Page 17 - Making the Coaming Rim

My plan was to use the cockpit riser as a form on which to laminate the coaming rim, but I would put wax paper between the rim and the riser, so I could take the rim off to sand and shape it. In hindsight I might do it that way again, and I might simply glue the strips onto the riser from the start. It was nice to be able to sand and shape the rim off the riser, but it was a pain to clamp all the strips to the riser with that wax paper there. It made it much more slippery.

First I cut thin strips from the ash board I bought at Jackel's in Watsonville. I didn't measure the thickness; I just ripped narrower and narrower until I had strips that seemed to bend sufficiently. I made them about 3/8" wide, thinking that would allow some room for me to sand them down to their final width of 1/4". In hindsight this may have been a mistake, because bending the strips in two dimensions to match the curvature of the cockpit riser would have been much easier with thinner strips. Hmmm. Half a dozen of one, six of t'other.

I don't have a picture of the initial clamping. I think I did 6 thin strips at once, with the ends staggered, "stairstep fashion". My strips weren't long enough and I didn't have enough clamps to go all the way around. After the first batch hardened I added strips to go all the way to the aft end of the cockpit. This shows those strips clamped, with a few clamps to hold the already laminated strips in place.

Here's the finished strip ready to be shaped.

I did a butt joint at the aft end of the cockpit. The way I did things didn't easily allow for a fancier joint. However, I think the butt joint there fits the strip pattern. There's no strength issue, since the rim strip will be fiberglassed later. I've already sanded the rim strip.

I didn't get a good picture of the finished product. Here it is, cropped from a picture I took when I cut the aft hatch.

| Page 16 | Home | Page 18 |