Rear Deck Glued

Sunday was going to be the day the rear deck was to be glued, but I woke up with a nasty headache that lasted most of the day. It might have been due to working in a garage with low VOC epoxy and minimal ventilation the previous day, and the activated charcoal filter might not have been enough to do the trick. Anyway, so far as work on the boat was concerned, all I did Sunday was to sand the still slightly green resin joints from Saturday in preparation for the future, when a layer of glass would be applied to the torque box and the top seam of the front deck.

Today (Monday) was President's Day here in the USA. It is a Federal holiday, meaning a bunch of folks get it off. My company doesn't have it as a holiday, but I took a day off anyway.

Removing all the weights form the torque box revealed a pretty nicely glued box. Some areas needed additional sanding, so that was done in preparation for the next step: gluing the rear deck.

Since this was the last time I'd have easy access to the stuffing box, I measured the angle of the 1 inch fiberglass pipe as it exited the hull, and at the end where it exited below where the seat bottom would be located. The two measurements were almost identical: 14 degrees and 13.5 degrees. Yes, there was a slight difference, but over the 64 inch length of the stuffing box this should probably be OK - I hope!

After opening the garage door for ventilation I mixed a cup of resin. Most of it was subsequently poured out along the length of the bottom side of the rear deck and squeegeed into the wood, turning it a nice even color.

I then used a 1 inch sponge brush to dab resin on the unsealed edges of the hull, from the seat back to the stern, on both sides. Resin was then applied to the back, sides and bottom of the stuffing box plate and to the roughened surface of the stuffing box. A weight was applied to the front end of the stuffing box as the stuffing box plate was mounted in place on the torque box.

More resin was applied to the top edges of the stuffing box walls where they became supports for the seat bottom.

Two teaspoons of fillet and one teaspoon of fillet hardener were mixed in another cup. This was applied generously around the interior wall of the stuffing box plate around the stuffing box as well as to the interior edges of its vertical joints.

More fillet was applied to the vertical convex edges of the diamond pieces securing the torque box. Fillet material was also placed on the tops of those pieces where they would join the rear deck to form the seat bottom.

With all the mating edges thus prepared, it was time to put the rear deck in position.

Lifting it carefully, it was flipped onto the boat, resin side down, with the front edge aligned with the stuffing box plate. Clamps were applied across the top to make sure that the edges were aligned with and would stay aligned with the sides of the hull.


Working back toward the stern, additional clamps were applied. Finally, at the stern, a clamp was used to make sure the deck and hull aligned properly. Another clamp was used to tighten the tip of the deck onto the hull.

Weights were applied along the length of the rear deck.

I spent a bit of time with paper towels wiping up resin drips and forming and removing excess fillet material in the cockpit area. Some of the excess material was applied to the top of the stern. The rest was applied to some gaps I noticed in the joints of the seat back and other areas.

As I had some excess resin, I decided to use it along with a piece of scrap plywood to help fill a gap in the seat back port side rear panel. This will make it easier to securely mount onto the deck when that time comes.

It is really getting to look like a boat!