Decking & Finishing

Stage 6 - Fitting the Decks and Finishing
The Hazelnut has decking which forms an enclosed compartment with the bulkheads at each end for stowage or as flotation/buoyancy. Some designs do not have this but have a simple triangular shaped piece of plywood at the ends called a breasthook - the fitting of either is much the same. The decking or breathook can simply be glued and nailed to the top of the inwales but l prefer to sink the plywood down buy cutting a parallel strip off the top of the gunwale equal in width to the the thickness of the deck ply. If the deck/breasthook is then fitted before the outwale, the outwale will cover up and hide the end grain of the deck/breathook.

59. If the wood for the inwales or outwales is under length, join with a scarf joint—the length of the scarf is around 8 times the wood thickness—mark it on both pieces, clamp them side by side and cut together.	60. I am going to sink the decks down so that their top is flush with the top of the gunwale which means that the edge of the ply deck will be covered when l fit the outwale in place. Start by marking the depth of gunwale to be removed (thickness of the ply deck), make a saw cut and use a chisel to start pairing the waste material away.

61. Most of the waste material can be removed with a jig-saw.	62. Cut and fit the deck beams at the top of the bulkheads.

63. Cut pieces of ply for the decking over-size, mark with a pencil, remove, trim and cut the round shape into the back of the deck where it overhangs the bulkhead.	64. Cut and glue wood blocks under the deck to take the fastenings for the deck eyes.

65. Glue and nail the decks in place and finally trim with a block plane before—	66.—fitting the outwales
Having completed all the woodwork, we can now finish the canoe with paint and varnish - my standard finish is varnish on the inside of the canoe including inwales and outwales and deck and paint for the outside of the hull. Unless the canoe is destined for a Show, I use exterior household products. Before you start, make sure the epoxies are fully cured - this may mean leaving them for week or more - if you do not do this, the varnish and paints you apply will not dry. I start by using the mouse sander with the heaviest grit paper l can buy and use this to grind the inside chine tapes so that the hard bump on the edges of the tape is removed. I then go over everything with a medium sandpaper followed by a fine finishing paper. Everything is cleaned and all dust carefully removed and I then apply the varnish. In the Uk you can get International Yacht Varnish at places like B&Q and this is an excellent tough product - l use 5 coats, snading lightly between each coat.

67. After 5 coats of yacht varnish - if the first coat of varnish does not go off (because the epoxy is not fully cured) leave for 24hours, wash with white spirit, dry and lightly sand and apply another coat.	68. Although not coated overall with epoxy on the inside, the epoxy resin stains more or less disappear with several coats of a good varnish.
Next comes the preparation and painting of the outside of the hull - if the outside chine seams have been taped, it will look a mess to start with but can be made very smooth so that the tape disappears with the following process :- a. Grind the tapes with a heavy grit paper on the mouse sander and belt sander. b. Apply epoxy mixed with a lightweight filler (I used WEST 407) using a wide knife along the edges of the tape - allow to cure properly and then sand. c. After the epoxy filler etc is well and truly cured, paint with an exterior household wood primer. d. When dry, use a good quality household filler (see below) applied with a wide knife. e. Sand and paint a first coat of under coat - repeat stages d and e 2-3 times. f. Sand and apply 2 coats of gloss.

69. Having dealt with the worst of the bumps with the lightweight epoxy filler and given the hull a coat of primer/undercoat I use a good quality exterior household filler applied with a wide knife. Most of the popular and well known fillers available are much too soft and disappear when sanded - I found "Ever Build" All Purpose Ready Mixed Filler (www.everbuild.co.uk) at my local store (Leakes) which is excellent and is as close as l can get to some of the fillers we used to use in the Boat Yards.	70. Make sure that the bow and stern curves are nice and fair before you start finishing - next stop, the water!