Decorating the Deck and Applying Fiberglass

These are paper templates I made for the forward and aft ends of the board, getting a test fit.

Here are the aft cloth . . .

and the forward cloths after a layer of fiberglass and two coats of epoxy have been applied. 
As you can see I have moved the project to the garage.  High and low temperatures have been fluctuating too much outdoors, and right now the hollow craft is sealed--too much temperature differential could either cause enough vacuum or inflation pressure to damage the hull.  As soon as the final coat of epoxy cures I can drill a hole for the breather tube, and from then on the pressure will remain equalized.

Sanding, Re-staining, and Starting Fiberglass Application

All the stain has been removed and the corners rounded over, although that is difficult to see in this picture.

This is the fairing compound over the uneven finger joints after sanding.

Entire assembly has been re-stained.  As it turned out the faired finger joints don't look all that bad, especially near the outside edges.  Inboard, they will be mostly covered by the deck pads and the carry handle.

The stern panel is covered by masking tape for staining, but I will leave it on when I fiberglass the bottom and side panels also.  The fiberglass does not wrap around onto the stern panel.  It will be fiberglassed later, along with the deck.

The roundover and part of the deck have been covered with clear epoxy.  This is so when I fiberglass the side panels (the paddle board will be turned upside-down for that operation) and epoxy runs can be wiped up with alcohol without disturbing the stain.  I will also have to sand the rough edges of the fiberglass, and the epoxy cover will make it easier to avoid sanding off the stain.

The bottom and side panels of the hull have been fiberglassed.  As it turns out I had no runs down onto the roundover but I'm still glad I took the precaution of protecting it.

Next I will need to design and cut the cloth coverings for the deck.  I have decided not to cover the entire deck--tested it and didn't like the look.  And as I said the deck pads and handle cover most of the finger joint errors.  I will probably move the project into the garage for the final steps.  The outdoor temperature is starting to fluctuate quite a bit and this could affect the even curing of the epoxy.

Deck Installation

Here you can see the deck has been placed on top of the hull and glued.  Packing tape is used to hold the edges down, and weights are used to ensure the deck is in contact with the bulkheads all the way across.  As usual, Grommet is supervising.

A view from the bow.

I ran out of weights, but noticed this little Buddha sitting on the porch.  He is heavy enough for sure, and maybe his prayers will help things go well.  (Made sure he is facing east!)

This is the cloth that will be laminated on the deck.  I found this yesterday and I'm glad now I kept the back panel design simple!  The cloth will be laid on the deck and covered with clear epoxy and fiberglass.  I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to arrange the cloth.  The simplest thing will be to lay it along the entire deck, except that I bought all they had and it's about 7 or 8 inches short--which should not be a problem--no need to extend it to the very ends.  All that cloth is a bit heavy though, so I will more likely place about 4 feet of it at the bow end and 3 or 4 feet at the stern.  That will involve some difficult cuts, though, so it's taking me some time to decide.

These are decorative strips of wood that are glued over the back panel.  Many people arrange them into intricate designs using different sorts of cuts, etc.  I couldn't think of anything that creative and I am hoping to get the board finished sometime this fall, so I just followed the simple method of alternating the strips.

The stringers, nose-block, and carry-handle block have all been coated with epoxy.  I also double-checked to make sure there were no bare areas anywhere else inside the boat.  It can get wet inside from condensation or leakage through the breather tube, so it's important to make sure the wood is all sealed.  Once the deck is installed there is no way to get back in there.  There will be a way to drain it if I hear water sloshing around inside.

The sheer clamps and blocks have all been planed and sanded down flush with the bulkheads and stringers so the deck will lie flat on all the gluing surfaces.  You can't tell much from the picture except for the wood shavings lying around.

The deck has been temporarily laid on the hull so I can mark where to cut it,  I will of course cut it a little too large and trim it down after it is glued in place.

Stringers, Nose-block, Carry-handle Support Blocks

Small fillets of epoxy mixed with wood flour have been added to all the bulkheads, along the hull and up the sides to the sheer clamps.

A wider shot of the fillets.

 Three stringers are slotted into the bulkheads to provide more support for the paddler's weight.  The stringers are glued in then filleted.  You may be able to see one or two copper wires that are holding the stringers down into the bottoms of the slots.

In this shot, further forward, you can also see that the stringers do not stretch all the way from end-to-end.

The nose-block has been glued in place.  Clear packing tape is used to hold the side panels in tight against the nose-block.

These blocks (cut from left-over sheer clamp) are glued at the center of the board to provide a place to attach the carry handle.  The finished board should weigh about 32 pounds, making it fairly easy to carry down to the lake from  my house.

Next I will install the decorative back panel.  Once the glue has set on these items I will need to coat the stringers, carry-handle blocks, and nose-block with epoxy; then plane and sand the sheer-clamps and nose-block, etc. flush with the side panels to provide a flat surface for mounting the deck.

