Gluing the bottom to the stringers, transom and bowstem was straightforward, but a major exercise in trying to work as fast as possible. It’s a lot of glue to apply, things to line up and screws to drive before the epoxy kicks off. Everything HAS to be dry fit first because there can be no changes once you start this. Make sure and cut the rear limber holes! It’s a bear to do afterwards.

I made sure that everyplace that glue would be applied was sanded for maximum epoxy holding power. I also marked glue lines on EVERY side of every location on the bottom where it would contact glue and snapped chalk lines on the bottom to mark where the screws would go into the stringers. These lines would guide me when I applied the epoxy and screws, and also help me line things up when I lowered the bottom so I wouldn’t smear the epoxy.

To give myself more time, I chilled my epoxy in tubs half full of ice and water for about 2 hours. My handy dandy infra-red thermometer told me that the epoxy had chilled down to about 60 which should add at least 15 minutes to my pot life and I used every minute of it. To start the gluing process, I applied unthickened epoxy to all surfaces that would be glued – including the bottom itself. I let this set a while and even went back over places like the stringers and transom where the glue had soaked in to make sure those joints had all they could hold. There’s no hurry to this, because the fiber reinforced epoxy is what would actually glue things together.

The actual glue-up mix was epoxy with lots and lots of milled glass fibers. These give the most strength and its definitely needed here. Now I have to work fast. I liberally coated all glue surfaces with the thickened epoxy and then lowered the bottom onto 2x4’s strategically placed across the stringers front and rear. (because of the angle cut on the stringers, the 2x4’s don’t mess up the glue) I removed the straps holding the bottom, then removed the 2x4 at the rear and carefully lowered the bottom onto the transom along the alignment lines. Apply a few screws across the transom contact point and then lower the front onto the bowstem. A couple of screws from the bottom into the bowstem and the position of the bottom is set.

Now working as fast as possible, I started screwing the bottom to the transom and up both sides into the stringers using heavy duty 1 5/8 screws (these don’t break) and fender washers. I got good squeeze-out, so I knew I had good glue contact. Even the almost 1” gap between the stringers and the bow pulled in very well. All of this takes a surprisingly long time. When I was done, it had been 45 minutes since I had started mixing the epoxy. In warmer circumstances, 2 people doing this would be much better and probably necessary. Then I went underneath to deal with the squeeze-out. Some would get stuffed back into the joints and some was simply excess. I could conceivably do some filleting, but I had enough to do to the now beginning-to-gel epoxy. The filleting would be done in a separate step later.