Rubrail - Part 1

Like I mentioned before, it's time to get the Spook ready to make the haul up to the Panhandle. So I called Frank over to help me rip half a sheet of 1/4" ply into 1 1/2" strips. My new Freud blade worked like a charm. Unfortunately, on the last strip, the bearing in the saw decided to try to catch on fire. Epoxy dust from all the sanding I've been doing probably got in there, and that's a death sentence.

Since I don't have any room to work, I had to turn the boat into my lamination table by covering it in plastic. I then laid out the first round of strips that I had prefitted to the boat earlier. Following the lead of some other builders, when the strips were prefitted on the boat, I drilled a few 1/4" holes through each one. These would later be fitted with dowels in order to align the strips when they were slippery with glue. Next, I precoated the inside face of the strips, the edge of the hull, and the dowels with straight epoxy. Here's the setup.

I've been scrounging clamps for about a year so I was ready for this moment, and I used every damn one of them. I could have used about 10 more. Once the precoat was tacky, I mixed up a batch of Gel Magic. I measured it by weight this time and things went much more smoothly. I slathered it on each strip and then used a notched spreader to even things out. Being the middle of July in Florida, temperatures inside the garage border on preposterous. I mixed up enough Gel Magic to do one strip on each side. If you get it on the strips quick, and don't let it spend much time in the pot, you can do two strips at a time. Barely.

Applying the strips is tricky. The dowels are tough to pound into a slippery strip of ply. And then pound into the side of the hull, all while trying not to get the glue on the faired surfaces. Once the dowels are in, you're golden though. I couldn't take pictures of the process, but suffice it to say, it's messy and nerve wracking. Here are some pics of the finished result.


One of the bow strips requires both a miter and a bevel for them to butt up properly. You can see it in this closeup, as well as a couple of the dowels. Dowels and bow will be trimmed up tomorrow and then the whole process will be repeated again. And then again, for three layers total.

I went around after everything was glued up and cleaned up all the glue squeeze out, creating a nice bead of glue where the strips meet the hull. This would be a nightmare to do when it is hardened up.