When gluing in the deck support beams I filletted all around the beams on the aft side of bulkhead 2 as well as on the bottom and sides of the beams on the forward side of bulkhead 2 (not the top to not interfere with the deck, as the build manual tells you).
At this point, I ran into yet another problem with the build manual. There’s a part (that came with the kit) that is meant to go on the forward side of bulkhead 2 athwartships underneath the cabin support beams to support the aft edge of the deck from the beams to the edge of bulkhead 2.
This part is never mentioned in the build manual, nor detailed in the plans or the kit inventory.
Indeed the only reason I figured out this part existed was because I was looking relatively closely at some pictures of other scamp builds that have taken place.
The part in question, clamped roughly where it will be glued
At ths point, I’ve realized a few things:
- The quality of kits and instructions you get from Chesapeake Light Craft is really just astounding
- Having a bad quality build manual is the worst of all options. If you have a good quality build manual you’re on easy street. If you have plans only and no build manual, you’re going to learn a heck of a lot figuring things out yourself. If you have a bad quality build manual, you’re liable to get overconfident and miss things.
Going forward I’ll still read the build manual, but I will no longer think of it as authoritative or complete, and rather just another build blog (and one with somewhat crappy black and white photos at that).
So in order to make this mystery part line up well, I had to bevel away some material to make room for the fillet on the bottom and sides of the mast support beams that I didn’t know shouldn’t be there.
Beveled underside to fit around fillets above
With those in place, I was able to glue it on. I tried using screws to clamp it but I couldn’t get a screw through the piece to sufficiently grip to bulkhead 2 and pull the piece close, it just immediately stripped and lost it’s power (another reason I hvaen’t been using the screws very much this build - I find they don’t always work). But I was able to find a couple clamps that worked well enough for this application.
Clamped on the edges and in the middle
Next step was to glue the front bulkhead 1 (or prow) on. No real clamping solution for this, so I used screws and filled in the screwheads with epoxy. Worked well here.
Glassing the mastbox #
The build manual suggests taping the two outside seams of the mastbox. Given this is one of the highest stress areas of the boat, I decided I wanted to do a bit better here, so I decided I’d glass the entire outside of the mastbox with 6 oz glass, wrapping it around and onto the backside of bulkhead 3 to tie it into that part of the boat structure.
At this point, it was time to add fillets around the vertical edges of the mastbox and then put the glass on while they were still wet to get the chemical bond.
Vertical fillets on the mast box
Looks pretty good.
I waited 24 hours before applying a second coat (and eventually a third coat as well) to fill the weave and clean up the edges a little bit. There are a couple of drips, which I’ll clean up with the sander after I put one or two hull panels on and the overall structure stiffens up.