New boat build

[John Bourbon]

Last week I had the chance to apply some thickened epoxy tabs between the zip ties. After it hardened, I sanded the tabs pretty much flat.

Then on Monday, wth a relatively small weather window, I was able to epoxy the interior seams of the bottom/side. First I wet out the seam area. Then a layer of thickened epoxy applied in a small fillet. Then the 2" wide 6oz fiberglass tape. Lastly, I wetted out the tape with unthickened epoxy.

 

[John Bourbon]

Today was an excellent day for epoxy work! First I coated the exterior of the bow and stern with unthickened epoxy. Then I applied the pre-cut 6oz cloth to those 2 areas and finished wetting them out.

Within an hour, the epoxy had kicked and I was ready to apply the rubrails. The rubrails are 1x3 pine which I ripped down the center to creat rubrails 1 3/16 wide. After turning the boat over, I cut the rubrail to length. Then I held one up to the boat and marked on the rubrail where it passes over the frame. I marked that and drilled a hole through the rubrail and into the side/frame. I then screwed into that hole a 2" exterior decking screw. The screws purpose is to give me a starting point to bend the rubrail around the sheer so that I have at least one point firmly attached to the boat for when I start applying C-clamps. When I was happy with the location of the hole and the dry fit of the rubrail, I removed it, and coated the side touching the boat with Titebond 2 exterior wood glue. I also coated the part of the hull that the rubrail was to touch with Titebond 2. Then I fastened the rail to the boat with the screw in the frame and started applying clamps. After the clamps were all in place, I used 7/8" bronze ring nails to nail through the plywood into the rubrail from the inside of the boat. I put a nail in about every 3". Nailing to the side of the boat would normally be very aggravating, what with the hull bouncing around from all the hammering, so I used a backing iron consisting of a 12 lb steel dumbell held up to the rubrail at the spot where I was driving the nail in from the outside. Worked like a charm.

As to why did I use Titebond 2 instead of epoxy? A couple of reasons. 1, I was working by myself, 2 it was 80 some odd degrees and I all I had around the house for hardner was fast hardner. I figured by the time I would have the epoxy mixed, and spread, in this heat, I would have a problem getting the rail installed to my satisfaction. The Titebond 2, combined with the nails should be more than tough enough for this job.

In this pic, you can see the dumbell I used as a backing iron. And no, I didn't break it today....I did that some time ago....

And then I did the rail on the other side of the boat. At that point, most of my clamps were pressed into service on that side of the boat....

See the pointed pieces of plywood in the background? Tomorrow I will cut them up into strips about 2" wide and about 12" to 18" long. They will be used to create a mockup of the bulkheads I need to make for the floatation chambers.

 

[Jon Zuccolo]

John, what do you recon this boat will weigh when its all done? I think I may just build one for my own enjoyment some day soon. Perhaps a post-duck season project if my wife lets me have the garage back

 

[John Bourbon]

Hi Jon. Thats an excellent question. My goal was to bring it in light enough that 1 guy could put it in the back of the truck by hisself. With all the clamps off it, its still pretty light as is. Just of the top of my head, I'm thinking it will come in around 75 lbs????

I'll definately weigh it when I'm done.

John

 

[John Bourbon]

This past weekend was a beautiful 85+ degrees. Perfect for epoxy work. I started out by removing all the C-clamps from the rub rail and cut out some 2" wide strips of plywood for story sticks. Years ago in WoodenBoat magazine I read a tip about how to determine the shape of an interior bulkhead using sticks and spring clamps. I filed it away mentally for future reference. I had a chance to use it in building the bulkheads for the floatation chambers. In the pic you can see where I clamped them up using spring clamps. Then I laid the whole affair on the plywood and traced the outline onto the wood I was to to use for the bulkhead. After that I cut it out and beveled the edge of the board with my low angle block plane.

My son was standing around watching me do this. Thats his hand holding the jig while take the pic.

 

[John Bourbon]

Mostly finished product. In this pic I haven't yet trimmed the top of the bulkhead off yet.

