Winter Repairs
by Shirley Kysilko. Building Director
Since not too many of us are perfect paddlers, our wooden boats inevitably touch the occasional rock or gravelly beach and end up with some dings. If your boat is in temporary retirement for the winter, this can be a good time to look it over carefully and decide what repairs need to be made. Once the boat has been out of the water for a while and is thoroughly dry, check the hull carefully for scratches, worn spots, or breaks or bubbles in the fiberglass. Check the trim for splitting, dark areas of r ot, or worn spots.
Sometimes, the abrasions suffered during the summer are not more than varnish-deep and all the hull needs is a thorough sanding with 220 or 400 grit paper followed by another coat of varnish.
For actual breaks or bubbles in the fiberglass, the damaged fiberglass has to be removed and a patch made. In the case of a bubble, the damaged glass can be removed by carefully cutting it away with a utility knife. If there is a gash in the glass, the edges of the glass may still be tight to the wood, in which case it might be easier to remove the damaged area by sanding it off. Once the damaged areas of glass are removed, you should sand to remove any varnish for a couple of inches around the damage d area. A patch is made of two layers - one piece just slightly smaller than the area of fiberglass removed and a second piece that will extend beyond the edges of the damage by about an inch all around. Mix up a small batch of resin and hardener, spread some on the bare wood, lay on the small patch, spread more resin, lay on the larger patch, and soak with resin. Once the fiberglass is soaked with resin and you have removed some of the excess, you can lay a piece of waxed paper over the entire area and li ghtly squeegee the whole area smooth. Leave the waxed paper in place until the resin has cured, then peel it away. Your patch should be fairly smooth and need very little sanding to blend in with the surrounding area. Once the patch has been sanded smooth, you are ready to varnish. You could varnish just the patched area, or you could sand and varnish the entire hull.
Alternative Boatbuilding
Wanna build several boats in one afternoon? Join us for an afternoon of jigsaw puzzles, snacks, and general conversation, Sunday, February 15, 11am til dark,. I have a collection of eight puzzles of various harbors to choose from and lots of tables to work on. Bring any other boat related puzzles you have, a snack to share, and pictures of any boat you are building. Lets see how many boats we really can put together in one afternoon (I counted 28 boats in the Camden harbor puzzle). Maybe we could try for a world record! (Is there one?)
Boatbuilding Classes
For the past several years, EMS Roseville has offered us space for classes, and we thank them very much for their support. Since that store will be closing, however, we are looking for a new location. If you know of a possible space, contact Sparky at 612/782-5937, Tim Melody at 612/757-0183, or me at 612/487-3395. We have been keeping a list of interested builders, so when we get a location and dates, we will publish it in HUT! and call people who have contacted us about the classes.
