Glen L Tiny Titan Hydroplane

Today I cut out the side panels from the 1/4 plywood sheet. I know my method may not look the best, but I am proud of it I think it worked out really well actually.

I basically just kept putting regular sheets of paper along the exterior and taping them as I went, and then when everything was done I took that long sheet of paper and moved it over to the plywood to start tracing.

It actually fit pretty well, I might make a few trims here and there but it is more than good enough for the first run. All of the edges that touched the coaming we're within 1/8 in or so correct. Everything else had at least a half inch to an inch or more of extra material, so that I could intentionally fit and trim it later.

I think I've decided that I want to finish standing and painting the interior before I put on these panels. I'm going to have very limited space to work with after these panels are on and I want to get all of this done beforehand.

Got to do some more sanding, and some filleting for all of the angles that don't come out very smooth.

I've decided I want to flip it and glass the exterior before I work on the top. I am going to try and get some remote steering for the outboard, and I don't want any panels getting in the way of any hardware attachments that I need to work on.

So as you can see I've just been filling up the holes and preparing to flip it over.

And I thought I would take a picture of all of my sanders that I have used, each one of them has its own specific purpose.

Put in the final fillets for the transom and Stern pieces. Once these dry I will give everything a very thorough sanding to make it much smoother before I flip it over and start to prepare the bottom.

Today I flipped the boat over and started to prep the bottom. I can already see lots of holes and things that I will need to fix before I start on the final sanding before glassing.

Oh and also I think I messed up on the sides. I know hundreds, rather thousands of people have built Glen L boats but honestly the pictures and descriptions I think are lacking, at least for amateur builders like myself. In any case I think I messed up. As you can see in the images I took the one quarter inch plywood and mounted it directly onto the side of the bottom pieces, they call this the non-trip planking. Anyway, I think they're supposed to be a thin piece of wood, like a batten that goes from one side all the way to the other. That would add strength and it would give you something to mount the plywood to. Well I definitely didn't do that, and everything is epoxy and it's too late now. After everything is glassed I expect this to be very very strong, but what I might do is add extra fiberglass tape on this area so that it's just a bit stronger. I might even just Mount the batten after the fact after I flip it back over. Anyway, at this point I'm not really following the plans anymore as I don't find them very useful and they're just as confusing as me trying to look at 40-year-old images on the Glen L photo archive.

Tomorrow I will put on the runner planking to finish up the bottom and once it all dries in a day or two I will start the heavy sanding to smooth it out all the rough edges. My plan is to Glass the entire bottom and do at least two coats of epoxy before I flip it back over to work on the top. I have intentionally left the top decking off for now, as I have purchased a steering kit for the outboard, and I want to dry fit everything after the boat is fiberglassed before I put on any of the decking, as it will be difficult to mount some of the hardware after the deck is on.

Arggggg, I made another mistake. If you look at the plans, all of the side and bottom paneling is supposed to be 1/4 inch. That means the runner planking I put on yesterday was 1/8 inch instead of 1/4 inch. Oops. I definitely should be looking at the plans, but at this point there are so few pieces left to go on the boat that I'm really relying on my knowledge, skills, and experience to get through the build.

Anyway, there are a couple of ways to fix this:

1. Sand everything back down to the beginning. This would remove the pieces I put on yesterday along with all the glue, basically taking it back to just the frames. This is most likely the proper way to fix it, but I have no intention of doing that much sanding.
2. Glue another 1/4 inch panel on top. This would probably be the easiest option, except I don't think I have enough plywood left to finish the top framing. It's not a big deal since I could easily go back to the store (I think the plywood sheet was only about $40), but I'm feeling lazy and don't want to drive all the way back out there.
3. Double up on the fiberglass. This is the option I'm going with. Now that I'm aware of the problem, the actual bottom runner plank will be 1/4 inch, but the side will stay at 1/8 inch. To make it stronger, I'll put on two layers of fiberglass so it ends up really thick and sturdy.

So anyway, today I added a runner chine, after the fact, underneath the paneling on the bottom. It's glued in pretty well, so I think it will add decent stability. Once everything has dried, I'll sand it flat so the top part of the planking makes contact with it as well.