A Scarf Is Born

My boy, who was all of 9 years old when I first became interested in boatbuilding, is now on the verge of turning 16. It's crazy, the way time just seems to rocket by faster and faster every year. As Ferris Beuller says, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

A few days ago, he & I went to see "A Star Is Born," directed by Bradley Cooper, and starring himself and Lady Gaga. Great movie.

And thus concludes my brilliant segue from my corny title to a messy scarf joint. 

Here we go:

Here are the two boards, each clamped firmly to the construction form so they won't move. In addition to that, I've used two large clamps, reversed as spreader bars, to maintain downward pressure on the boards to keep the joint aligned with the floor. Waxed paper is underneath the joint to minimize the mess.

The scarf joint is only 6 inches long (1/2" thick boards with a 1:12 ratio scarf). I clamped the whole thing together as firmly as possible with 5 bar clamps.

The squeeze-out of thickened epoxy made a heck of a mess. However, the joint is strong.

Here is the resultant 15' 6" board, loosely clamped in place. (Well, sort of.)

Here is the scarf joint, cleaned up a little bit, with some of the epoxy sanded away.

In Other News

Fairing. The process seems to never end. Currently, I'm close to flattening out the high spots along the inner batten on the starboard side (zones 1 and 2 on the graphic).