Getting ready to cut out the windows

Got a little cabin framing done last night.

The one thing i really have to do before I can start laying on deck is mount the bash wales.  I need to be able to clamp/screw from the inside the whole length of the boat.  Once that's done, I can paint the inside of the fore and aft compartments and lay on the decks.  The I can finish off the cabin/wheelhouse.

I just want to get the cabin framed in enough to hold all of the curves when I cut the windows out.  Doing that first will help with the clamping and screwing for the bash wales along the cabin section.

Fillets and details

Used up a bunch more epoxy and 407 filler filleting all of the inside corners as well as the chines on the boat.  I need to learn a good mix for this.  Some ration of cabosil for sure.  I had a lot of sag and now it's a bit of a sanding nightmare.  Finally fund a good wire cone brush to put in my drill, and that's getting into the crannies pretty well to rough it all up for primer.  None of this is really structural, just looking for a good longterm seal to avoid moisture and dirt getting into the crannies to start rot.  Thank god I'm happy with a workboat finish.

I also got the rudder head laid out along with the pintles and gudgeons.  Cut the hole in the transom for the tiller.  made and installed the mast step.

I was going to tabernacle the mast.  Thought the better of it and just went with the simple original design.  Seeing as how I'm doing the slot top cabin with the "drop board" center window in front, It'll be plenty easy to step and unstep the mast from in the boat.

The 3 things I have left before starting to paint the interior are
Install the exterior "bash wales"
fabricate and install the leeboard guards
Install the cross framing for the cabin top and cut out the windows in the sides.

Not necessarily in that order.

God I'm sick of sanding already.  Even for a workboat finish there's a ton of it.

I'm also pretty sure that the next one is going to use no epoxy.

Cool enough to work

Well we've been having the hottest June on record ever here in Portland OR.  Mid 90's almost every day, and just too freakin hot to spend too much time out in the shop.  We finally got a little cool down this weekend, and I got a few more things done.

Finished shaping the Lee board for one.

Then I got the rudder and rudder head laid out and laminated together.

Thanks to the warm day and the fast set on PL premium, I even got the rudder shaped up.

I got smart this time and clamped the work to the rack rail on my pickup in the driveway instead of doing it in the shop.  Admittedly I had to wash the truck when I was done, but it needed it anyway.  That was also MUCH easier than cleaning up all the dust thrown by the disc grinder inside. Hope my downwind neighbor had the door closed to the shop with all his shiny hotrods :-)

Feels good to get some more done.  I am enjoying sailing my pelican, but I just can't wait to get this boat on the water.

Got the bottom and chines sanded with 80 grit and knocked off all of the pebbles and drips.  I decided it's gin to be easier to paint later.  I can roll the boat up 90 from each side to get the paint on it at the same time i do the sides.  Painting now would have made further glassing on the stem, transom and chines more problematic.

Had a strong young man handy today, so I flipped her back upright.  Now I can go to town on the 2 miles of fillet on the interior, cabin and decks, windows, bash wales, leeboard, rude etc...

I'm going to turn the cabin into a slot top.  It was bothering me how hard it was going to be to access the foredeck.  Not a boat you want to go crawling over the cabin on.  The cabin top is only @ 4ft long, so a liftoff hatch that can be slip fore or aft and dogged down from inside would be very manageable and easily stored inside.  Liftout plexiglass drop boards for and aft, and i can actually work anchor gear on the foredeck without leaving the cabin.I can also access the mast and luff end of the rig if necessary no problem.

I wrote Jim about this, and he thinks it's an improvement as long as I come up with a secure way to dog her down for roughing going.

And a little video walk around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R35YyTwlZc

So no action here for a while.  Sorry about that, I know how it is when I get to following a build and the information dries up suddenly.

I didn't want to turn the boat right side up until I had all of the bottom work done.  This meant glass and paint.  She's a pretty heavy little boat, and I didn't want to turtle her on the concrete once she was up to full weight with a bunch of the cabin sides cut out for windows.

The fiberglass is what slowed me down.  I've always been pretty sensitive, and I was gonna need @ 1.5 gallons to get the bottom and chines done up. I got a killer deal on a 3 gallon RAKA kit from Andy Linn over at the Toledo boathouse.  I met him at the Depot bay wooden boat show and picked it up.  Very nice guy.  Ac week or so later, I picked up the cloth and tape at TAP Plastics.  All I needed was the time and inclination.

I should mention I spent a fair amount of time filling screw holes and rounding chines.  I made the silly mistake of hitting some of the hole fills with the sander while the epoxy was still green and I didn't have any long sleeves on.  Gave myself a nice rash on the forearm.

