Shooter's Boat Works

July 30, 2021 – Transom fairing finished

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:29:32 +0000

I wrapped up the transom fairing and sanding today. The final round consisted of applying fairing to a few small spots (mainly around the keyhole area) and then sanding the entire transom down one last time.

The darker green areas are some of the spots that got one last bit of fairing compound before the final sand.

Finished product. It might not look so great in the picture but it turned out real nice. Ready for paint.

July 30, 2021 – Lower pilot house fairing process finished

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:19:34 +0000

Wrapped up the fairing and sanding process on the lower portion of the pilot house. In the pictures you can see few spots where I added some fresh fairing and then sanded it down for the final time.

The darkest green areas are the fresh fairing.

3 more spots of fresh fairing.

After final sanding.

July 26-27, 2021 – Upper pilot house fairing finished

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:08:52 +0000

It might not look like it from the pictures, but the fairing and sanding process is finished on the upper part of the pilot house.

July 23-25, 2021 – More fairing and sanding

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 04:47:31 +0000

Yes, it is very boring and laborious… but very necessary…

Transom shots…

July 22, 2021 – Transom fairing round 1

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 04:15:57 +0000

Fairing the entire transom, round 1 of applying fairing compound and sanding it down,

Total Boat fairing compound applied to the entire transom. (Focusing on filling in the areas that I thought were low.)

After a quick hit of sanding before the work day ended.

July 22, 2021 – Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 03:59:16 +0000

Okay, now that the glass has been laid down, we are shifting to the fairing process. And fairing is a PROCCESS. It is not a one and done deal. It takes many iterations to get it right, Apply fairing compound, sand, apply fairing compound, sand, apply fairing compound, sand, etc., etc.. Over and over again till it is just right.

Side Explanation Note: What does ‘fairing’ mean? Fairing is a process of making the surface both smooth AND correctly following the lines and curves of the surface. Take for instance the back of a boat, the transom. Most instances the transom surface is both rounded/curved left to right (port to starboard) and also top to bottom. The process of fairing the transom is to make all of the curves/angles/roundness ‘correct.’ In this case it takes a lot of time sanding with a flexible long board sander. You can make any surface smooth, but that does not mean it is fair. In boat lingo, ‘fair’ means that the surface is fair to the eye – smooth with no unnecessary ups or downs. A surface can be smooth without being fair. Any surface can be smooth yet also have ‘rolling’ peaks and valleys. A fair surface, on the other hand, is both smooth and has no peaks and valleys – i.e. the contour of the surface is smooth and naturally follows the lines left/right and up/down. Does that make sense? I hope so…

So, over the next week or two, I am going to be fairing both the entire transom and the upper and lower parts of the pilot house that were just glassed in. The process of applying fairing compound, sanding it down, applying more fairing compound, sanding it down again, etc. is not very interesting nor does it make for interesting pictures. But that is where we are at in the process. So buckle up to be be bored. But I will tell you, as the person doing the process, when you get to the end of the process and see the results of the work, it feels great!

Faring compound applied to upper part of pilot house.

Total Boat fairing compound applied. (I love Total Boat fairing compound!)

Total Boat fairing compound applied.

Fairing compound applied.

Let the sanding begin…

Sanding round 1.

July 15, 2021 – Lay it down clown, and gut it out…

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 02:51:41 +0000

When Mother Nature deals you a tough hand, you just have to gut it out and work within the parameters that she gives you. It was another hot day so I got up early (when it was cooler) and charged forward to get done what I could get done. I was able to lay up all 3 layers of glass on the upper foam risers of the pilot house. It was a challenge fighting the heat and the fast catalyzing epoxy, but I diligently pushed through it and got it done,

July 14, 2021 – What’s the pattern?

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 02:39:48 +0000

I spent the day making patterns, templates, and cutting out 1708 cloth for the upper portion of the pilot house. It was equally as challenging as the lower portion. The big rounded front edge made making relief cuts in the cloth a science. Got it all done and I am ready for tomorrow’s layup.

Roll ’em up… 3 Layers of 1708 ready to go.

July 12, 2021 – Get it glued down while its cool…

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 02:11:38 +0000

The heat wave subsided a enough so that I could epoxy down the last layer of foam on the top side of the pilot house. I used all of the clamps that I had…

July 9, 2021 – Hot in the city…

seantheadmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 02:01:01 +0000

It has been a little bit hot here lately and that has curtailed production somewhat, 100+ degrees does not lend itself to fiberglass work too much. But today I was able to flip the pilot house over and cut one more layer of foam. Where I added this foam layer is just beneath the roof. The picture below shows the foam dry fitted in place.

Quick explanation: We added most of the height at the bottom of the pilot house in order to preserve to view out of the window as the captain stands at the wheel. (If we simply added all of the new height just under the roof and not raised the window, the captain’s view out of the window would have been blocked by the 6-8 inches that we added. Simply put, the window opening needed to rise the same amount that the roof was raised.)

Too hot, time to shut ‘er down for the day…