One of the challenges of building a boat for the first time is that it takes time to find the best ways of working. There is only so much you can learn from books and the internet.
Having tried various ways of hanging a length of cloth from the top, I discover what is, for me, the best method. I folded a measured length of cloth in two and rolled it onto a garden stake. Then, having rollered epoxy onto the surface, I unrolled the cloth from a midpoint line to the top. The cloth stays in place nicely with the epoxy. I dropped the bottom half of the cloth into place and smoothed and stretched it into place with hands and squeegee. In the picture below, I haven’t yet rollered on the epoxy, but it gives the idea.
Another idea that worked well was to use decorators “tape and drape” film to avoid having to clean out the paint tray every day.
The picture above shows the film I used. The picture below shows the film with tape stuck to the inside of the side closest to camera. After using the tray for epoxy, I just leave it to set overnight and then pull out the film and hardened epoxy the next day. No cleaning!
Back to work. The picture below shows the port side of the boat covered. The bow only has one layer at this point.
And on to the starboard side.
My initial estimate of cloth was 5 sq metres short. I had reasoned that it would be better to estimate low than waste a lot. Unfortunately, although I ordered exactly the same item from the same supplier, the cloth delivered was very different. My original cloth is the one on the left below. The one on the right was so much looser and prone to runs. Even though the cloth will not be visible, I decided to go back to the supplier and ask them to provide a better match. Happily, they did so at no extra cost.
And finally another milestone. The boat has two layers of cloth all round. It isn’t perfect and I need to do some tidying up, but I have no doubt about the strength of the hull.
