Sanding Fillets | Vale Of Tears Revisited

In the previous post I said that I was not happy with the quality of my workmanship, and that some of the fillets would need rework. There was no question about it. If the boat was to be strong and attractive, more sanding misery was required.

So, I spent some time deciding which fillets needed to be improved and made a work list.

The first thing I did was to tape out the keelson fillets, like this.

I should have done this in the first place, to achieve wide, shallow and neat fillets.

Then I set about reworking all the items on my list. By now I had become relatively expert at filleting and it only took three days to carry out all the remedial activity.

Another six days of dressing and sanding followed before I declared myself content with the size, strength and appearance of all the fillets.

At last, the agony was at an end. It felt like I had been working on these fillets for months but when I checked my log I found that the entire exercise had taken just over five weeks. I don't think that is a bad investment of time, given the importance of strong joints.

The next step is applying fibreglass to the interior bottom panels of the hull. It will be a very welcome change!