Building a Wooden Jon Boat..pt.7

It’s been a while since I have updated the progress of my boat. Rainy weather has played havoc with my building schedule. The past couple of weeks I have been glassing and fairing the hull. I used 6oz. cloth over the entire hull exterior. I also used double layers of 4″ tape along all edges and seams. I gave the hull two coats of epoxy to fill the cloth weave, and then started the laborious task of sanding and fairing the hull. There is no easy way to do this but to get after the hull using 80gt. paper on a long board sander. After the hull is reasonably smooth, I used Quick Fill epoxy filler to level out some of the low spots which you can see in this photo;

One item of note are the sharp chines on the last eight feet of the boat. The chines are initially rounded off to make the application of the fiberglass easier. Once this is cured  I built up the chine to a sharp edge using thickened epoxy and milled glass fibers for strength. A sharp chine will make the boat considerably faster and drier. You want the chines to remain rounded and smooth in the forward part of the boat to prevent “tripping” on waves and crossing boat wakes etc. Here is a view of the transom and chine area to give you an example of what I am talking about;

The built up area will be eventually sanded and blended in smooth with the hull sides.

Last thing to mention today are the addition of the bottom strakes as shown on the previous photo. These are constructed of yellow pine and screwed and glued to the hull. Once cured, the strakes were covered in 12oz. cloth tape to seal them from moisture. Yet to be completed is the addition of another strake on top of these. This strake will be sacrificial meaning it will be scraped up as the boat is used and meant to be replaced eventually. The strakes serve the very important purpose to keep the boat running straight and true and also add a great deal of longitudinal strength to the bottom of the boat.

I’ll post more pictures as work progresses!