Then I went through the same process on the stern bulkhead

And here's the finished stern bulkhead, with edges properly beveled.

After that, I cut an access hole in each bulkhead so that after installation, I could pour the expanding foam into the compartment. I then used duct tape to hold the bulkhead in place by taping on one side only and epoxied and fillited the other side.

And I did the same thing on the stern bulkhead. I had some epoxy left over after wetting out the cloth, so I used it on the aft side of this bulkhead, just so I wouldn't waste it.

Next up is to epoxy the seams on the other side of each bulkhead and then paint the interior of each compartment.

 

[John Bourbon]

I haven't gotten much done in the last week, but this morning I was able to squeeze in some time to paint some unthickened epoxy onto the interior walls of the floatation compartments.

Next up, interior railings in the cockpit....

 

[John Bourbon]

Since I last checked in here I got some work done on the boat, not much, but some. I Used my orbital sander to sand all the fillets in the cockpit area of the boat down to a duckboat quality fairing. The job wouldn't cut it if this were yacht work, but given the abuse this boat will receive, it'll do. After that, I spent some time cutting out a piece for the bow deck. In this pic, it's still grossly oversize as I haven't yet cut it down to the proper size yet. I have since cut it down to a point where its about 1/4" larger than final fit.

All the plywood in the boat is 1/4". Not optimum for screwing deck hardware down tight. In thinking about how the boat is to be set up, I figured I would need thicker decks in places where deck hardware is to be fastened. So, I took a piece of scrap plywood and shaped it so that it will fit under the deck all the way forward. This is where I will fasten the bullseye that the anchor rode will go through.

Next up will be the fastening of the bow deck to the hull itself.

 

[Jon Zuccolo]

Just got back from 3 weeks in australia and a week in canada... Looks good!

Is it finished? Painted?

 

[Lawrence Pyne]

Very cool, John. I hope to see it on Champlain this fall...

 

[John Bourbon]

Hi Jon. 3 weeks in Oz? That must have been interesting. No, the boat's not finished yet. I have been doing some work on it though. I will post some more pics later today. Ironically, when I started the build I tried to work on the boat when temperatures were warm enough for epoxy work. Lately though, I've been somewhat hamstrung by temperatures too high for epoxy work.

In addition to all that, I've been absolutely absorbed by the jihad I had to declare on groundhogs and red squirrels. I actually had red squirrels running around in the house yesterday. As you might imagine, that took precedence over boat building. I was seriously missing my little female choc lab....she would have made short work of that issue.

Larry, I very much plan on having it on the water this year. I hope to have a launching party at Sandbar about the beginning of the season. Maybe during the split. Do you want an email with the date when I figure it out?

John

 

[John Bourbon]

Hello All. Been doing some boat work in and around the heat. Managed to get the entire interior encapsulated in 2 coats of epoxy. Being the anal type that I sometimes am, I didn't want any runs, so I tipped the boat up before each coat so that the side being coated was mostly on a flat.

In the beginning of this build I complained about the outside temp not being warm enough for epoxy work. I no longer have that problem....The other day it was far to hot to do any epoxy work, yet I still wanted to get something done on the boat, so I cheated a little and built the skeg out of laminated 1/4" plywood strips glued together with Titebond 2. I laid the bottom layer on the hull in the spot where it will eventually be fastened, and slathered it and the next piece with glue and weighted them down with dumbells. After 12 hours, I glued the last 2 laminations onto the first couple, and weighted them in place. Each layer has the forward 4 or 5 inches planed down so that the skeg tapers to a fine thin point on the bow end. When I finally do get around to attaching the skeg to the finished bottom, I will top it off with 1" wide plastic rub rail. That will give we a skeg roughly 1 3/4" deep and hopefully with enough lateral resistance to make paddling in a breeze easier.

