Last night I tabbed the hull panels. This means I partially filled the seams between the hull planks with slightly thickened epoxy. It was an arduous task--for me. I think a normally coordinated person with a modicum of patience would have sailed through this phase. Me, I made it difficult.
With Susan's help, I took care of a few preliminaries on Monday and Tuesday. First, the boat had to be flipped over, keel-up, to give me access to the outside of the hull where all the gluing was to occur. Naturally, the hull caught on a coat hanger I had left dangling from the rafters, once used to suspend a curing transom. Only a few mild curses were needed to deal with that, and the craft is now upside down. Then I had to warm the garage up so the epoxy would cure during my lifetime ... another $3 on the electric bill, but who's counting?
The manual called for using the freezer bag / pastry bag approach to applying the epoxy, though the kit came with three syringes purportedly provided for this very task. I asked around the discussion boards and everyone said the freezer bag method worked fine.
But they weren't hampered by my evolved level of klutziness. I spilled epoxy everywhere ... and, yes, did manage to get most of it between the hull panels where it belongs. I had to clean up my mistakes with a rag dampened with denatured alcohol.
Speaking of mistakes ... a photo in the manual shows a human hand pushing a stitch so it lay mostly flat against the hull. Though no caption accompanied the pic, the implication was obvious. Get Those Stitches Out of Your Way Before Hovering Over the Boat with a Freezer Bag Full of Goo. I bent them over, but, er, not far enough. I was afraid of breaking them. Instead, they created interesting new patterns on my skin, while catching the freezer bag just often enough to elicit steadily escalating, colorful language.
The stitches await my unsuspecting skin and innocent freezer bag.
I mixed up the epoxy in batches to avoid waste, and with the final batch I tried using one of the syringes. What a difference! I was actually able to aim the goo where it is supposed to go. I liked it. I would recommend this approach to anyone who feels the slightest bit out of control with freezer bags. I acknowledge, however, that I may be the only person so afflicted.
The hull be tabbed, if a bit sloppily. Most of this stuff will be hidden behind topped-up layers of epoxy thickened with wood flour -- a darker, and I hope neater, look.
After two days of curing, the evil stitches will come out. I won't miss 'em.
