Protecting the pointy end

With the skegs installed, I was looking forward to starting the hull paint job.  But as I viewed the bare hull my eye kept returning to the pointy end.  I thought about that one layer of fiberglass cloth and thought about the potential abrasion from all the beaches I expect to pull up on.  I knew I would feel better about the situation if I had a little more protection in place.

So I decided to delay the hull painting and put a couple layers of dynel cloth on the pointy part. Dynel is an abrasion-resistant cloth, and I have applied it to the front edges of the rudder and centerboard also.

Here is the first layer of cloth cut and marked with dots from a black Sharpie pen so I don't slide it too far out of place when applying the epoxy.

Here's the bottom layer wetted out with epoxy.  It takes more than the fiberglass cloth does, and seems to swell up a little as it absorbs the epoxy.

Here's the second layer in place.

I knew I would have to apply fill coats anyway, so I tried something new this time, and applied the first fill coat right over the wet cloth.  Seemed to work OK, and maybe saved me one iteration.

Here's one of the followup fill coats.  You can see the microballoon-thickened epoxy has sagged before it dried.  It's hard to get it thick enough so that doesn't happen.  If you mix it too thick it doesn't spread out smoothly.

Here's what it looks like when almost done.  You can see that I have sanded and filled multiple times, marking the low spots each time with pencilled circles.  

I don't think I'll be able to get this perfect, but I don't want it to look too lumpy.  I put one more coat on this evening and hope that will be the last one.

Dynel, Cleats, and Building Jig

Since last update I applied dynel fabric to the leading edge and bottom of the rudder and centerboard.  Dynel is reputed to have very good abrasion resistance, and I put several layers on the parts that will drag first when the water gets thin.  Shown here is the front corner of the centerboard.

I also cut, planed, and routed some stock for cleats to reinforce the joints where plywood pieces meet in the boat.  These are just plain pine boards from Menards.  I've got 80' prepared.  There are some knots in this #2 lumber, but I will just cut around those and work with the clear wood.  Yellow cedar is recommended, but not to be found around here.  I will precoat these pieces with three coats of epoxy on the sides that will not be glued to other pieces.

Then I got started assembling the building jig.  I set up the legs and started gathering pieces, 

And held them in place with some clamps, 

And spent quite a bit of time shimming and checking for level both lengthwise and crosswise.

Then I screwed the bottom to the legs, and screwed in cleats to hold the sides to the bottom.  It stiffened up very nicely and now feels sturdy.

And ended the night by placing the first boat part on the jig - the hull bottom.  I think the shop is going to start feeling pretty small soon...