I knew that building the coaming lip was rather involved based on the my previous build of the African Queen 18. I also knew it would be worth it when completed. Spoiler Alert: It turns out pretty nice.
I ripped 1/8″ strips of ash and walnut (previously referenced sources of a wedding display and the tree in my front yard), planning on two strips of ash, one walnut, one ash, another walnut then two more ash strips.
More sanding.Got to make them smooth and even.Sanded smooth and evenHere’s where it gets confusing. I put clear packing tape on the outside of the risers.
The process here calls for forming the lip/ring around the coaming but not to glue it to the coaming yet. After forming the lip around the coaming I will remove, sand and finish it, take off the tape and epoxy it to the risers.
Unfortunately, I just forgot to take very many pictures at this point so you’ll have to use your imagination . You can see here the first two strips of ash. I had to bend those around the curves slowly to avoid breaking them. The ash did great, the walnut not so well. I just reglued the walnut where ever it broke and clamped the devil out of it.Never enough clamps, a reoccurring theme
I epoxied each laminate and let it cure for a few hours. When I had all 7 laminates glued, I carefully popped off the lip in one piece and finished sanded it.
The completed ringThis shows clamping the completed lip with the tape removedI used spacer blocks to make sure the lip was even around the cockpit.Not a good picture but this shows fiberglassing the bottom side of the lip to the coaming. This gave it enough strength to withstand the next stepWith the glass cured I cut the excess coaming flush with the top of the lip. Does this all make sense now?All cut flush.I finished fastening the lip to the coaming by fiberglassing small pieces from the top down over the inside. Once again, I failed to get a picture of that step
