Round Chine Stitching

This part is tough. For the most part, the rest of the boat has gone together pretty well. There is very little stress on any of the other stitches except where the bow comes together. I've spent about 10 hours stitching up the round chine and I've reached my "Rage Threshold". This is the point where putting more time into the project would not significantly improve it, but would begin to make me super pissed. I've created this graph to illustrate the concept.

The chine begins to form pretty easily towards the middle of the boat. The closer you get to the bow, the more strips come into play and the more outrageous the amount of twist they are expected to take. Here's one side stitched up and the other loose.

A view from a different angle shows the biggest problem with the chine. For the most part, the strips aren't expected to do anything unreasonable. The exception is where the strips cut from the bottom panels meet at the bow. By this point they have almost a 90 degree twist in them and they aren't very happy about it. This is how they want to sit.

The majority of the time put into the stitching deals with fighting their stubborn desire to NOT twist. The side panel strips don't really make too much trouble. After LOTS of tweaking I reached the point where I didn't think that I could get it any better, and slapped a sealer coat of laminating resin on the places I planned to "tack weld" with epoxy putty.

Once it started to set up a little, I mixed up the first of three batches of EZ Fillet. This stuff is a loose putty that is best measured out by weight. I bought a digital kitchen scale at Bed, Bath & Beyond to do this and the accusing look that the cashier gave me made it pretty obvious that she thought I was dealing weed. Ahhh, the joys of living in a college town. Once I had the stuff mixed I dumped it into a ziploc bag, sealed it, and cut the corner off. This is used like a piping bag to run a bead of fillet material on the exposed joints between the zipties that hold the boat together.

I came back with an auto body scraper and smoothed the beads and runs out when I was done. Once it sets, the zipties are removed and with any luck the bow doesn't explode apart in a shower of splinters and shattered dreams. Any remaining exposed seams are filled and then in the case of my monster of a chine/bow, I will fair and fair and fair and fair. Ad naeseum. To the uninitiated, fairing means that I will sand and fill the bejesus out of this:

......until all those little strips and runs and holes look like one smooth, pretty surface. It's gonna be rad. Once it's done, I can glass the outside of the boat and then fair the entire hull. For those of you who are thinking of doing this, here are a couple tips:

• A small section of PVC pipe behind the stitch can help keep things aligned. I found it useful to have 1/2" and 3/4" pieces as the different radii are useful in different situations.
• When cutting said pieces of PVC on a miter saw, use a blade with lots of teeth and wear eye protection. Or do like me: use the blade that came with the saw, close your eyes on each cut, and try not to let the shards of plastic death that fly out every 3rd or 4th cut bother you.
  
• When stitching, start at the point furthest from the bow. You only have to deal with a couple strips instead of 6.
• If things go out of whack, cut out the stitch and do it again. It's not going to get better.
  
• I put about 150 stitches in to the round chine and bow. I climbed under the boat for every one. Crawling in and out from under the boat over and over again will significantly lower your Rage Threshold. Walk away if necessary.
• Music is a necessity at this point. The stitching is tedium. I recommend punishing metal to match the mood of the endeavor.
• If you are going to do the round chine you absolutely cannot build on the decks like is recommended in the building notes.