The Mallard Boat

Great pics and documentation of your boat build. I'm enjoying it!

From my experience, make sure the air temp is warm (the warmer the better) when you mix the foam or it won't expand properly.

Doug
 
Great pics and documentation of your boat build. I'm enjoying it!

From my experience, make sure the air temp is warm (the warmer the better) when you mix the foam or it won't expand properly.

Doug
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Thank you. I will remember that. I have a heated work shop so keeping the heat up is no problem.

Thanks for your kind words.
Dave
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Dave E,

Be real careful when you open the containers of liquid foam. I'm lucky I didn't lose an eye when I opened one of the containers.

Before mixing mine, I left the sealed containers in a closed room and cranked up the room's heat. I figured the warm liquids would result in a more lofty foam when mixed.

When I pried open the metal container, the lid popped open, just glanced off my head and hit the ceiling with impressive force (I think it may have even left a mark on the ceiling).

Don't put any part of your body near that opening when you are removing the lid, and by all means, wear a good pair of safety goggles.
 
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Dave E,

Be real careful when you open the containers of liquid foam....... and by all means, wear a good pair of safety goggles.

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Good advice, always.

Thanks.
Dave
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Dave, I believe what you read was from Eric where he had a problem on his Scaup that he built, which he used knees instead of a full bulkhead, which eventually had problems. I think it was cracking where the knee and floor joint came together. If a crack or break is going to occur, it is almost always going to occur where a joint or bulkhead is located (the point where a "strong" point and a "weaker" point come together). It is my understanding that there have never been problems with using knees on the Cackler or Black Brant, but on the larger hulls such as the Scaup, Snow Goose, and Honker it is a different story.

I'm sure Eric could enlighten you more on what exactly the problems were that he encountered with using knees.

I would certainly use 3 layers of tape on all my bulkheads and knees, they are the main backbone of your boat.
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Eric used triangular pieces under the floor to stiffen the floor, but they did not run to the knees. There was a small area of unsupported hull between the knee and stiffener, so there were two very hard spots (knee and floor stiffener) bracketing a soft spot (the hull ply). Force was concentrated there and tore the hull from the stiffener. If I remember his fix was to tied everything together and the fix held well.

The knees have failed on BB's at least once or maybe twice that I can remember.
 
There was a small area of unsupported hull between the knee and stiffener, so there were two very hard spots (knee and floor stiffener) bracketing a soft spot (the hull ply). Force was concentrated there and tore the hull from the stiffener. If I remember his fix was to tie everything together and the fix held well.

The knees have failed on BB's at least once or maybe twice that I can remember. -------------------------- I should be good then If I understand you correctly. All of my "joints" have at least three layers of glass, except for the chine and transom. They have 5. I understand how a "loose end" would come up from the floor as it was flexing with stiff epoxy and glass on top of it. I figure if it gets so bad that mine breaks up, I am jumping overboard!... or at least cutting back on the throttle. My very massive 8 HP outboard will her to the very limit, I imagine.... Another thing I have going for me is that all the "stiff parts" attached to the floor will be in direct contact with the flooring, which will be tied to the hull and the keel. Should be pretty stiff, like corrugated cardboard. Besides that, I am an older guy, most of that high speed stuff is in my rear view mirror (thank god). I am not going to be able to work on her this evening. I have to work a 24 hour shift today (it's just oodles of fun). After that I have three days off. [/QUOTE]
 
There was a small area of unsupported hull between the knee and stiffener, so there were two very hard spots (knee and floor stiffener) bracketing a soft spot (the hull ply). Force was concentrated there and tore the hull from the stiffener. If I remember his fix was to tie everything together and the fix held well.

