Bluebill Update

Eric Caswell

Eric Caswell

Active member

This post was to be posted in early Dec. I finally finished my boat in time to go hunting twice before the season ended on Jan. 19th. YES!


Well I have finally reached a milestone in my life. I've cut something twice and it is still too short. For whatever reason I cut my side deck scarf line to short. OK, just scarf on a piece, wait a day, and cut it again to length. Wrong! I cut it in the same place as before! One thing age has given me is the ability to wait a few minutes before firing up the power saw and making a pile of saw dust out of the whole works.


[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica] Cut it twice.JPG[/font][/font]
This time I got it right.



[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Switch box.JPG

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I put in a switch box for a three switch panel. I built it waterproof then put a hole in the bottom to let the water out. (A trick I learned from an older Radar technician.) After seeing the newer clamp on lights that are on the market I think I would use them on any future builds to save time and expense.



Gluing the deck.JPG


The gluing in place of the side decks was easier than I had imagined. Strips across the tops of the scarf gave me enough pressure to produce a good scarf. I used the mold from the rear deck installation under the aft scarf and lath strips and a deep throated clamp along with a regular clamp on the front scarf.



Glass all deck.JPG


The glassing was pretty straightforward. I dry fitted all the pieces, taped the inside edge to hold it in position, (Use cheap tape here. The 3M tape sticks too well to the cloth making it hard to remove it.) and rolled it all into the boat in preparation for the final puttying of the decks.
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deep throat....

I love that line about age giving you the ability not to react by taking out the offending item....age is indeed worth of some value....even if it does take away some excellent opprtunities to feel some instant, albeit fleeting, gratification.

Show us some pictures of the boat on the water.....

Steve
 
Starting the glass dedck.JPG



The glassing went well. After a scrub sand it didn't look too bad.

After scrub sand.JPG



The cockpit coaming, spray coaming and grassing rails were pretty straightforward. All were bedded with epoxy and screwed or bolted where possible. The cockpit coaming has a lip around the exterior that your fingers can grab easily. Sort of an "Aw Crap!" handle.

spraycoaming2.JPG


I managed to get out twice before the season ended. The first outing was a shake down cruise. Saw my usual 1000 or so out of range birds but once again came home empty handed. The second trip on the last day of the season got blood and feathers on the boat and I accomplished my goal of getting a reference scoter. The wiring still needs to be completed, cleats which didn't arrive in time need mounting, and some type of spray shield, buggy cover, needs to be installed. Oh yeah, I hope I never smell that much fresh paint while hunting again.

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I'd like to thank everyone on this site for their sharing of ideas and pictures as a lot of info I got from here went into this boat.
Eric (Class of '05)

Firstblood.JPG
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]"I love that line about age giving you the ability not to react by taking out the offending item....age is indeed worth of some value....even if it does take away some excellent opprtunities to feel some instant, albeit fleeting, gratification. "

I think that part about the "fleeting" is what I finally got a grip on.

Have not figured out how to take self portraits so well yet. Some summer day I'll get someone to take a pic.

Eric
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Very nice Eric. Now don't put off the cleats, wiring and other "almost done" stuff until next fall. I like that front handle, where did you find it or did you make it yourself?

I'm sure you get it all the time with your job but the thing I always think of when I'm in my homebuilt is the gratification of "I did it myself". Congrats.

Pete
 
Thanks for that Pete.

Yep, that handle is "Shop built" . I needed a handle that I could fit a mittened hand into and one my son or one of his buddies wouldn't break when they run the boat up onto the mud flats. Me, if I run it onto the flats I'm waiting for the tide, it's more than I want to lift. Someone here described a handle like this with a ring for a fairlead.

July 4th. That is the target date for the remaining work to be done. :^) That should work for me as the daylight will be good.

Eric
 
Thanks Jason.

My dream has been to have a boat that I can go hunting with at the drop of a hat when the weather is to bad to do any outside work in the shipyard. I think this will work.

Eric
 
Eric

You put some really slick features in your boat. GRAT JOB!

Tell me about that handle on the front. That looks like just the ticket for dragging the boat over beaverdams.
 
Eric, the boat looks great, got a picture of the splashwell? Why did you do it that way? Is it easier to hit Scoters without an audience? You'll love the boat and don't worry about the other stuff since it floats and has go-power.
 
Wow Eric!! The boat looks great. I like the added lip on the combing. Where are you going to mount the radar and laptop/gps so you can get around in all the fog????
 
Congrats Eric!! She looks great. Looking forward to seeing your boat with a limit of birds on the deck next season.

Ryan
 
Way to go Eric. Excellent job. I very much like the finish work that you did. Where did you get that bow handle? Both functional and classy. Nice touch.