This weekend It finally struck me that I gotta just bite the bullet and get it done.  I want to sail this boat this summer, and this is the one big holdup.  So I jumped to it @ 3:00pm This Saturday.  Spent 3-1/2 hours laying down the bottom cloth and chine tape with no help except Gracie in the house keeping the dogs out of my way.  I laid and trimmed the cloth on dry, then squeegeed the resin in.  I ended up just using my hands to smooth the chine tape on.  Looking at the resin soaked palms on my nitrile gloves had me praying I wasn't going to be fighting another rash.  It was the only good way to smooth it down tight on that vertical surface and form the overlap with the bottom cloth.  Came out great.  Went into the house pretty tired.  Had some pork roast, beans and a couple of whiskeys on the rocks and passed out early.

Got up @ 8:00am and had breakfast and walked out to check the boat, hoping there resin would still be slightly tacky for a good chemical bond.  Bone dry to the touch.  Did such a good job with the squeegee that there were no white dry areas, but it had a texture like a cheese grater from the cloth.  Panic email to the groups wondering If I was gonna have to sand, because that wasn't gonna work out to well without taking off a bunch of the cloth i just laid down.  David G over at Harbor boat works suggested I check RAKA'S site for timetables on cure, but I should get on it ASAP.

I bypassed the website and dove out to get it done.  Here's what she's looking like now.

Might have to do one more little weave fill this evening.  Managed to keep it all off of me so far.  No longer afraid of the process, so I'll probably be skim coating the rest of the boat.  The stem and transom will get some cloth of course, but not the sides or the deck.

2ND Layer of bottom on

I finally got around to putting down the 2nd layer of 1/2" ply on the bottom.  I was going around about what kind of adhesive to use, and finally just decided to keep going with the PL Premium.  Still too cool for epoxy unless I heat the shop or build some kind of conditioned tent around the hull.  I'm going to be encapsulating the bottom and chines in epoxy anyway.

It went real well.  A couple of hours with the hand planes got it all flushed up to the first layer and the chine logs.  I'm ready to fill in all of the screw holes and glass the bottom and chines now.

I still have the temperature problem, so I figured I'd flip the boat and work on the interior, rudder, cabin top, hatch, mast step etc.... until it warms up, then flip it back.  One good tilt with the bottom on and i reconsidered the idea.  I'd flipped it over for the bottom work all by my self, but the bottom has CONSIDERABLY beefed up the weight.  I'm a bit concerned about a future flip after even more added weight.

I think it's time to figure a way to warm the hull without warming the whole garage and order up the resin and glass for RAKA.  glass the bottom and chines, paint the bottom and she never needs to flip again after i put her right side up.

I went back to trying to shape my leeboard in the meantime.  I have a belt sander with some 80 grit, but i can't believe how slow it's taking the wood down.  I get the sander hot enough to fry an egg with very little progress.  The planes are kind of useless in this situation, which is too bad because they chew the material much faster than the sander.  I've started shopping 7" disk sanders/angle grinders on Craigslist.

All in all everything's looking good and I'm really happy with how the build is coming together.  In the end the boat pulled extremely straight with the bottom installation and no twist.  I think the bow is @ 1/4" off being dead on centerline.

First layer of bottom on

So I got the chine logs all glued up and a bunch of planing done to bring everything square and fare.  Got the First layer of 1/2" on and pulled the boat into square with it.  I was pretty worried that I'd gotten the thing somehow badly distorted, but it all came into line nicely.

I gotta say I was shopping routers to trim that bottom off flush to the chines.  Truth be told though, i spent some time sharpening up the pile of planes i bought at at a garage sale @ 1.5 years ago, and it was actually kind of a pleasure to take it down with those.  Found some new muscles in my shoulders, but they really did a nice job.

3 more sheets of ply and I'll have the second layer of bottom on and all of the decking and hatches.  It's time to order up some fiberglass and resin from RAKA.  I really need to fill all of the screw head holes and such on the first layer before i nail the second one down.  I also think the resin with the adhesive filler is going to be the best laminating glue for me.  I could do it with the PL Premium, but the stuff is pretty viscous and it would be tough to get that much area even and flat and then have the ply lay down tight.

I'm wondering if I should flip her and work on the interior while i wait for it to get here or just leave it bottom up until I have the bottom done and glassed along with the chines, maybe even the paint on it. be nice to have the bottom at full strength before i go playing on the inside.

really starting to look like a boat.

All by plane with just a light pass with the mouse sander

just a few passes with the plane and this joint is nice and level. There was a small peak in spots from nailing the two halves on separately.

All flushed up and ready to trace the next layer of ply.