The knees have failed on BB's at least once or maybe twice that I can remember. -------------------------- I should be good then If I understand you correctly. All of my "joints" have at least three layers of glass, except for the chine and transom. They have 5. I understand how a "loose end" would come up from the floor as it was flexing with stiff epoxy and glass on top of it. I figure if it gets so bad that mine breaks up, I am jumping overboard!... or at least cutting back on the throttle. My very massive 8 HP outboard will her to the very limit, I imagine.... Another thing I have going for me is that all the "stiff parts" attached to the floor will be in direct contact with the flooring, which will be tied to the hull and the keel. Should be pretty stiff, like corrugated cardboard. Besides that, I am an older guy, most of that high speed stuff is in my rear view mirror (thank god). I am not going to be able to work on her this evening. I have to work a 24 hour shift today (it's just oodles of fun). After that I have three days off.
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You are good, no worry.
 
I epoxied the floor in today. I sealed the edges with thickened epoxy and feathered the edges in the front. This is only the front part of the floor.
View attachment floor.jpg

I also added the bilge "through hull" and the eyes for the trailer in the rear. I installed the bilge pipe before I filled the chambers with flotation.
View attachment hardware.jpg
[inline 2part]

Then I filled the rear chambers with foam. View attachment 2part.jpg I had never done anything like that before. I took a video of it and put it on you tube. You can see it at: http://www.youtube.com/...notate?v=1pCQuFWC8lI if you want to see the foam expand. Its about 4 1/2 minutes long and it isn't real exciting, but you can get an idea of how it works. After the foam expanded, I added a bit more to make the chambers full.

This is how it came out. View attachment foam.jpg
You can see the hose that will eventually go to the bilge pump on the left side.
 
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Today I got a couple things done, but it seems like it wasn't much. It took all day. I made some trays to go along the sides to hold shotgun shells, duck calls, thermos jug, or whatever. I wanted to elevate that stuff to keep it dry.

View attachment tray.jpg

I also made some cutouts to hold my shotgun, fishing pole, paddle or other long items. I didn't want to make the cutouts too big. I was afraid it would weaken the knees too much. I may add another rack I am thinking about so that I can carry my guns while they are in the case. I hate to scratch them up too much. I will see where my idea goes after I think about it awhile.

View attachment gunrack.jpg

Then I installed some electrical conduit to run the wiring in. I went to West Marine but they want wwwaaayyyyyyyy too much money for stuff. For instance, they wanted $17.95 for a roll of 25 ft of wire. I went to the auto parts store and got the same thing for $4.95 and it was 10 ft longer!!
You can see how I ran the conduit. I did not glue the joints. I didn't feel it was necessary. I just wanted it to keep the wires out of the way, and protect them. I can take them apart if I have to by just twisting them a bit. they will still keep the wires dry.

View attachment conduit.jpg

That is about all I got done, except, I had to fix one of my toilets. It kept running (drives me nuts). As you can see by looking at the pictures the rear trays are not finished. I have to install the lip around the curved part. I will have to laminate something together so it goes around the curve.

One of the reasons I wanted to use conduit is because of the flotation foam. Once that is installed, it would be impossible to replace any wires should that need to be done. This piece of conduit will allow me to run the wiring through the foam. Actually, I plan in running the wiring first, but I am talking about REPLACING it later, should I need to.

View attachment light.jpg

I have a few other pieces of hardware to install, but I don't have it yet. I am trying to work around it. Soon I will have to start on the decking. My plan is to turn the boat on its side while I am filleting that part. I am thinking of getting some of those cake decorating bag so I can just squeeze the epoxy up in there. Seems gravity will be working against me on that part. I have read posting from others indicating just how much fun that part was to get done.

I also drilled some drain holes in the floor. I didn't do it like the plans indicated. I put a few small holes where I thought water would puddle with the boat was tipped this way or that.

View attachment drainholes.jpg

The last thing I did was to drill the pass through hole for the fuel line. There will be a rubber boot around this that cinches down around the fuel line. It opens up so I can remove the line and part that clips to the motor to refill the tank (removable 3 gallon tank).

[inline fuelhole.jpg] (for some reason the program won't let me upload the last picture)

That pretty much burned up my weekend. Tomorrow I go back to work.
 
