Fairing the Hull

The hull has been completely planked with cedar strips and is ready for fairing which is done with a combination of planing and sanding.  As you can see the hull is pretty good already but if you were to run your hand over it at this point you would find a few areas that need fairing.

Here is another view that shows the graceful curve of the hull and a bit of hand planing has been done  with a real light run over the hull with an orbital sander.  I took care to keep the sander moving and not let the edge of the sandpaper dig in anywhere.

At this point I stood back and took a look at the hull from many angles and made note of places that needed more work.

See that black thing sitting on top of the hull?  That's a long sanding block which was very useful for smoothing uneven areas.  I put a 60 grit sandpaper on it and carefully sanded diagonally across the strips in both directions until I could no longer feel anything but smooth curve.  This was the most time consuming part of the job and I spent over a week doing this off and on until my arms would give out then I'd rest and start again.

Once that was done I went back over it with the orbital sander loaded up with 220 grit paper until I had a smooth hull.  Check it out below.