerably and the deck now overhangs the hull a pretty good amount in many places. Some spots are pretty flush (front and rear) but around the middle of the boat the deck overhangs as much as 1/2". I was thinking that I’d epoxy them together and then use my planer to trim off the overhang. Is that the right approach? Or is that foolish? I’m genuinely not sure.
2. Separate issue–feathering fiberglass. I’ve found that I’m terrible at this. Every time I’ve tried I’ve burned right through the glass and down to wood. I’ve attached a picture showing a seam from the bottom side of my deck. I didn’t even try to get this one to look great because it’s the bottom of the deck, behind the cockpit, and will never be seen. But I"m worried about the step of glassing the top of the deck to the hull. What are the tricks to get this to blend in? I’ve seen references of using a taping trick, but I can’t figure out what that means. Any practical advice on how to get that seam to not look terribly would be really appreciated.

Thanks very much!

[Matt_Adam]

Your Wood Duck looks really good from here, especially for a first build. Getting back to it after a summer off is the hardest part, so good on you for picking it back up.

[David_Dewitt1]

What are you sanding with and what grit paper are you using?

[BJA1]

I’ve used a mix of a random orb sander and hand sanding with 80, 120, and 220 grit. typically I start with the orbital sander and 120 to try to get the edges that stick up a lot. then I switch to finer grit and eventually hand sander to try to not blow through. but so far I’m not having success at getting the lines to disappear UNLESS I blow through entirely.

[Laszlo_Morocz]

The lines are not going to disappear with just sanding. They will get fainter, but they will always be there until you put on more epoxy. So if you keep sanding until they are gone, you will have to sand until the glass is physically gone. That’s why you’re blowing through.

Instead, hit the edges with the sandpaper, but just lightly for a short bit. Then wet the glass with denatured alcohol. That will show you what the glass would look like if you epoxied and varnished it right then. If the lines are gone, you’re done with sanding. If they’re still there, sand a little bit more and test again. Repeat as needed, sanding only a little at a time. Sneak up on perfection instead of trying to brute force it.

The tape trick is to mask off the farthest extent of the glass with clear packing tape. Epoxy doesn’t stick to it.

Next, apply the glass, wet it out and when it cures to non-tacky and rubbery or leather-like in texture (the “green” stage, as in green, not ripe yet), peel it off the tape. Peel it to right where it joins the wood above the tape.

Now use a razor to start a tear along the edge just above the tape and gently but firmly pull on the glass. The tear will propagate along the edge of the tape. Try not to pull it off the wood. If you do, just push it back down. If the tear departs the edge of the tape (like it did in the picture), just go back to where it last was in the right position and re-start the tear with the razor blade. As you can see it leaves a straight, slightly rough edge with no flying threads.

Finally, remove the tape and, after the epoxy fully cures, lightly hit the frayed edge with some sandpaper. It won’t take much sanding at all. The edge will end up smooth and well behaved, ready to be rendered invisible with a coat of epoxy.

Here’s the smoothed joint after one coat of epoxy. The weave is still not filled, but even though the join runs over the wood duck graphic at neck level, it’s invisible.

Good luck,

Laszlo

[BJA1]

Laszlo! Thanks SO much for the detailed explanation and pictures. That’s enormously helpful to me and now makes a ton of sense. I’m going to do that when I get to that stage.

If anyone has input on the overhanging deck edge, please let me know. Is it ok to just plane that off after I epoxy the deck to the hull?

[Steve_Sawtelle]

Looking pretty good to me!

1/2” isn’t a terrible overhang. A mismatch is not uncommon. The typical way to pull the deck and hull together is to use 3M strapping tape (clear tape with fiber strands in it). Start at the ends and work toward the center. A putty knife can be inserted to gently pry the hull out. You could cut a board to temporarily help spread the hull out .