Chesapeake 16 Deck Fiberglass Confusion...Need some advice!

I just fiberglassed the deck of my Chesapeake 16.  I was confused and did not realize the fiberglass overlap was to be expoxied as well.  It is exposed around the edge of the deck piece, which I was planning on trimming the excess.  (I think I got confused by the Youtube build and then some other advice or just remembering what I did with the hull).

Anyways, I curious of advice at this point.  To me it seems like I have two options.  One, I trim it and I assume the expoxy fill will keep it tight.  Two, I need a two-inch fiberglass tape along the sides/seam where the hull and deck meet.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!


3 replies:

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RE: Chesapeake 16 Deck Fiberglass Confusion...Need some advice!

"Tape" is too thick, has that raised edge, and will just be a pain to blend into the hull and deck surfaces. It can be done, but...

Better is bias-cut glass. Hopefully you've been saving your bits of excess glass from the various steps. The triangles that get cut off near the boat's ends are especially useful: find the hypotenuse, the edge that isn't parallel to any of the fibers, and cut 2" strips from that edge. These are fragile pieces when cut like this- if you pull them they'll shrink in width (so don't do that). After sanding your deck radius, and the glassed edges from the hull and deck, paint a coat of epoxy along the sheer, and gently apply the dry glass strips onto the wet epoxy, while not pulling or distorting it as well as you can. Finish wetting the strips in place, with a brush or foam roller.

The edges of this kind of 'tape' will be much thinner and easier to blend/fair. And, all the fibers cross the joint, making it doubly effective.

RE: Chesapeake 16 Deck Fiberglass Confusion...Need some advice!

Great advise from nemochad.  I will add that you can get a great easy to blend seam if you mask where you want the seam to be before glassing.  Then, wet the cloth out so that it overlaps the masking tape just a bit (<1").  Allow it to cure a few hours then gently and cut along the edge of tape wit a sharp razor, and pull the tape off.  The resulting seam will dissappear with a couple of fill coats nd a little sanding.  Picts below (I Hope).

  

RE: Chesapeake 16 Deck Fiberglass Confusion...Need some advice!

  Thanks for all your help.  I followed your instructions including the tape and it turned out great!

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