Advice for a newbie on a Devlin repair/restoration

Good morning, Richard~


All looks great - as usual!


re Cabosil:milled fibers ratio. I would use mostly the milled fibers. To (over) simplify, the Cabosil serves mostly to prevent sag, the fibers provide the structural strength. You might want to call the tech advisors at US Composites for their advice.


All the best,


SJS

 
Richard,
Looking good- top notch work.

I think you will like having the strake face fully covered in aluminum; they will be able to withstand some real abuse from ice, rocks, oyster beds, and the like.

Keep the pics coming!

-Bill
 
Had a good weekend of progress. After getting the glass laid on Saturday morning, I was able to get it sanded and epoxied again so it was ready for the strakes. I had a little bit of work to do on them still. Yesterday I was able to get the aluminum bar finished up, drilled, bent to fit, and I sanded both sides in prep for adhesive and paint. This morning I was up early to get the mahogany cleaned up and sanded and 3rd coat of epoxy went on. It is amazing home much better the epoxy cures when left out in the sun vs in my garage (thanks for the tip Steve). When I got back midday it was already hard as a rock. I went ahead and dry fit the aluminum, and I have to say I'm feeling pretty good with how these turned out. Thanks Todd for making the suggestion of running a wider piece of aluminum rather than the rounded and exposed edge.
View attachment 20200704_160851.jpg

View attachment 20200705_160151.jpg

View attachment 20200705_182749.jpg

The end product of the weekend was getting the first strake mounted on the hull. I won't say it went smoothly, but it definitely could have gone worse. I guess we will see how it really went when I remove the straps. I could use some work on my fillets, so don't look too close. Getting the strake on straight without getting the paste all over the hull and getting the straps tightened down was...an adventure.

View attachment 20200705_180633 (2).jpg

View attachment 20200705_180609.jpg

Hopefully everything looks good on this one and I can do the second sometime this week. Thanks again to everyone that has offered input or advice, especially Steve who I feel like I bugging about something or another way too often.
 
Thanks Bill. I agree on the aluminum, but would put my work somewhere closer to acceptable than top notch ha! On these hot summer days I sure which I could get this thing together and out on the water. Lots of work still to come but getting closer.
 
Good morning, Richard~


Really fine work! You clearly have the craftsman/strive for perfection gene.


re getting the strakes nice and straight and where you want them: I mark both the footprint of the strakes themselves (which gets obscured early on in the fastening process) and lines about 1/2-inch parallel to them - where the fillet will spread out to. I tape this line both as a reference and to help cleaning up the fillet. Masking tape is fine but cellophane packing tape holds up better during the process. Either should be removed, though, before the fillets cure fully.


Glad the sunshine came through for you!


All the best,


SJS



 
I was able to get the second strake attached last night. I had a harder time with this one. I'm not sure if it was the heat and humidity difference or if I was a little off on my mix, but I had some fillet sag to deal with. It meant that I spent an hour or so fixing areas of sag every few minutes until it hardened. It turned out ok in the end, some indication of sagging but still plenty on the seam. I'd like to clean it up some for appearance if there is a safe way to accomplish that.

Now that both stakes are on, I'm wondering how much sanding, if any I should do to smooth them out? I did a minor amount on some rough areas on the first strake, and it seemed to work well, but I didnt want to go overboard. Also do folks normally coat them with a layer of unthickened epoxy as a final step?

The "final" work I have on the strakes is 5200 adhesive and the aluminum bars, and hopefully this part of the project will be (finally) complete.
 
Good morning, Richard~


As you've no doubt learned already, sanding hardened epoxy that does not have fairing compound (microballoons) in it is a bear. It is especially tough in tight corners. I often wonder if pros have a magical router/grinder/sander tool that can produce a nice smooth radius. A Dremel might have some useful tips you could try if needed.



If you do try sanding it, I would start with 40 or 60-grit wrapped around a softwood block that is shaped to the radius you want. Once the bull work is done, you can finish off with 100 or 120 grit.


A topcoat of straight epoxy can't hurt - it could seal micropores - but be sure to sand and clean it before any paint goes on.


All the best,


SJS

 
A Dremel with various diameter flap wheels or drums works pretty well. I've used that method extensively. After that, a dowel with sandpaper. You can touch up rough fillets with a much easier to sand mix of microlight, or better yet System 3 Quick Fair. I've pretty much switched to using all System 3 application specific products. Laminating resin for glass, Gel magic for bonding, EZ Fillet, and Quick Fair. It's expensive, but an enormous time saver. Your boat is looking great!
Jim
 
I spent most of the evenings this week getting everything ready for paint. Last night was the final sanding and washing. First thing this morning I wiped it down with a tack cloth and did one more wipe down with acetone. I went with Lou's FME #28 Dead Grass Green. First coat went on pretty quickly without any real issues. I like the color. I haven't decided if I want to do a camo or not, but I think it will look pretty good as is.
View attachment 20200711_085002 (2).jpg

Per Lou's instructions, it was about as thin of a layer as I could get. I used a foam roller, and it left it looking pretty darn good. I had a brush ready and expected to have to do some tipping/smoothing too, but ended up not using it. I plan to get a second coat on first thing tomorrow morning, and maybe one more if needed later in the week. I'd like to give it all week to cure than flip it and get to work on the floor, floorboards, shelves, etc.

