Dinghy Rebuild 2 of 3

Now that the dinghy was to the shape we wanted I went to work on making it a sturdy little boat. I didn't understand the original way the person had built the gunwales with spacing tabs between the pieces and small screws holding it together. Perhaps some boat builder will explain it to me but since it was all broken I decided to fix it my way. Here I am clamping the white oak into position so I can meassure and make cuts.

My way of putting the gunwales together was to lay a 4" band of fiberglass around the top and use it as a bed for the gunwales. Here they are clamped into the wet glass and then thru bolted creating one solid piece.

I then went to work building a little keel for the boat using a recycled piece of Maple. I planed it to the contour of the bottom before attaching it. It would have been great to get a more traditional piece of wood but we don't have the money to do so, so far the only purchases have been the beat up boat and resin. All wood has been recycled from various old houses and the glass is scraps from surfboard construction.

With the keel on and gunwales in place it was glassing and sanding time. I glassed every seam with 6oz warp weave which is extremely strong. The bow received multiple layers and for the keel I encased it all in 48 oz of unidirectional S-glass to give it a serious protection level for dragging it on sand. After a whole lot of sanding the exterior was finally ready to paint.