MattA24
New Member
Hello,
First, a very grateful thank-you to everyone who posted their experiences and opinions to my recent thread about painting my hull. I didn't want to resurrect that dead thread for the purposes of saying that, so I say it here instead.
Now to business.
I have spent the last few days repairing the hull for painting. The old wooden rubbing strake was pretty nasty-looking, with various repairs and plenty of mismatched fastenings along it's length, so I pulled it off. I plan to fill the various screw, bolt and rivet holes, then fashion a new one and attach it afresh. With the strake off, I could see the outside of the deck-hull join.
The deck sits directly atop the hull sides. It is riveted down, then glassed in place very firmly inside. A previous owner has then covered the edges of the deck and (most of) the rivets with a thick layer of non-slip stuff, presumably to hide a ding or two.
The joint is very strong and I'm not at all worried about it, but there are some small gaps between deck and hull on the outside that I could poke a couple of razor blades into or a really little screwdriver. I will be shoving these full of epoxy when I fill the holes left by the old strake.
My question, which I apologies for taking so long to get around to, is this: I have a strange urge to also epoxy some glass tape over the join between hull and deck on the outside. In my head this would permanently seal and slightly strengthen this join from the outside. The tape would then be hidden by the new strake. Is this completely pointless? Should I just poke the cracks full of epoxy and then commence painting?
Again, many thanks,
Matt
First, a very grateful thank-you to everyone who posted their experiences and opinions to my recent thread about painting my hull. I didn't want to resurrect that dead thread for the purposes of saying that, so I say it here instead.
Now to business.
I have spent the last few days repairing the hull for painting. The old wooden rubbing strake was pretty nasty-looking, with various repairs and plenty of mismatched fastenings along it's length, so I pulled it off. I plan to fill the various screw, bolt and rivet holes, then fashion a new one and attach it afresh. With the strake off, I could see the outside of the deck-hull join.
The deck sits directly atop the hull sides. It is riveted down, then glassed in place very firmly inside. A previous owner has then covered the edges of the deck and (most of) the rivets with a thick layer of non-slip stuff, presumably to hide a ding or two.
The joint is very strong and I'm not at all worried about it, but there are some small gaps between deck and hull on the outside that I could poke a couple of razor blades into or a really little screwdriver. I will be shoving these full of epoxy when I fill the holes left by the old strake.
My question, which I apologies for taking so long to get around to, is this: I have a strange urge to also epoxy some glass tape over the join between hull and deck on the outside. In my head this would permanently seal and slightly strengthen this join from the outside. The tape would then be hidden by the new strake. Is this completely pointless? Should I just poke the cracks full of epoxy and then commence painting?
Again, many thanks,
Matt
