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Start :: Assemble pieces and jig :: Stitching the hull :: Fiberglass outside of hull :: Fairing and priming the outside of the hull :: Building the inside :: Final finishing

Building the inside

Flip the boat over.

Lift the strongback and molds/stringers out of the hull. DO NOT DISASSEMBLE YET!

Glass the inside (taped seams and wide cloth). Proceed the same way than on the outside. Prime the plywood with epoxy. Give it at least 20 minutes to soak in before glassing. Remember to cut the tape and cloth to fit before pre-coating.

We highly recommended working wet-on-wet just like the outside of the hull, but this time we will make fillets instead of rounding the seams. After pre-coating, make fillets. Fillets are made from epoxy/wood flour (or the EZ Fillet mix in the Silvertip kit). Use the same plastic bag trick to lay a bead of putty into the panel seams.

Drag a fillet tool down the seam keeping even pressure and a steady angle.

The fillet tool can be anything that produces the correct radius of approximately 1/2": a piece of PVC pipe, a large tongue depressor, a plastic spoon.

Start at the beginning of the seam and move continuously to the end. Go back and remove the excess fillet putty, use this excess putty for the next seam. Let your fillets become firm (usually an hour or less) before placing the dry (pre-cut) biaxial tape into the seams. Do not press the tape in firm or else risk deforming you perfect fillets! (TIP: Use a 2" chip brush to lightly press the tape into the fillet) The tape will now mesh right into the uncured fillet, no air bubbles!

You will need to make small fillets around the butt blocks, or sand/bevel the edges so that the glass can conform without trapping air. While the tape is still wet, apply the wide cloth. Let all the inside glass cure. Grind down the rough spots and uneven edges if any.

To install stringers, drop the jig/strongback into the hull. With inside fillets and glass now in place, the corners of the molds will no longer fit perfectly. Use a jig saw, or sander to remove the corners of the frames and stringers so that they fit snug.

Use a marker to locate the outline of all the frames. Now you have all the frames and stringers located in their correct position with having to measure and set plumb/square! That is why we left the jig completely assembled.

(NOTE: Before glassing in frames/stringers you should cut limber holes for drainage. It is easier to do at this point than to wait until everything is glassed in place.)

With the jig still in the boat, mix a small batch of fillet material and "tack weld" the stringers in place. A few dabs of the epoxy putty every foot will hold the stingers to the hull in the correct location so the notches in the frames will fit perfectly. Make your tack welds the same shape as your fillets

Let tack welds cure, remove jig, leaving the stringers in hull.

Finish the fillet along each side of the stringer, then use biaxial tape to weld stringers to hull. Again, pre-cut the glass and we highly recommend to work "wet-on-wet".

This is a very nice fillet example:

Press tape into "green" fillet with chip brush. Fillet should be firm enough that it does not deform. Normally this would be after 30 minutes.

Wet out tape with epoxy and let cure.

With frames still attached, put strong back into boat again and tack weld the frames into location with epoxy putty.

When tack welds are hard, unscrew the supports and remove the strongback. Follow same procedure as with stringers to glass in the frames.

Now is an easy time to prime the inside of the seat and under the front/rear casting decks

Buoyancy foam: If you are going to make your FS12 unsinkable, now is the time to fill the rear compartment and perhaps a portion of the middle seat. The boat by itself will float, the foam is there to keep all you gear and motor from going down. For our boat, we used a block of cheap foam to damn off an area for neat appearance. Note the small half piece of PVC pipe on the bottom of the hull – this will connect the cockpit to the transom drain plug.

To fill the front compartment with foam, turn the hull on it's nose (bow), transom up and pour foam.

Glue down casting decks and middle seat. Seats and casting deck rest on cleats which may be either doubled up scraps of 3/8" plywood strips or 1x1 fir trim strips purchased locally. Epoxy glue the cleats all around the inside of the compartments, including the sides of the boat. Epoxy coat the cleats as you do all wood parts. The glue mix should be a little thicker for "bedding" down the seats. Use the bag technique to put a bead of glue all around the cleats (its better to use too much than too little, clean up is easy at this point) Use only enough weight to hold the seats in place while the epoxy glue cures.

We now fair the inside of the boat with Quick Fair.

The inside of the boat will be finished to "work boat" standards, so only a couple of fairing sessions will be needed.

Fair in edges/tops of seat and casting decks

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