Aluminum Rails for a Rob Roy

[Mihun09]

Hey Mike, I think he would prefer a solution that did not involve resin of any sort, unless you want to go lend assistance personally.

 

[Guest]

Hey Mike, I think he would prefer a solution that did not involve resin of any sort, unless you want to go lend assistance personally.

Doug is a fair hand when it comes to epoxy resin, cloth and peel ply work.

I don’t think he wants to do his first experiment with carbon sleeve over foam gunwales on the Rob Roy, but adding a thwart (two?) and deck plate in that fashion would be old stuff for him; that is how we attached the utility thwart on his Optima.

Still, if we lived closer I would enjoy lending a hand. I haven’t seen Doug’s place since the fire totaled the Humble Hovel.

 

[dave0]

I certainly entertained the idea of an Alan Gage carbon fiber gunwale as they are a thing of beauty. In the end I looked around my shop at my feeble attempts at that sort of thing and kicked myself in the arse enough times to go with the easy route for now. Please think of my Tale of Working with Resin story! In the long run I do want wood gunwales on this hull but that is down the line some. I have been fighting the idea of a steam box but am not ruling it out. Just not in the works right now. Next big project is to build a new workshop, 16' x 26' and will take me most of the spring, summer and fall to pull off and then the winter to do the inner works.

So despite all my attempts at this, each a learning experience I can carry on, I am going the easy route so I can actually use this beautiful hull again. The beauty of working on hulls is I can always go back and make a change to the way I want to make it. My poor old Disco, the Hogged Backed Saint, has been modified more times than I care to think about and she still lives and floats! Like I said, and think this applies to all of us boat tinkerers is that one lesson whether successful or not leads to a new lesson that can, hopefully, work. It is the joy of working on hulls, eh?