Paint and epoxy

A quick update to show the paint/epoxy done yesterday...

That's two coats of epoxy in the bilge and white two-part epoxy primer forward of the main bulkhead and under the seats. More coming soon.

I would have painted more but I ran out of paint, on a weekend no less, oops!  Next will be sanding/painting under the foredeck (so I can start installing the deck) plus putting in deck support knees around the edge of the cockpit area.  Once those are in, I'll prime the rest of the interior.  I'll be using two-part epoxy primer throughout, except the bilge which gets two coats of clear-coat epoxy plus paint.

Framing out the cockpit and epoxy coating

With Labor Day festivities out of the way, it's back to boat building.  I made some reasonable progress over the last 10 days, take a look:

I finally cut down the top of the transom, no need to do it now...I just wanted to see what it looked like.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm gong to "notch" it down further for the outboard and rudder, but this way I get to look at a more conventional transom before taking the jig saw to her again.

Here's the aft half-bulkhead being glued in.  Also, the well is framed out and I've hot-coated a couple of coats of epoxy inside.  I doubt I will paint in there, the epoxy should be fine (completely out of the sun, the big enemy of epoxy coatings).  The two round holes are for small 4" store-bought watertight access hatches.

Speaking of epoxy coating, I also double-coated the interior under the foredeck too.  This will get a coat of something before I put in the deckbeams and install (finally) the foredeck.

Oops, I forgot to show a picture showing all deckbeams cut & fitted, so here it is.  The one that's a bit "shiny" needs a bit of sanding...like the rest of the boat!  The idea is I got all the deckbeams fitted, removed them, and now I'll complete the area under the foredeck--including paint--and reinstall the deckbeams.  I'd rather not paint once those beams are on, thank you very much!

Right now I'm starting on the cockpit seats. First I'm putting in cleats to hold the 1/4" plywood fronts and tops.  These will form watertight compartments both for bouyancy and storage.  This will be epoxy-coated, painted, then, over that, I'll make slatted seats to actually sit on.  (Slatted seats are more comfortable, IMHO.)  I haven't 100% decided what wood to use: perhaps white pine or possibly Douglas fir.  (You're right, I can't afford teak.) Either way, the slatted seats will probably be oiled with perhaps a varnished edge-piece just for fun. Part of the fun and challenge of building your own boat is making just those kinds of decisions.

Until next time...

Completion of keel/skeg...and rollover!

This is a fun update, because for the first time I can actually show a picture of the boat right-side-up!  But first a couple of photos of finishing off the keel/skeg:

Here's the completed keel/skeg assembly, epoxy-coated and ready for paint.

Paint going on.  I decided to prime the bottom rather than add another coat of epoxy.  One more sanding and she'll be ready for bottom paint, but I'll wait until much closer to completion for that.  It's easier to bottom paint the boat now...but I confess I'm anxious to get going on the interior!

With a little beer-powered help from my friends, she's now right-side-up!  This is a red-letter day, for sure.   After thinking about various ways to do it, I ended up rolling her over (carefully) right on the floor, with the middle mold still in place for support (not shown).  A thick piece of cardboard on the floor (shown) cushioned the turnover.  Note that the gunwales are temporarily screwed in place to support the sheer for the turnover.  The final gunwales will be a bit smaller and will go on after the deck is in place.

Now it's on to inwales, deckbeams, and bulkheads. I'll have some more photos of the interior once that is underway...and I've had a chance to do some epoxy cleanup. After months on the hull,  I must say I'm looking forward to the change of pace.  While there's still lots and lots of work to go, today somehow I feel like I can say the "end is in sight" for the first time!

Epoxification etc.

Greetings from the boatshop...and Happy Independence Day!  Only two photos this time, but let's get right to it...

After a couple of rounds of hole-filling and fixing various dings and such, I coated the planking with System3 Clear Coat epoxy. I rolled on one coat and then, about an hour later, hot-coated a second one. The transom will be have plenty of varnish on it when the boat is done so I decided to leave that alone.  That said, I've given it a good sanding and I'll apply another coat of thinned varnish soon.

Here's the forward view showing the coated planks.  Two of them have "splotches" of epoxy putty to fair out a flat spot right at one of the molds. Alas, I did NOT catch this unfairness during setup, so I'm paying the price now with some extra fairing work.  First I notched-troweled West System epoxy mixed with 407 filler and let that set. After sanding down to fair, I then filled the notches--and any other low spots--with epoxy mixed with a blend of about 50% 407 and 50% 410 filler. Mixing in some 410 makes it easier to sand. 

I also managed to glue the seat risers to the inside of the hull. This turned out to be a bit of a pain, I think next time I'll wait until the hull is flipped over before installing. I don't have a picture of this now, but you'll see them once the hull is flipped over and I get some decent photos of the inside of the boat.

Hmm, it seems to me the photos in the last few posts have been pretty dull, just shots of planking and more planking and epoxy coating.  Well, the next batch should, I hope, have some shots of the skeg and outer stem getting put together and on the boat.  That'll be more interesting.

Incidentally, one other thing I've also done is note any deviations between the molds--which are based on my original lines drawing and 1:4 lofting--and the final boat.  In other words, in some cases to keep the planking nice and fair I allowed small gaps between the molds and the planking.  The battens used in planking the boat (shown in previous posts) were very useful in figuring out where to "let go" from the molds.  Basically, I trusted (1) my eyes and (2) the batten.  That way, if there are any future boats built to this design--hey you never know!--the molds will incorporate these updates.  This is part of the "tweaks and updates" to the drawings mentioned on my Sketches & Plans page.

I'm looking forward to getting the remaining work done on the outside of the hull so I can flip the boat over.  I hope you are too!  That's it for now.