This morning when I woke and saw that it was overcast and cooler, I decided that it was a fine day to epoxy! So I got the clamps all laid out and adjusted to the right spacing. I cut some 2" glass tape to about 12" long (for under the decks) and arrainged my gloves, resin, hardner etc. First I wetted out the surfaces to be mated. Then a new batch of epoxy was mixed and thickened with fine sawdust and spread over the still wet first batch. I placed the deck on the pencil marks and scurried around attaching clamps, first lightly, and then progressivly tighter, much like a mechanic might do to a series of head bolts. I scooped us the oozing thickened epoxy and saved it for the underdeck fillet. Thats where the last batch of epoxy wound up.

When you look at the epoxy on the interior of the boat, you can see its allready been sanded in preperation for painting. Next up is going through that whole process for the rear deck.

 

[wendell avery]

Jihad on squirrels? Too funny!

 

[John Bourbon]

You know what they say...thats funny 'cause it ain't happening to me! I now have 4 screens that need replacing. Each one has 4 vertical rips in them from where the little S.O.B.'s took a claw and ripped a hole into the screen. Unfortunately I have an unlimited supply of them in the woods across the street from me. However, I aim to make a dent in the population....

John

 

[John Bourbon]

So, with all the other stuff going on in my life, the rate and pace of boat building has slowed. I have however been pecking away at it a little at a time. The more I looked at the boat, the more I figured I was going to need one of those angled pieces of wood on the bow deck to keep the water from sloshing into the cockpit unimpeded. I assume that the correct term is front coaming? Whatever it is, I decided to make it out of laminated plywood, again as much to see how it worked out as anything else. So I had a 1 inch wide strip of 1/4" ply left over from the skeg build. I cut it in half and stacked the 2 pieces up and drove a nail through them at one end, making an 18 inch long woodworkers bevel. I used that to figure out the angle I wanted on the coaming, and traced it onto one of the remaining hunks of ply that I have. After looking at the width of the one inch piece, I decided my coaming would need to start life at 1.5 inches wide. So I made 5 seperate V shaped coaming pieces. I epoxied them together over a 2 day period in my spare time on the deck so the pieces would take the curve of the deck. I taped wax paper onto the deck prior to epoxying anything. The next step will be to cut a bevel on the front and rear edges of the coaming so that the V lookes like its "leaning" forward.. I figure I can do this on the bandsaw. Then the lamination will get a couple of coats of epoxy to smooth it up.

 

[Dave Diefenderfer]

Looking good John, I'll get busy on the cleats this weekend...

 

[John Bourbon]

Thanks Dave. Its nice to have all the various sub assemblies finished and on hand so that you can install them at the correct time.

John

 

[John Bourbon]

Had the chance to do a little boat work this morning. I took the grossley oversized rear deck assembly that I've had kicking around for a while now and cut it down to a size that is about 5% too big. Then I started mixing epoxy. First it was regular epoxy on all the bare wood spots. The next batch was thickened epoxy spread all over the spots that I had just put the straight epoxy on. Then I put the deck in place and started the race against the clock, trying to get all the clamps in place and tightened before the epoxy kicked. As soon as the clamps were in place I scooped up all the thickened epoxy that was oozing out and used it to make an underdeck fillet at the hull/deck intersection, followed closely by (I did say I was racing the clock) a piece of 2" wide tape that I wet out while it was laying on a piece of wax paper. I'm starting to really like wetting the cloth out on wax paper prior to positioning it something awkward. All the assorted items on the deck are weights to hold the deck against the bulkhead so that the thickened epoxy I put on the bulkhead will adhere to the deck. Later tonight I will remove the C-Clamps and trim the deck till it is the same size as the rub rails.

 

[Dave Walker]

John,

The boat is looking good. What a great summer we have had for working in the garage. When my daughter is a bit older I would like to build a project like this with her. Part to build another boat, part to do something with her and for her.

I have a pile of 2x8 cedar that keeps me thinking about your "flatties". I might try a few when I get to cutting into this stuff.

Keep posting those pics

Dave

 

[John Bourbon]

Hi Dave. Thanks for the kind words. It has been a nice summer hasn't it? If you get the itch to cut a few out just to have around the house, bring over a plank and we'll bandsaw them out....

John