Hi John,

> So I cheated, and used my trusty 4x24 belt sander. I think I might be
> saving time - it took an hour on the coaming of my clc 18, removing the
> extra plywood, and another quarter inch all around the inside where the
> laminates were not perfect. Now the thing looks perfect enough for me,
> even though it is not perfectly fair in the tightest recess of the forward
> curve. It only took the whole hour because it was so difficult to maneuver
> the machine around.

I used a coarse bad-ass rasp for this job. A real knuckle-skinner, but it made a beautiful curve in no time. I touched it up with 60 grit by hand and then 80/120 with a ROS.

> It took 15 minutes to curve the sheerclamps preparatory to fastening the
> deck.

I think this part took me 25 minutes, but I did find the belt sander worked great here.

> It took ten minutes to sand away the flashing of plywood after fastening
> the top, after a quick pass with the jig saw, and another three to put the
> 1/4" radius around the top edge.

I took maybe 15 minutes here--maybe I used a less coarse (reads aggressive) paper than you did!

> Same speed for other trimming/ shaping events in my garage.

> Does anyone else use belt sanders on their boats?

Absolutely!

I also used the belt sander to cut my scarfs on my plywood panels, and to fair all of the panels--I should've touched up my fairing job with a sharp block plane, but it worked well (and fast) enough.

Shawn