Canoe - Sheathing

Sheathing the canoe with fiberglass. Not my favorite part, but very satisfying once it was done.

First up, I brushed the seams with unthickened resin

Then I went in and filled the gaps with thickened resin

And sanded them smooth, along with the wood. I should’ve taken more care here to not shape over the chines, maybe I should’ve used a sanding board, for instance. Ended up slightly shifting the chine line in a couple places, though it’s not that noticeable.

I knew the glass would need to hang freely over the sides, so I rigged up one of the moulds from earlier in the process to support the canoe from the inside. I could’ve cut off the corners to accommodate the fillets, but this was good enough.

Check out that glass! Luckily I was able to use a single wide sheet. I cut some darts along the sides to get it to hang nicely, but that made fairing it later much more challenging - I think it would’ve made the curves just fine without them.

Here it is with the laminate coat applied. I didn’t realize okoume plywood would look so pretty. I also put a strip of fiberglass tape over the center chine at the bow and stern.

Those selvedge edges stick up like nobody’s business. I was left with a decent amount of fairing to do - figured I’d do a thickened fairing compound over the parts I knew were rough. Maybe should’ve done a second coat of raw epoxy to fill the weave first, I’m not sure.

After some more sanding, here I’m halfway through a thin coat of epoxy.

I waited overnight after that coat of epoxy before putting on a subsequent one, so I ended up having to sand again. This time I learned my lesson and did two coats of epoxy a few hours apart.

The process that worked best for me was to mix up a batch, spread it evenly but haphazardly over the whole hull with a flexible spreader, then go over the hull slowly and neaten it up. After that I’d go over the hull once or twice more, checking against the light for drips, playing with the resin until it starts to thicken. That left a coat that I think won’t need much sanding.

I’m very pleased with the end result - if I’d known it would look this good I might not have planned to paint it. Far too late for that now - there are patches of opaque fairing compound here and there, plus some visible scratches in the wood, since I didn’t plan on any of that showing.