Scarab 650 Floats

The outside joints were taped.The float hulls are removed from the building frame and turned.

The inside joints were taped.

The float was levelled and the bulkheads were added and taped.

An easy way to build the deck and a slight deviation from the plans is to cover the deck foam with a layer of unidirectional glass on one side. This allows the foam to bend over the float shape. We found that once the foam was covered with glass it was too stiff to bend in an appropriate curve.
Scrap pieces of laminated foam were attached to the outside of the top panel.

Deck is attached to these scraps using dry-wall screws. The foam is then laminated with biaxial or double bias glass. When the glass is hardened the screws through the top panel can be removed, the deck removed and turned. The deck is marked around the scrap foam and the screws removed. Carefully cut around the deck slightly larger than the marked area. The deck can now be laminated with biaxial or double bias glass.
The scrap laminated foam can be used on the inside of the floats as an extra area to attach the deck.

After finding the position for the back stay chain plate the holes were drilled. The foam was removed and backfilled with strong filler. A threaded plate was glued in with Sikaflex.

The foam was removed from the edges of the hull sides and decks glued to the hull. The glue we use is resin mixed with aerosil/cabosil and cotton fibres.

The deck was added in three sections leaving the space to add the beams later.

The floats were filled (resin mixed with Q-cells) and is now ready to paint.

Floats were primed using Jotun Pengard. The area around the beam attachment area were masked.