For quite some time I've been trying to do some work on my Devlin Broadbill, including making a hard dodger. By hard dodger I mean one made from wood and fiberglass as opposed to the typical canvas over metal frame. So after twenty seasons of use the boat is getting a fresh coat of paint job, rewiring, modification to the motor bracket to make it a little taller, and the hard dodger. Duck season is about a month away so it will be a race to get it done and have the paint hard enough to put in the water but I'm going to do my best.
With that said, today was a good day for progress. After playing with all kinds of shapes and sizes I honed in on one that should meet my needs. Those needs being a place to hold onto while driving the boat standing, and cover to hide behind or under when gunning, yet simple enough curves to be easily created in my shop.
So with all that figured out I purchased some 1/4" plywood and 1" foam board. With the plywood I made a template of the arch shape of the dodger and then routed that shape onto 33 pieces of foam. Each piece has a 45 degree angle on the bottom and is 1" shorter than the previous piece in the stack. I glued all 33 pieces together, faired the stack with sandpaper, and then taped the curved surface with packing tape to prevent the epoxy from bonding to the mold. With the plug complete I put down 8 layers of fiberglass (woven outer layers and bi-axial inner layers) resulting in a thickness of somewhere around 1/4". After it cures I'll pop it from the mold, add a bulkhead, grass rails, and trim it to fit the curvature of my Broadbill's deck. It will be held on with bolts through the deck with knobs for quick and easy removal. Below are pics of today's progress.
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With that said, today was a good day for progress. After playing with all kinds of shapes and sizes I honed in on one that should meet my needs. Those needs being a place to hold onto while driving the boat standing, and cover to hide behind or under when gunning, yet simple enough curves to be easily created in my shop.
So with all that figured out I purchased some 1/4" plywood and 1" foam board. With the plywood I made a template of the arch shape of the dodger and then routed that shape onto 33 pieces of foam. Each piece has a 45 degree angle on the bottom and is 1" shorter than the previous piece in the stack. I glued all 33 pieces together, faired the stack with sandpaper, and then taped the curved surface with packing tape to prevent the epoxy from bonding to the mold. With the plug complete I put down 8 layers of fiberglass (woven outer layers and bi-axial inner layers) resulting in a thickness of somewhere around 1/4". After it cures I'll pop it from the mold, add a bulkhead, grass rails, and trim it to fit the curvature of my Broadbill's deck. It will be held on with bolts through the deck with knobs for quick and easy removal. Below are pics of today's progress.
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