stitch and glue

i have just bought my plans to build my kids their first boat. The boat is a 8 ft rowing/power dinghy. What i need to know is how to stich and glue? I know to drill holes, stitch with wire, and then glass & glue, but what i need to know is about the stitching do i join wire inside or outside boat? if joined outside for example do i then glue inside first and then outside? do i remove or trim stitches after one side is glued or just cover them with glue & glass? Your help would be much appreciated

armst74@yahoo.co.uk

good point i too would like advice on stitch & glue - please

[duluthboats]

Ok, stitch and glue. Without seeing your plans it is hard to give precise details for your boat. So I’ll just be general. In most cases you twist the wire ends on the outside of the hull. I tape between the wires with one layer of glass on the inside and fill any gap between wires with thickened epoxy on the outside. This will join your panels together. I then put some temporary support across the beam making sure that the distance is right. When the epoxy is set I remove all the ties. Doing it this way allows for easy removal of the ties. It also allows me to put a piece of dowel under the wire on the inside so that I can easily align the edges as I’m drawing up the wires. At this point I fill the outside seams and install 3 layers of tape each an inch wider than the other. Then on the inside the seams have to be filleted with thickened epoxy. The fillet height should be 2-3 times the thickness of your panel. Work on one seam at a time. Take care to make clean smooth fillets. Allow the epoxy to stiffen but still be tacky, then apply 3 layers of tape, each 1inch wider than the other. This is a very general guide. There are many things to look out for, it would take a book to explain them all. In fact many have been written on this subject. One I would recommend is Sam Devlin’s Wooden Boat Building. http://www.devlinboat.com/ Good luck.

Gary