Re: Hybrid Deck Consructi

Posted by John Beck on Jan 22, 2007

Frank, I'm decking my SW 17 hybrid now, but not with such an intricate design, but here's my 2 cents. I use Titebond wood glue which sets firm enough within 15 minutes, so turn around is pretty quick if you work right on the deck. I think the problem you would have with pre-fab on a flat surface is trying to bend it around the deck forms, particularly near the cockpit where twist is severe. Where there is uniform curve and little twist you could make up appropriately sized sections on the bench and glue them in as a unit. I'd prefab no more than 2 strips wide. End joining on the boat works great with Titebond glue with packing tape coated sections of strip sandwiching the clamped joint. Sections with twist will need to be shorter, maybe even one piece at a time in the highly twisted areas along the shear next to the cockpit. Another consideration is whether your pattern will beparallel to the center line of the boat or "sprung" along the sheer strip. prefab would work ok for parallel configuration, but a section of many small end joined pieces won't bend too well during the "springing" process.

Although I haven't tried this procedure I think it would be a good starting point. Use a deep throat clamp to fasten a piece of packing tape covered strip of wood to the most recently installed strip between the forms. Leave about 2 strip widths exposed, which leaves one strip width to set a full length strip to clamp. Glue up and lay the pieces into place. Lightly clamp another tape covered strip straddling the top edge of the pieces and the top clamping strip to keep the pieces from popping up. Wedge the last piece in as longitudinal clamping force. Either wedge or clamp the top clamp for athwartship clamping force. Try the procedure first without glue to see how it works.

Good luck, John

In Response to: Hybrid Deck Consruction by Frank on Jan 19, 2007

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