The abrupt angle of the hull meeting the front stem has always looked a little awkward to me on Stevenson's boats. It looks as though most builders will place a small fillet of epoxy to smooth this out, would there be any harm in making a HUGE fillet to make the transition into the stem more graceful? I figure it will serve no purpose other than aesthetic and may be seen by some as a waste of epoxy, but surely the extra 4 or 5 lbs of goo will not affect the boat, will it? Wanting your thoughts and to see if there are any pictures of a boat (especially weekender or vacationer) with the hull faired into the stem.
David Johnson
Don't waste your money on epoxy. If you want to put in some sort of big transition you can epoxy in a bit of wood and shape it to your hearts content.Â
A small fillet is fine, but considering how shallow the keel is on a Weekender, you don't want to surrender too much vertical lateral area to a fillet. If you modify the keel, per some of my recommendations, then you can employ a healthy radius at the keel/bottom planking interface, but I wouldn't on the stock keel. A hunk of wood as Chris suggests or sheathed closed cell foam will do and save a gallon of goo as well. A triangular cross section glued to the keel and bottom planks, then faired in smoothly will suffice nicely. It will not do anything to the preformance envelop, but it might look a little better to some.
A number of builders have faired it in using epoxy with fillers and the edge of an old cd for a radius. Smooths it right out without a lot of expense or effort. A larger radius could be used without adding much more. Wouldn't just use epoxy alone though. I did that with Spiritwind and it was quick and simple. End result is very consistent and looks great. But from a performance viewpoint, probably a waste of time and effort.Â