JEM Watercraft

This may be a similar question to the one Ekollector had about tape and fillets. But I will offer it up any way. On my DK dingy I am going to sheath both sides with 4oz cloth (doubled from overlap over the bottom to the second chine on the outside) so my question is do I still need to tape the outside joints? I am planning on taping the inside. What do you think? It will run a 5 hp eska and I will also play around with the lee boards and sail from my old Grumman canoe.

Morten could answer that one best.

What would you recomend? Say if it were on your Gander Canoe or Buccaneer.

I'd say you'd need to have the total amount of cloth weight on all seams recommended in the plans.

Now if you got into using s-glass instead of e-glass, that's a different story.

My biggest concern is that this is a power boat, even though it's low power. You don't want to skimp on seam strength. There's a lot ore forces going on then just a paddle craft.

I'm not saying this to be a stickler. I just want you to have your boat for years of safe enjoyment.

Put that way it seems kind of like a no brainier, some how I was trying to convince myself that the sheathing cloth was also acting as the joint cloth but of course that is asking it to do double duty. I just finished buttering up all the stitch fillets and if the kids will go to bed on time again tomorrow night I should have all the exterior filleted tomorrow night! Thank you for your advice!

Neil,
I have recently purchased plans for the DK Dinghy and would love to see photos of your progress.
Marty

I just put a couple on the builder log section. I will try to keep them updated. I think you will like the design

Hello, Yes Matt is correct in saying always do what the designer specified for any boat. Sometimes we forget we are not really building a wooded boat, but a stitch N glue boat. The plywood is the core material and the epoxy / fiberglass is what gives the boat it's strength. When Mort or any designer makes a set of plans they calculate the stress on the hull and all of it's sections and how much of what type and weight of fabric needs to be used to meet the forces applied it that area.
If a seam calls for tape, always use tape. Using heavier tape or cloth is fine, but uses more resin. Using lighter tape or cloth anyplace puts yourself and your boat at risk.
In a stitch n glue boat the epoxy and fabric are not there just to seal the wood core but to hold the boat together and give it strength. In a wooden boat (plwood on frames) screws, nails and glue hold it together and gives the boat it's strength. The fabric / epoxy on a wooded plywood on frame wooden boat protects the wood only.

Dang I'm long winded!