>. . . Please
> forgive my terminalogy here, I'm a woodworker not a boater. The bow and
> stern at the keel line gave me a great deal of grief. I tried to alternate
> the crossing pieces but still found that I had huge gaps at the ends of
> them. (1/2" -3/4") What I'm wondering is if I can fill them with
> epoxy and then make a keel strip to cover up the flub. If so, does anyone
> have any tips to make the keel strip wrap around the keel at the points of
> the craft and then flatten out at the bottom? I fiddled around with
> 1/2" strips but couldn't get them to make the complex curve. Any
> other thoughts to make this look nice will be greatly appreciated.

Sometimes the answer for truly tight curves is to go with smaller strips. I've used three 1/4 inch wide (6mm) strips to fill a space that normally would be occupied by a single 3/4 inch (19mm) wide. I only needed pieces a few feet long, and set them in with the ends of the three butting against the end of a single regular strip.

If you have already worked past this area -- and it sounds like you have -- then you will probably have to remove some portions of the poorly fitted strips and insert good ones. Let me suggest using a router and a straightedge to cut a neat slot where the gap exists. A straight sided cutter that makes a 1/2 inch wide slot would work. For that matter, so would one that cuts slots 1/4 or 3/8 inches wide. Whatever the width of the slot, the router cut gives you something with straight, square, parallel sides. Square off the corners of this slot with a chisel and you can drop in a piece of wood to fill the slot.

For really bizarre curves: Plug the hole with a piece of wood that is thicker than the surrounding strips, mark the inside of this plug with a scribe or pencil line (top and bottom). Remove the plug and use a bandsaw, plane, pocketknife, sandpaper or whatever to get the interior curve to fit properly. This may take a few minutes, but cedar works easily if your tools are sharp. When the plug is properly shaped for the interior curves, glue it into the slot. After the glue hardens, use a plane or belt sander with a coarse belt to remove any parts of the plug that remain above the surrounding strips.

> Second
> thought: How big of gaps can be filled nicely between strips? How do you
> fill the gaps between light colored wood?

When you get into making repairs you can replace a fairly large section by cutting away the damage and adding strips where needed. This would be considered a BIG gap. A gap the size of a finger can be filled with a thin strip. A gap the size of a toothpick can be filled with a very long, very thin strip. (or, you can use wooden coffee stirrers or toothpicks.) When using square edged strips you might encounter gaps which can be filled with strips that have a triangular cross section. Put a bit of glue on them and staple them into place. It is best if these strips end up a bit above the rest. When the glue sets you can sand them flush, and you will get a nice finished look on the outside. Nobody sees the inside. Fill those spots as follows:

For filling miscellaneous gaps you can mix some fine sawdust with resin. Sand it smooth after the resin sets. As I prep the hull for fiberglassing I gather the dust from my sanding and save some for filling the bigger spaces. If you seal the wood with a light coat of resin before applying the glass fabric, you can do your gap filling at this time. A light sanding afterward both smoothes the excess gap filler, and preps the hull for the glass. Hope this helps Paul Jacobson