Transom Skirt Trim | Making & Fitting The Upper Laminate

I made the upper laminate while the lower one was curing on the boat.

As with the lower one the manual tells us to use a table saw to cut a 30 degree bevel to make the upper laminate.

And again in the absence of a table saw, the upper piece was  marked up and planed to the required section.

The manual also states that the upper laminate will be easier to bend into place than the lower. A test bend by hand quickly demonstrated that this was not to be the case with my trim.

Perhaps it was the relatively stiff Sapele which I am using. In the manual it looks like the builder is using softwood.

Anyway, I used plenty of temporary screws driven into the lower laminate to pull the upper piece into place for a test fit, as here.

In this pic I am using a long sliding clamp to hold the starboard end in place, with a sawhorse holding the clamp against the hull to stop it springing off.

I label everything to avoid confusion about which face is which, like this.

As with the lower laminate, a secondary bevel was required at each end of the upper piece where it lands on the seatback top.

I was a bit over enthusiastic with the plane on the port secondary bevel, so I filled the small gap with a couple of slivers of Sapele. No problem. 

Here is a view from port of the upper laminate permanently glued in place.

A sliding clamp was necessary at each end to hold them snugly down while curing.

When well and truly cured I cleaned up the trim piece with the jack and block planes, as here.

I used a bevel gauge to make sure that the top of the trim was flat and even all across the stern, like this.

A good chisel was useful for finely paring the ends to shape, as here.

This is a view from starboard of the finished trim piece, sanded and rounded over.

It adds strength to the top of the transom as well as looking good.

This is what the starboard end of the upper laminate looks like, where it lands on the seatback top.

That's the transom skirt finished.

The next task is to cover the whole upper hull with fibreglass cloth - should be fun!