Cleaning up the bottom

Now that the bottom is on, we turned the boat over again and trimmed the bottom to the hull sides then rounded the chine to a nice radius.  The hull is starting to get a bit to heavy for Kristi to turn over in the air so we carry it into the yard set it in the grass then roll.  It's still pretty easy for the two of us to carry around.  The bottom trimming and rounding took a good bit longer than planned, yeah I know what's new.  First of all, I could not find my laminate trimming bit for the router so instead of stopping and going to the store for another one I decided to just man up and hand plane the bottom to size.  In retrospect this was a mistake as it took way to long.  And by the time I got the the last mm, where you have to be a bit careful to not gouge the hull sides, serious fatigue was setting in.  Fortunately Sanding Queen (queue ABBA) had just gotten back from a Christmas party (no spouses yey) so she was able to come in and help finish the job :-)

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life

See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the sanding queen, oh yeah.....

Hull bottom trimmed, sanded and ready for epoxy coat.

Closeup of radiused chine.  I find it tricky to hand sand a nice even radius in solid wood but it's a lot easier in ply as the layers act like gages.  If the lines formed by the ply layers are parallel and not wavy then the radius is reasonably constant.

First coat of epoxy is on.  Only one coat for now.  I wanted to have the wood sealed so that it would be ding resistant. Plus I can work on the boat outside and not worry about a lttle water splashning on it.  The last two coats will go on at the same time as the chines get fiberglass tape.

Total time to date: 225hrs

The bottom goes on

The bottom panel butt splice epoxy cured overnight.  Today we cut and installed the bottom panel but first I had to cut limber holes in two bulkheads.

Clamped on a piece of scrap ply with a pilot hole in it to guide the hole saw.

Cutting limber hole.

All done, just a bit of sanding to clean it up.

Marking out the hull profile on the bottom panel.

Taking a break while the hull bottom outline is lofted.

Hull bottom cut out.

Hull and bottom ready for dry fit.

We propped the bottom up over the hull before applying the epoxy in an attempt to keep as much of the goo from getting all over the bottom, while positioning.  We started screwing down at the bow and proceeded to the stern removing the supports as we went.  This worked well.

Bottom is on.

Excess epoxy squozeout got cleaned up to minimize sanding later.

Through the transom.

A glimpse into the skunk..er..gerbilworks.

Total time to date:  217hrs

Craack!

So you remember that little crack that formed in one of the chinelogs as we were assembling the hull?  Well it got bigger.  I think it happened as we were flipping the hull, since it gets stressed in different directions when you do that.  This crack growing may actually be a good thing as it allowed me to fix a little unfairness that crept into the bow area.  The side of the hull that had the intact chinelog had a bit of a kink where the stem ended and the chinelog began but the cracked side is beautifully fair.  Since I like the fair side better I induced the same crack in the intact chinelog and now both sides look great.  A big dollop of epoxy makes it all OK.

All of this is a result of me thinking I was being clever and not following the plans.  Michael Storer, the designer, specifies that the chinelogs should end 50mm short of the bow-end of the hull sides.  But I noticed that the stem is significantly less deep than that so you end up with a gap.  Silly designer, says I, I'm going to extend the chinelogs all the way to the stem and make it all pretty.  Well, if you do that what happens is that the two chinelog ends hit each other as you bend the hull sides around the first bulkhead, doh! 

I took the pull saw and viciously hacked away chunks of the offending chine logs.  THAT will teach them and nobody will see the butchery since all this is inside the floatation chamber.  The hull went together beautifully.  Except now with the chinelogs not touching each other the hull sides are not quite fair just aft of the bow and the gap between the chinelogs allowed the chinelog to split away from the hull side.  How much do you want to bet that if I had cut the chinelogs 50mm from the hull end, as instructed, they would have come together and just touched thereby preventing that slightly unfair hollow and since they would be touching each other they could not separate from the ply.  Silly builder. 

BTW, the chinelog that pulled away from the hull side was a secondary joint since that hull side was epoxy coated all over, without masking the joint areas.  The epoxy was well sanded with 60 grit, in the glue joint.  It looks like it's mostly the wood and not the epoxy that failed but it's a little hard to tell.  The side which did not fail had the joint areas masked before epoxy coating so that joint is wood to wood.  Coincidence or is that side a stronger joint?  You decide.

