The Boat Shop

Anyone who has spent some time on a boat knows how dirty they can get.  One of the best things that a builder can do to help facilitate the ease of cleaning is to make things nice and smooth.  Unfortunately to do this properly, more grinding is needed.  So far Valkyrie has lost quite a bit of weight on her “ground down diet” plan, but today she was destined to have a little more shaved off.

Since Valkyrie will be having bait, mud and other unmentionables (thanks to the Shags that always hang around mooring #3) interacting with the interior, it is very important to have it nice and smooth.

Ground Down Diet - The New Exciting Weight Loss Program For Boats

With all of the seams and ridges from glassing on the valences and pads now smooth we could turn our attention to the trim idea that came to mind.  Half-round trim looked very nice once in place and the curve of the sheer, while generous, was not too much for the material to handle and it laid along the surface nicely.

Finishing Touches

At this point Valkyrie’s flotation was very obvious we thought, and those lines just weren’t completely conducive to the over all “look” that we wanted.  The solution of course was to skirt material around the flotation and fiberglass that into place, adding the curves that everyone love.  There are always materials that just do not want to cooperate, the material we chose to skirt the flotation was one of those, but eventually it stopped resisting and settled into place, quickly we tabbed it in place before it changed its mind.  During this time the interior edges were also sealed and ‘glassed over.

Flotation Skirt

Reading: Fish Gut Prevention (FGP)