Hi all,
New to this forum but not new to CLC. Built a CLC LT17 some 25 years ago along with a SoF Greenland. Unfortunately, I parted with them to buy a house. 
But alias, I have returned and have been working on a Wood Duck 14 hybrid for my wife for the last several years. I have been stuck with trying to fit the last three strips on the sides between the cockpit apron and the sheer strips and Iām hoping for some help. I did glue in the first side strip on the left side using a long scarf joint. Unfortunately, the joint slipped while curing and the strip twisted. I recently cut the joint free and thought Iād try again with the next strip but realized it will be difficult to secure the strips in place to prevent moving. Really stuck here. Should I cut out the first strip and try some other approach or is this salvageable? Thanks, Wes
Hi Wes,
first, i have looked at all your pictures and would say that overall this looks good. i have built a number of strip built boats and the area you are working in is often a challenge. especially when its your first time on strip built boat.
in this area you have some bending and twisting and the space is getting small and the angles are also getting more oblique, making for a lot of carving and shaping to get these last pieces of the puzzle in. in this area you also will need to āclose a spaceā and if using cove and bead, there are some special steps you need to take that are not obvious when you havenāt done it before.
in looking at your pictures my first goal would be to get the white strip immediately adjacent to the sill on each side done. this is the one where you have the long scarf joint that you have undone. i would consider reglueing these using packing tape to hold it up tight against the adjacent strip and a staple on the form to hold it at the right angle of the deck sloping away/down. this picture shows how strapping tape can be used to do this:
in the picture ending in 0467, if the joint as glued, resulted in the joined strips not have a continuous clean edge, you will need to address that prior to trying to fit a new strip adjacent to that.
the red circled area is the zone of concern to the extent that the anticipated strip to come next canāt bridge the joint without an opening. you can clean this up with a side plane or knife and then a thin sanding block or file. but basically the objective is to have a clean/continuous edge from the red circled part to the other side of the strip that is not circled.
once you have this strip cleaned up, you then need to pre-plan the remaining strips as, it appears, you are using cove and bead and you will be trying to close up a space. in cove and bead, when you get down to your last three strips you need to take the cove or bead off of the adjacent strips becuase the final piece you will install cannot have a cove or beadā¦becuase it will not fit into the remaining āless-then a strip widthā space if you have a cove or bead on the strip. page 111 of Building Strip-Planked Boats by Nick Schade discusses what you need to do here.
the other thing i would say when you get to this part of the build, is be patient and go slow. i often give myself a very generous quota of one strip a day when i get down to the tricky bits like this because there is just a lot of carving/test-fiting to get a peice done. i also would tend to stay away from the long scarf joint like you have here and use a butt joint. its a lot easier to align and make a cut that disappears.
like i said, your work so far looks really goodā¦and you will puzzle your way through this last bit. i hope this was helpful.
h
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Hi Howard
Thank you for your recommendations. The white strip on the left side was glued up. The scarf slipped while curing and left a horrible lump in the side where the two edges came together now crooked. As you noted, I did get the courage to cut the bad scarf joint.
As for the scarf gap, I was considering to use a spacer to open it up to the original edge line and fill it with some thickened epoxy (silica or wood flour) to bridge the gap. Then smooth it outš¤·š¼āāļø
The white strip on the right side was not yet glued up after I encountered the problem on the right. Will continue with it after the other side.
Thanks for the literature reference to Nick Shadeās book. I donāt have that one but do have the strip built kayak. I had forgotten about it. I did find it in the book I have and will review.
Happy New Year and Cheers!
Wes
hi wes,
a couple thoughts that may be useful given the approach you are takingā¦
first, remember you are working with strips. so the good news is you can sand aggresively because you donāt need to worry about sanding through the veneer. i tend to focus on the outside looks and if i have to use filler for something, i do that on the inside.
when you have a gap or crack in a light colored piece of wood, it tends to be more noticable if you address it with epoxy fillā¦it just becomes a very dark line.
so when i miscutt and have a sliver or something like that to fill, i use two techniques that can also be used in combinationā¦
if its a larger crack, i will cut a sliver of wood to to fill the crack from the same color wood - can be done with a block plane or a knife (like you are whittling to create a toothpick-like-but flat- sliver) and press it hard into the gap with some wood glueā¦let it dry and then sand it fare.
alternately, for smaller gaps, you can put a little wood glue into the crack and then push sawdust from the same color wood into the gapā¦let it set of a bit and then sand it fare.
both of these little tricks can make the little imperfections go away.
becuase you are going to be glassing both sides of the deck, these little imperfections are not going to impact the strength of your deck.
the woodglue based fixes described above do not create the dark line that the epoxy based repairs seem to create on light colored woods.
h
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