A.
 
Eric, Someone on this site mentioned a bow handle with a fairlead ring. I fabricated this one with a gloved or mittened hand in mind. The round stock is 1/2" ss and the pads are 1/4" ss. The inside [font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]dimension[/font] is approximately 4" x 2". I think I wanted 2" x 5" but I was going to mount a galvanized cleat behind it forward of the bowlight. I used the 1/2" round stock because I had some salvage from a prop guard I fabricated for a customer plus 3/8" would be to light when you factor in my son or his buddies as they would deform it for sure in a moment if they run aground on the mud.


Bow haandle.JPG


bow hndllngth.JPG


Bowhndlhgt.JPG


The pad on the front has it's holes evenly spaced as they go into plywood. The pad on the deck has it's holes staggered as they go into the deck support 1x4. The staggering helps to prevent concentrating the pressure along the grain lines.


stgrbowhndl.JPG


I don't know how important it is but I heat treat the whole thing after welding to redistribute the carbon atoms so they don't concentrate at the weld areas and cause brittle welds. Sounds complicated but in reality you throw them into a fire like a campfire or wood stove (Bonfire for the prop guards) and then let the fire go out. Dig them out of the ashes the next day! I have also used a tiger torch to bring them up to red hot then slowly, slowly reduced the heat to cool. If you can keep a prop guard for a 32" prop from [font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][/font][/font]fatiguing and breaking the welds for years at 10 knots then I'm going to do it for everything.

Mounting was done by bonding to the boat with epoxy following the procedure where you wet sand clean ss with the epoxy and bond with epoxy thickend with cabosil. I didn't enlarge the screw holes much for the increased bonding surface but I did run larger than normal pilots and wet them before bonding.

Sorry about running on but I hope I covered what you were wondering about.

Eric
 
Lee, You have seen my reaction time when I shoot. The splashwell is so when the water starts coming over the stern I will be able to say "DOH!" before my feet get wet. So far it works as advertised. Some water comes into the well when backing as fast as I can but the real test will be when I back into a following sea with a "REAL" motor, not the 5hp. The testing with a larger motor will include the backing into, hanging up on the stern anchor and weather vaning stern to and getting the motherline wrapped on the prop and leaning over the back to clear it. Full flotation suit and someone standing by for all those tests.

mtrwellfwd.JPG

I made my usual epoxy tubes for the drains but I didn't get them as low as I wanted so they don't drain completly when on the trailer. I'll have to pour a leveling pool of epoxy to bring them up that last 1/16" .

drains.JPG

I was worried about the tubes spraying up into the cockpit in a following sea but I didn't find much of a sea when I went hunting. 3-4' swell but no wind waves.

The first duck to decoy to my sillies was that immatue drake. He came down easily and I thought I was on a roll. Ya, Right! Not having an audience didn't make much of a difference. I should have had a Whitewing or two and two more mature Surfs. They sure decoy close to this boat though. I swear if I had put the sleds on the foredeck they would have landed on my head. You have to love that. I think I have to put more than 3 hours into my sleds to bring in the old boys though. :^)

Eric
 
Greg, Thanks for reminding me to put a compass on this thing. Shouldn't be a problem till they let us hunt in Fogust though. Hehehe. I was thinking of my daughter on that coaming. She got "Officially" engaged in December so the lip was designed with young fingers and the oldtimers hands both in mind.( The kid never did ask me for her hand. What's up with that.) They better be hanging on as I'll be the fool in the back not paying attention to where we're going while I stare at that compass wondering what it's for. :^)

Eric
 
Me too Ryan, me too. I'm hoping for a mix of scoters, ge,widgeon,teal,buffie,park and a goose or two for a shoot from one spot. Hey we all gotto dream right!

You still holding out for weather there? Moving my build to a heated shop was a blessing and a curse. I loved the heated spot but could have used the floor space for work. We were all starting to put tools and crap on it. I would be looking at August of 08 if I hadn't moved it though.

Thanks for the words.

Eric
 
Thanks Andrew, See my reply to Eric P's post about the handle. It works out that the handle hits the roller on my trailer so I won't have to deal with any trailer rash on the bow. Sometimes you just get lucky. I am going to have to put something on that shiny spot though.

Eric
 
I just recieved bluebill plans!! Was wondering where to make the scarf joint toward bow or aft? DO you have any suggestions to include in the build? My first attempt.


Ron Mowry
 
Eric,

Congrats on the build- the boat looks great. The custom handle and rear deck look like some very practical add-ons. Thanks for sharing and please post some more pics when you get the dodger built.

Take care!

-Bill
 
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