Acorn To Arabella · video

What this video covers

Replacing the 100-year-old mahogany transom on Victoria, Arabella's tender, Steve mills a replacement panel from larch — also called tamarack, hackmatack, or juniper — sourced from a neighbor named Rod across the bay, who also lent his thickness planer.▶ 0:46 The original mahogany came from a larger boat called Big Victoria but had deteriorated beyond serviceability.▶ 0:22 Steve glues the oversized larch panels using TotalBoat Thixo Fast Cure epoxy in a racked Emerts vise, explaining that epoxy requires only moderate clamping pressure — too much squeezes out the adhesive and starves the glue line.▶ 3:08 He lays fiberglass cloth on the transom interior and exterior, wetting it out with epoxy and stopping at the existing paint line, then trims the excess after cure.▶ 4:12 Because Victoria is a working tender rather than a show boat, Steve accepts imperfect glue lines knowing the fiberglass and paint will reinforce and cover them.▶ 4:52 The glue cured just in time for departure; the transom was functional but not fully finished before Arabella left for the south coast of Newfoundland.▶ 14:46 Fiberglass sheathing over epoxy-glued panels is a practical way to compensate for imperfect joinery on a working boat.

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