Short beads of thickened epoxy are applied to all the joints in the boat to hold it together and allow removal of the wire stitches.  After the stitches, epoxy fillets will be applied to all the joints, both for strength and to make sure there are no gaps allowing water infiltration.

Near the bow, the bottom panels did not quite reach the side panels.  I have used a bar clamp to bring them together and am hoping the epoxy beads will hold them in place until I get the fillets in and fiberglass applied to the outside.  If they don't hold, I'll clamp them back together and apply strips of fiberglass and epoxy to the insides of the joints.

Paddle Board Taking Shape

Here the side panels are being wired to the bulkheads.  Bulkheads 1, 2, and 3 are loosely stitched in place with short copper wires.  The side panels are also loosely stitched together at the stem (front) end.

All 11 bulkheads are now loosely stitched in place.  Bulkheads 10 and 11 look like they are much further apart than the others.  This is an optical effect caused by the wide angle of the iPhone lens.  The bulkheads do become closer and closer together near the center of the board (where I will be standing) then become further apart again at the ends.

In this shot, the board has been flipped upside-down and the bottom panel is laid in place.  Here it is curved around the stem end and loosely stitched.  You may recall that the front halves of the bottom panel were  not glued together.

Loose stitching continues from the stem to the mid-point where the rear half of the bottom panel is one piece.  I made this shot larger but it is still difficult to see the stitches.

All the loose stitching of the panels and bulkheads is finished.  Grommet is inspecting my work,which he does from time-to-time.  He will be riding on the board too, after all.

Here is the board flipped right-side-up.  The next step will be to check and make sure there is no twist in the board (correcting if necessary) and then to permanently glue all the parts together with thickened epoxy.

Gluing Puzzle Joints and Sheer Clamps

The puzzle joints have been glued and weighted down.  Try as hard as I could, I could not force the tabs to line up perfectly.  This means I'll  have to do some sanding, which will remove stain.  It will be a challenge to re-stain those areas and get them to blend in.

The back sides of the joints on the bottom and side panels are reinforced with fiberglass tape.  No need on the top panel because it will be covered with fiberglass on both the inside and outside.

The sheer clamps have been glued to the upper edges of the side panels.  They will help strengthen the joints between the top and side panels.

Staining and Preparing Hull, Side and Deck Panels for Assembly

The stain finally arrived, so work has begun.  Future builders, staining at this point is not a good idea.  See the note at the bottom of this post.

Here are most of the panels drying after staining with Behlen Solor-Lux NGR Dye stain.  (NGR stands for non-grain-raising.)  The color I decided on is called Golden Fruitwood.  It is not terribly dark and I am hoping it will go well with my design scheme.  It is an alcohol-based stain recommended by Chesapeake Light Craft as OK to use with epoxy.

This is the next day and I have coated the ends that have puzzle joints with epoxy to seal the stain.  That is so that when I glue the joints, I can wipe up any squeeze-out with alcohol without removing any of the stain.  The stain is supposed to dry in 5 minutes, but even though I waited 24 hours there was still some stain that came off on the epoxy roller.

It is recommended to seal the entire stained surface to protect it, but I decided not to.  Since I will be fiberglassing these panels, epoxy sticks better to bare wood than it does to cured epoxy, and I want as strong a bond as possible.  So I'll just have to be extra careful until the panels are fiberglassed.

NOTE: Those of you planning to stain the project at this point, don’t!  In the web ad for the SUPs, Chesapeake Light Craft recommends a new stain that works well with epoxy, Behlen Solar Lux.  The stain is fine, but CLC also recommends an article on how best to use it, “Staining Your Kayak,” by Nick Schade.  It’s a great article and his technique works well, EXCEPT, in the first paragraph under Staining Stitch-and-Glue  boats he says to stain the wood before applying any epoxy.  He goes on to say, “before you glue scarfs or puzzle joints, i.e. the raw panels right out of the kit box.” 

This is a terrible idea in my opinion.  In a later post you will see that I had to sand every bit of it off.  There are many reasons for this, the main one being you have to round all the sharp edges and then try to come back and match the stain on those roundovers.  I also feel it is important to fill all the stitching holes with stainable wood filler, and no mater how careful you are there will be epoxy runs and spills that have to be sanded off.  And, even though this is marine plywood, there are still some voids to fill.  The list goes on, but I think you can see the problems this method would cause.  If you follow it you are going to have a blotchy stain job, I can almost guarantee.

My recommendation is to assemble the paddle board and sand it properly after filling all the voids, holes and gaps.  Just be sure to sand off any exposed epoxy.  There may be some bits that show up in the joints, but they will be thin and no more noticeable than the edges of the wood plys.