The boat is still pretty far from being well finished and smooth like some of the projects I've seen on this site, but I we've made quite a bit of progress and improvement from what it looked like a few months ago. The main keel is still a bit of a mess. It was in good enough shape that I didn't do any work to it for now, but I suspect that will end up needing replaced in another summer or two.
 
Thanks for the advice Jim. I ended up doing it all by hand. I had a piece of scrap wood with beveled beveled edges that made for a great dowel-like sanding pad. The dremel idea does seem like a good one. It probably would have saved me lots of time and sweat.
 
Good morning, Richard~


Great work! Must feel good to be at this stage.


Did you use Penetrol or other thinner for the FME. Lou advised me to use it and it was a great help. I have used Penetrol for many years - but the one made for use with oil paints is harder to get here in NYS nowadays.


All the best,


SJS

 
Thanks Steve, it does feel like a pretty big step to get paint on the hull. After having a similar issue finding Penetrol locally, I ended up not thinning. I had mineral spirits I could have used, but I wasn't certain if that would work well with the FME or not, so I made a last minute decision not to thin. Even with probably warmer than recommended temps yesterday, it didn't seem to be an issue with foam roller application. I put the second coat on first thing this morning. I think I went a little bit overboard with trying to limit the amount of paint I was putting on for this coat and ended up with some darker and lighter areas on the boat where it looks like I didn't do a great job of uniform rolling. I may need to be a bit more liberal with the paint on the third coat (or maybe I should try and thin it) to get good uniform coverage and (hopefully) final finish.
 
Tonights update is a short one - I was able to find penetrol, None of the local shops or auto places had it, but Home Depot did. It made a huge difference. The third coat of paint is on the hull and it looks much much better. If anyone is rolling on FME, I would absolutely use it.
 
Good morning, Richard~


Excellent! Glad you're getting the results you want - and that your workmanship deserves!


When I built my first duckboat - circa 1982 - my brother moved a bunch of his stuff into my garage - evicting my vessel. It was late Fall and so very little daylight after a work day. My final coat of paint - Parkers Marsh Grass at the time - got frosted in the night before it could cure. Thus, it's topcoat was blotchy all throughout her first season.....


All the best,


SJS

 
Good on the Penetrol. I use Kirby?s marine alkyd, and Penetrol is essential to proper flow out. Works far better than their more expensive proprietary thinner.
More pics!
 
Really nice! I looked at the FME color charts. Great colors. I wasn't aware of this company before. Small business like Kirby. I thinks it's great that these smaller ops are still here.
Thanks for sharing your project.
Jim
 
Lou, the owner of LSB, has been a member here since almost day one. I have cans of his paint that are 20 years old and still good. FME is amazing.
 
I let the paint sit a little short of a week including a few days out in the sun, then flipped it back over on Saturday and got the boat ready for a water test. I wanted to make sure all was well before I got to far into finishing the top deck and inside of the hull only to find out I missed an issue. Btw, I didn't intend for my registration stickers to be large enough to be read from space, must not have read the fine print when ordering.

View attachment 20200719_102535.jpg

No problems with the water test, which is encouraging. Lots of work to do still but good to see it will at least float and keep water out now.

I was also testing out the motor, a 4 stroke 25 hp Yamaha I picked up on Saturday afternoon. It had plenty of power and jumped right up on plane and kept the boat really moving. I had a hard time deciding on a motor, but in the end decided the F25 was the best tradeoff of power to weight for a 4 stroke. After the first trip out I feel pretty good about that choice. However, the short shaft Yamaha is a good bit longer than the short transom that is on this boat, so I'm trying to work out how to resolve that next. I used a small spacer block when I got the boat out, but I'm going to need more height. There was some disturbance in the wake that I think was caused by the depth of the motor vs the bottom of the transom. I'd say the cavitation plate is still a good 2.5- 3 inches below the bottom of the transom. It looks like at some point, someone cut down a top board that was on the transom, and installed a metal plate. Looking at old adhesive on the transom, I'd say this also isn't the first metal plate.

View attachment 20200719_121730.jpg

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the Vance manual jack plate linked below. I'd be interested if anyone else has tried this approach on a Black Brant or other similar boat. I found a few options, but this seems like one of the better to keep it light, relatively affordable, and still offer some adjustment. Any jack pate users out there?

https://www.vancemfg.com/...late-p/jpl2412sb.htm
 
Last edited:
Good morning, Richard~


Your vessel looks great afloat!


Regarding the transom height - a couple of approaches come to mind:


1) Contact Sam Devlin and get his thoughts/experience re fitting motors to a Black Brant.


2) Consider a wooden motor board with standoffs - as I have been putting on duckboats for many years now. You can adjust the height for optimal performance by either a) making more than one board or b) mount up or down 'til you hit the sweet spot.


View attachment sm MB 02.JPG



I am finishing one later today - to mail off tomorrow. I will be posting details in a day or so. I make mine from treated 2x10 lumber - sealed with 3 coats of epoxy.


All the best,


SJS

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top