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

We took some time to add a second coat while the first was still a little green.  A quick surface sanding with 100 grit and Valkyrie was ready.

Second coat

This looks like a good place to have a seat

The day started out with positing the removable seat so that the cleats could be installed.  After all of the marks had been transferred onto the hull, Travis picked up the grinder and trimmed the interior edge of raw glass, smoothing everything up and down to the final line.  The sheer was also trimmed back and edge faired.

There's always something to grind

Using some of the material left over from sealing the deck, pieces were fitted to the top of the pedestal.  Tapes of 17-08 were also cut for the balsa strips on the side of the hull as well as tapes for inside the stowage area, joining the hull to the deck and acting as a backing plate for the mooring bit.

Interior 'glass work nearly done

The balsa core strips were first on the list to be done, and those went into place with out incident.  The tapes for inside the stowage area too went into place fairly well, even if one did have to lay down through the doorway to do it.  The backing plate material however was an absolute pain.  After several attempts through the doorway, Travis finally had to crawl inside and laminate directly overhead.  Needless to say there was more resin transfer than he wanted (mostly to arms and hair).

While the fiberglass was curing, brushable enamel was mixed and rolled out onto the deck.  Excess enamel was then applied to the interior of Valkyrie.

Another rare photo of the elusive boat builder

White topsides