Varnish and Paint

Suddenly all the woodwork was finished and it was time for the finishing work.

I started with the varnish work first on the basis that I could paint over varnish but not vice versa.

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To start with I sealed the hull inside and out with two coats of epoxy. This was sanded down once dry and hard to give a smooth surface for the varnish. In hindsight I should have also filled some of the small gaps with coloured epoxy. This is made with a combination of glue filler and wood flour in the epoxy to get the right colour. Now, over a year down the track the varnish is starting to deteriorate from the edge of these gaps. The inside of the hull and transom was given five coats of varnish.

From Painting and Varnishing - Penobscot 14

I then flipped her over and started by sanding the epoxy coats and then applied two coats of primer. I used the International Interlux paint system which is a single pot paint and give a good finish with just roller and brush.

At this point I erected a very big tarp that I held aloft with a number of tent poles and ropes. After the primer I gave the hull a light sand and filled some of the little dents etc that seems to stand out at this point even though it was checked carefully at the previous stage. Next two coats of undercoat, sand again and then three final coats with a light sand after the second of these.

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To promote good chemical bonds I ensured that there was only about 24 hours between coats which required me to rise early before work and apply a coat to start the day. When a coat was to be sanded I would leave it a bit longer to allow it to be a bit harder.

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In the photo above you can see the masking on the transom. The paint needs to cover the end of the ply on the plank. I decided to make the planks look about 10mm think by masking inside the planks which I think looks better that having the thinner 6mm of the plank and definitely better than having the paint not follow the planks.

All up the finishing did not take that long but it did require a dedicated three weeks of work each and every day. This is not something easily done on weekends as per my usual work schedule.

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Rail Caps

OK its been a while since I have posted here and since I have actually launched the boat and enjoyed some great sailing I had better finish off the build posts so I can get on with the sailing part.

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So here are some of the finishing parts of the boat. Let start with the rail cap. I used Douglas Fir or Oregon Pine depending on where you are from. For this I started with the caps on the breast hook and quarter knees. These were screwed into place and trimmed for the correct over hangs. Don't get to aggressive here as it is better wait until you have evrything on and then you can shape them as one.

For the mounting blocks for the oar locks, which sit proud of the rail cap, I left the ends at full hight and fitted and screwed these to the gunnel's as well. I then removed the mounting blocks so I could lay full boards over the gunnel's to shape the rail caps as they sweep around. This way I could cut out the birds mouth joint concentrating just on the shape of this part of the joint without worrying about lining up the sides of the rail.

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Once this part of the joint was right I pushed the joint up tight and screwed the mounting blocks back down on top of the rail cap to trace out the birds mouth joint at the other end. I was conservative in cutting this end out so that when the rail was put back in place it had to be slightly sprung into place between the quarter and the mounting block.

From Knees, Seats and Breasthook - Penobscot 14

Once satisfied with this joint I screwed along the rail cap and then marked and cut the rail cap. I followed this procedure for all the caps and then did the final shaping on the boat. This included using my Dremmel tool to sand down the mounting blocks to the height of the rail.

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Now typically you would finish the rail cap off with wooden plugs but I decided on something a little different. In New Zealand the Maori have always used Paua shell to decorate their carvings and boats. The Paua is a shell fish in the Abalone family and the Paua is a particularly colourful variety. It just so happened that I had a bag of Paua shell cut as button blanks that pretty much fitted the holes left by the screws. These were shaped and set in epoxy on top of the screws and sanded flat with the rail when dry.

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