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Great pics and documentation of your boat build. I'm enjoying it!

From my experience, make sure the air temp is warm (the warmer the better) when you mix the foam or it won't expand properly.

Doug I cranked the heat up to 85 when I did the foam. It worked like a charm. When I took the screw cap off of the can, there was another cap under there that had to be pried off. When I did so, the air rushed out with a huge "whoosh." I was ready for it because if the warning I got here awhile back. Thank you!
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I made some laminate from a 2 by 4 and bent it around a paint can to make the curve for the rear tray edging. I used four layers. After cutting the ends to the right shape, I glued them down.

View attachment 1.jpg

View attachment 2.jpg

View attachment 3.jpg

Then I made the flooring for the dog and installed it. The dog floor is a bit elevated and has lots of holes for draining water. "Buckshot" (my dog) will bring in lots of water, I am sure.

View attachment dogfloor.jpg

View attachment 4.jpg

It was time to install the bow eyes, but I wasn't sure EXACTLY where to put it. So I went and bought a trailer and had the dealer set it up for this boat. The guys at the boat store seemed pretty impressed with my home made boat. When I talked to them on the phone and said I needed a trailer for a home made boat, I think they imagined something different. That made me feel pretty good about my handy work.
 
Then I brought it home and drilled the holes for the bow eyes. I seated them with 5200 and backed them with oak. I put thread lock on the nuts and torqued them down. I installed two bow eyes because I like to have the rope on one and that leaves the other one for the trailer strap. That way it is open and easy to hook up. My old boat only had one and it was always a pain to hook the trailer up with the rope attached.

View attachment 5.jpg

Here is a shot of my trailer before it was adjusted correctly for the boat. The front was too high here.

View attachment trailer2.jpg

I was going to fiberglass the floor this evening, but I lost something in my shop and I spent about two hours looking for it. I never did find it, but I got a lot of things cleaned up and put away. There is never enough time it seems.
 
I have had a very busy week. I didn't get a chance to work on the boat like I wanted to. I foamed the front compartment, but ran short of material. I have ordered more. I discovered I need more 3/8 plywood also. I am about ready to sheath the decks. I see that as the last "big deal" before the paint job. The paint job will also be a big deal (time consuming). Here it the foam:

View attachment foam.jpg

The front foam compartment is full enough, I suppose, but I just don't like the idea of leaving a void in there.

I have been working on the floor. I cut the rear cockpit bulkhead EXACTLY like the plans had it laid out. As you can see, the bottom of the cut out is too low. Any water that gets in there will have to be sponged out or some such thing. I am certain this would later become a source of irritation. I decided to raise the bottom of the cut out up a bit. I dug around in my scrap pile and found the pieces I had cut out of the plywood. I whacked off the bottom and glued them in place. After a bit of thinking about it, I decided to attach the upper part of this piece also and made a door out of it (that will come later). I left an opening for my gas tank handle to stick out. The compartment is not deep enough to get it all in there (shoot- I could have used 3 more inches). Just to make it the same on each side I left a gas tank handle opening on both sides. The opening I am talking about it not visible on these pictures. You will be able to see them later. This is what I ended up doing:

View attachment repair.jpg

Another shot for perspective:

View attachment repair2.jpg

The marine wire I had ordered the other day arrived. I decided to run it here and there. I can see that it is insulated to beat hell. The "tinning part" is not obvious to me, but I did not cut it open. I also bought special connectors that have shrink wrap on the ends and all of that. I was tempted to run lights here and there, but I did not. I convinced myself it would be "fluff" and not really necessary on a duck boat (for crying out loud).

View attachment wire1.jpg

I also put some fiberglass in the covers for the floor clean out holes. I am still debaiting on how to attach them. There are many options. I don't imagine I will have them off to often.

View attachment covers.jpg

For now, I am hung up for lack of materials. Time for a beer, I quess.
 
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