The chinelog on the left has separated from the hull side while the one on the right has only a bit of a crack. It is mostly hanging on but is causing an unfair hollow just aft of the stem.

So the solution is to separate the other chinelog from the hull side by the same amount.  I used a small steel scraper, as a wedge, to shear the cedar away from the hull side.

I taped the underside with some packing tape to form a dam and filled all of the cracks with slightly thickend epoxy.  It's ugly but stout.

Total time to date: 207hrs

Fitting bulkheads to side panels

The bulkheads and side panels are almost ready for assembly.  Everything has 3 coats of epoxy and I spent a lot of time sanding all visible surfaces to a nice uniform flat finish.  I'm hoping the effort to do it now will pay off by not having to sand a lot at awkward angles once the boat is assembled.  I think I have this epoxy coating down.  It takes a bit of practice to lay down thin and unifiorm coats.  Working at above 70F makes for a much nicer surface due to the epoxy flowing more easily.  Normally that's not a problem here in FL but, as I have complained before, this winter we have only had a handful of days even close to 70 so some of the panels needed a bit more sanding.  This one turned out well, almost a shame to sand it.

 Looks like this once sanded, the final coat of varnish will bring back the shine.

The hull assembly has given some folks a bit of trouble when it comes to aligning the bulkheads with the hull side panel bottom edges.  The alignment is difficult once the chine logs have been glued on.  So I decided to mark and drill the side panels and bulkheads before the side panels are glued together.  Panel marked with bulkhead locations.

Temporary screw holes drilled.

I aligned the bulkheads and used the pre-drilled holes in the side panels as guides to drill the bulkheads. 

 

Now when the time comes to assemble the hull all I have to do is line up the drilled holes and everything should go together correctly.  The curved and beveled sides of bulkheads 1 and 2 were impossible to clamp in place for drilling so I just drilled one locating hole per side. 
Once marked and drilled the side panels got glued together with a splice.  The ply has a bit of curve to it and it's amazing how much weight it took to get the ends to lie reasonably flat.

Total time to date: 165hrs

Epoxy coating and framing bulkheads

I'm epoxy coating all of the hull components before assembly. It's much easier to get a smooth run-free coat while the ply is horizontal. A lot of the sanding will also be done before the parts go together.  Michael Storer recommends skidding a foam roller to smooth out the epoxy.  It worked so well that I used it to spread and smooth the epoxy. No need for a squeegie. It lets yo put down a very thin uniform coat which does not seem to trap bubbles and does not run much.  I did the interior faces of the buoyancy tank bulkheads first to practice on parts which will be hidden. I read somewhere that if the air temperature is rising significantly during the epoxy cure, bubbles can form as air trapped in the wood expands. I tried this on one piece by coating in the morning and sure enough it's the only piece I had any bubbles in.

The areas where framing is bonded on are masked.  I'm not sure this is necessary as the secondary bond between cured and scuffed up epoxy surfaces is really strong.

After the 3 coats of epoxy cured I glued framing to the bulkheads. To keep bugs and dust out of the wet epoxy I'm putting the pieces inside our van and closing it up. I can't do this with the mast and it's a constant battle with the bugs. Why do these things like wet epoxy so much??

In order to minimize waste I cut the rollers into 4 quarters.  Each quarter can be flipped over and used twice if you don't slop epoxy all over it during the first use.

 I spread the leftover bit of epoxy from each coat on the underside of the fore and aft seats which will never be seen so any uneven epoxy is not important.

Total time to date:  131hrs

Ply Parts Kit

Spent most of today laying out and cutting all of the major ply parts.  Things went smoothly since I already did this once during the China ply debacle.  This time around I used Joubert brand Okoume and it is much better looking stuff.

These are all of the major ply parts other than hull sides and bottom.

I'm going to epoxy coat the individual pieces before assembly as it is much easier to spread and sand epoxy on flat horizontal surfaces.  I drove the wrong car to move the pieces to my garage from Dave's (where the boat is being built) but they fit, kinda sorta.

Total time to date: 115hrs