Taped the runners last night. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Pretty tired this morning, was up til 2 finishing it up.
Used the scraper to clean up some small bits of glue sticking out from under the runners. The bottom of the boat is tremendously stiffer with the runners glued on. Precoated the runners since cedar seems to suck up a fair amount of epoxy. Added little blobs of wood flour putty to the runner ends since they have a little flat on then that will need to blend in to the bottom.
I had some 6" woven tape left over from another project, so I cut that down the center into 3" tape.
Foolishly, I thought that tape would wet out and drop pretty nicely into that square corner with a little prodding, so I didn't fillet the runners. That was not the case. The tape only overlapped about 3/8" onto the bottom of the boat and with the slipperiness of the epoxy and the springiness of the tape, it kept pulling away and forming an air gap. So I had to keep going back and stick it back down. That worked pretty well as the epoxy started to set up, but it required a fair amount of time.
I clamped the long center one down. Took a couple narrow boards, covered in duct tape, slid them down the sides of the runner to pull it tight, then clamped them every 16" or so, and downward at the ends. I used a similar method on the rub rails and it worked real well. We'll see how this works once I pull the clamps off.
In retrospect, I should have used some little fillets, and I should have used 2 layers of 4oz cloth cut on a bias. With that I could have brushed epoxy on the runners, let it soak in a little, and just stuck the cloth down. Press down, add a little epoxy where needed, and press on the second layer. that would have conformed a lot better and been a bunch faster to do. Either that or I should have vacuum bagged it, but I didn't want to run the pump so late at night (I don't have a vacuum reservoir so I have to run the pump constantly and bleed air in after the bag connection to control the amount of vacuum.) Live and learn.
Also mixed a little microballoon mix for fairing and filled in the worst of the stuff on the sides. I tried to really use a minimum of material, usually I end up putting on too much and then spending way too much time sanding it back off.
Checked on it this morning, the 2 side runners look pretty good, just a few small bubbles here and there. Especially right at the tip of the runner, it seems to have lifted just a touch there. Looks like I left a flat at the top, should have rounded it off completely. That tape was stiffer than I remember. Left the center runner clamped, I don't want to pull off the tape since it's not completely cured yet.
In other news, I had to let a boat go yesterday. I had build a Swift Canoe about 9-10 years ago. It's scaled down, 12' long. Been a great little boat for rowing and fishing, but with 2 new boats this summer my wife is reaching the BSAT (Boat Saturation Anger Threshold). It's made from exterior plywood, all cloth and epoxy encapsulated, and has been stored outside. Still in pretty remarkable shape structurally - needs paint badly and a bunch of nicks and scratches fixed but solid as a rock. Anyway, I have a LOT of hours tied up in it, so it didn't feel right selling it. I gave it to a good friend. He's the one that just build the CC14 for his son (See pics a page or 2 ago on this thread- the boy sure gets a lot of compliments and inquiries on where he got it out on the river). He also spends a chunk of time reloading all my ammo (thanks Mark!). He's going to use it as is for the now, but is planning to cut it lengthwise and widen it a foot or so and refinish it next year. That should make a dandy duck hunting/ fishing rig, and I think it's a real cool project.
Took the family and a couple of neighbor kids tubing in my old 16' aluminum V that I built a new interior in earlier this summer. Worked out great and they had a blast. Great fun, but kept me from starting the boat work until late. totally worth it.
