March - April 2016

March 8

Last weekend was a remarkable time for working on the boat.  The weather was perfect.  Except for a few last items the starboard planking is complete.  I still have to trim the edges, sand/fair the hull and add the last few strips to the stern all which needed to wait until I made some custom sized strips necessary to compete the stern.  Those custom strips are compete and I have the starter strip for the port side installed.  While finishing up the last layer on the last side, I'm starting to think carefully about the next steps.

•   Overall fairing of the hull (minimal because the hull is in remarkable shape).
•   Installing bronze screws through the planking into the keel and transom.
•   Installing the filler strake beneath the keel and sanding the planking flush to the filler strake.
•   Leveling up the keel with dead wood to create a platform (keel stump) for the installation of the fin keel and skeg.
•  Fiberglassing the hull with a layer of mat and woven glass.
• Building up a few layers of barrier.  This will be the West System epoxy with a special barrier coat additive.  
• Apply a few coats of epoxy paint.  

All of these should be straight forward although leveling up the keel of the fin keel attachment has take some thought.

March 10

I ordered West 206 slow resin hardner for the warmer months as well as enough thickener to finish up the hull.  I've also purchased another 5000 5/8" staples which should get me through the last bit of planking.  I'm ready for Spring, are you?

March 11

Sanding of the starboard side is almost complete.  I've started marking a few small low areas about the size of my hand that need filling.  This will be the majority of the fairing that will be performed.  I know I have a few larger areas in the bow area where the hull changes rapidly but I do not expect the need for excessive fairing.

March 17

Sanding, sanding, and more sanding.  I woke up this morning around 5:00 am and worked on the boat for a few hours before my real job.  Starboard side has been sanded.  A good supply of strips for the final layer of the port side have been made in preparation for a nice work weekend.  I had already switched to the West System 206 slow hardener for the warm days that we have had.  This weekend is going to be much cooler and I'll have to switch back to the 205 fast hardener.  All of the supplies I ordered on March 10 have arrived and I'm looking forward to making a lot of progress.

The port side final layer proceeding nicely. I still have a bit of sanding to do.

The right side is complete.  The left side is moving along.  I start as far astern as possible so that the strips lay on top of the last one installed.  This is much easier than pushing them underneath the last one.  I'll have to do that a little in the back but  it really saves me time to start as far aft as possible.  Of course you have to judge the angle the strips lay correctly or you will run out of length as you get to the fatter sections which happened a little on the left side.  I add a little filler piece and gradually change the angle until the strips are again long enough.  No harm in that.

Another view of the bottom of the boat looking forward this time.  You can see the filler triangles in this view.  Once they are sanded they will disappear.   

April  8,

I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when I got that strip in that laid flat and nice.  The middle of the boat hull has a tight radius just below the water line that makes it extremely difficult to fit the strips properly.  It requires screwing the unshaped piece, or blank, into place, marking, cutting and rescrewing the strip in place to check the fit.  More often than not this process must be repeated more than once mostly because the hull shape changes even in those ~2 inches (50 mm) that the blank is set off from its final placement. Very time consuming.  Now that  I am past that portion of the hull, the blank can be laid into place with only the clamps and marked, cut and checked.  This usually takes one iteration and goes much more smoothly.  I am done with the tight radius hull section and on to the easier smooth sections.

April 11,

Unfortunately I've taken on a temporary second job on the weekends to make a bit extra cash.  I still managed to put in a half day on Sunday and got 53 square feet (5 square meters) of hull installed.  Not a bad half day.

April 22,

I bit more of the hull installed and I've prepped some work for this weekend.  I'm mostly working on Sundays now that I have an extra job on Saturday.  Hopefully this extra job will only last a few more weeks.

Getting to the shorter and easier pieces on the bow.  This should go quickly.  I still have a good section in the stern to finish so no celebration yet.

A top view of the bow.  I still need to clean up the starboard side at the bow near the bottom of the hull.  I'll take care of that on Sunday.  Of course there is still quite a bit of sanding to do.