: Hi All,
: I need some advice and how far to go with sanding and fairing. I am busy with
: a Guillemot and trying to decide how much sanding is enough, I don't want
: to over do it if it’s not necessary but on the other hand I want to do it
: properly. Must the surface be 100% smooth prior to glassing? I have a
: couple of small grooves where some of the strips connect, must all these
: come out?
:

Hi.

I just finished my Guillemot and I will share a few things I learned along the way. First of all try to fill any noticeable gaps with either a piece of wood or epoxy matched to the approximate same color of the wood before you do too much fairing. Since the epoxy is harder than the surrounding wood you should use either a hand plane or a spoke shave to fair out the filled area. Then do the sanding. Otherwise you may end up removing too much of the surrounding wood trying to sand the epoxy down thereby leaving a hollow. Once you start into the heavy fairing you may notice small gaps in between some of the strips. Again I would fill these ares with epoxy mixed with wood flour to match the color of the surrounding wood. I will put an emphasis on color matching because once the boat is finished you will notice some of the filled areas if it is not matched properly. Mind you the boat will still look great but if you are as anal as I am you will not be satisfied unless it is as close to perfect as you can get. As far as sanding goes I would not go with much more fine of a grit than 150 towards the end of the sanding stages. This way it will allow for the fiberglass cloth and the resin to adhere better to the wood if it has just a slight bit of a roughed up surface. Otherwise your on your way to completing a wonderful boat. Good luck.