Clayton Bay 144LV - 12ft plywood kayak

[b.o.a.t.]

Have been evolving my stitch & glue CB144 design over the last few years in Gregg
Carlsson's "Hulls" proggy.
#1 had a delightful hull but terrible deck - as an ex-slalom boat paddler, I forgot to add
knee-room for big people like me. My wife & kids liked it though. (img-131m.jpg)

#2 got the knee room, but trying to be clever & add boatspeed, lost the stability
& handling of the original hull. #2 isn't a bad boat - just less forgiving. And its bigger
volume is off-putting to smaller people (like my wife & kids). (other 2 .jpgs)

Was going to build MIK's RAID41 this year, or Eureka, but SWMBO has been stewing
since April that I let #1 go to my sister interstate. So... all other projects on hold while
#3 takes shape.

#3 marries the good deck to the docile hull in a low volume version of the boat,
intended for paddlers 40-80kg with up to size 10 feet. Previous boats have been built
in 4mm pac.maple BS1088 & coated with 6oz glass. Weight around 12KG for #1 &
11KG for #2 - used peel-ply to good effect. Aiming to keep this one under 10KG using
2oz glass sheath instead of 6oz.

Ply marked out, panels aligned & joined using taped butts, started cutting out today.

Is it worth blogging it here? or has S&G kayaks been done to death already ?
cheers
AJ

[cjbfisher]

AJ,
Put it up here. If people don't want to read it , they don't have to. I'm interested. I've just started building a Eureka with a few minor modifications. I scarfed my panels rather than the butt strap, so I'm interested in the taped butt join. Does it still bend ok, and are both sides taped?
Cheers,
Chris

[b.o.a.t.]

G'day Chris

yes, it is taped both sides.
yes, it slightly alters the panel flex at that point, but as the panels have soft curves in
them, the stiff spot is almost undetectable. Far easier join to get 'right' than a scarf
for plywood joins like this. I prefer to scarf solid timber though.

pictures below

Some people do both sides of their taped butts at once, and even stack multiple sheets
to do them all in one go. While doing so eliminates the risk of the untaped (weak)
side of a single-side join cracking open during turning the sheet over, I found it a bit
more demanding than I am prepared to do regularly. With a bit of care, I have never
had a joint crack open in the 4mm that I use. Might be a different story trying to turn
an unwieldy double sheet of 25mm.
cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

Like a lot of people, I have limited sized blocks of time available, so I tend to pick away
at odd bits & pieces, avoiding longer & tediouser jobs. Like marking or cutting out.

First boat I did without a strong-back - just used the ply bulkheads & panel shapes to form
the boat. It mostly worked, but I finished up with a slightly twisted boat - my ply was warped
& there was nothing solid to push/pull it into line against. I now use a strong-back with
formers at 3 fixed points. Costs a bit of time setting up, but once set up, many other parts
of the job become quicker & easier. Swings & roundabouts.

Getting the corners on the formers accurately located has always been something of a
trial. This time trying pushing a 2.5mm drill through each marked corner before
cutting & shaping. Seems to work well.

[b.o.a.t.]

Marking out panels, I use a large metal square - 400mm x 600mm.
To provide references, I first mark the sheet into 500mm squares, starting from the
reference corner. Mark these lines in a fine pen, being extra careful to get them right.
Their accuracy is crucial to the rest of the measurement of the boat.

These 500mm spaced lines are the references for plotting up to 24 'X & Y' coordinates
for each of the 16 panels & bulkheads which will go into the boat.
Have I used the word "tedious" yet? If not, let me use it now !!
Also get cross-eyed from so many numbers, & simple errors creep in, like measuring
1107 instead of 1117. Important to step back & do sanity checks frequently - are the
X coordinates about the same distance apart ? Is the mark-out more-or-less
symmetrical across the sheet.

Then it's just a matter of joining the dots using a flexible batten for the curvy bits & a
straight-edge for the un-curvy bits. House bricks are functional "ducks" to hold the
batten in place. I use a different coloured pen to distinguish chine lines from the
original 500mm squares. Very easy to track onto the wrong line withe jigsaw
otherwise. Another great opportunity for additional sanity checks - unfair curves & etc.

Then cut the middle panel in half, & align sheets 1 & 3 to their respective half of sheet 2
to get the lines fair across the joins. Once the lines are complete, join the sheets with
panels correctly aligned. Tried to join individual panels on my first boat, but found
it almost impossible to get them perfectly aligned without marking their shape onto
my work table - a heap of extra work I can well do without!!

I like taped butts. Neat & easy to do. See earlier post on these.

[cjbfisher]

AJ,
Ilike the way you think. Good idea joining the sheets before cutting them out. Personally, I probably would have set everything out so that the joins were staggered. But I haven't seen the plans, so I don't know if this is possible.
Thankfully for me, the Eureka is set out on the plans with square ends, so the cutting out and lining up when scarfing is very little trouble at all. (Thanks Mik). Just need to remember to allow the extra length for the scarf.
I'll probably post some photo's when the project is complete. There's been plenty of Eureka builds, so I'll just post the alterations I'm doing.
Cheers,
Chris

[b.o.a.t.]

G'day Chris
The key difference between Eureka & CB is the width of the panels.
I don't have my Eureka plans in front of me, but I think the narrowest panel is about
180mm at the join. Plenty of width to force the join square. CB has a number of
panel joins which are about 40mm wide. Almost impossible to correctly align
individual joins without some sort of external template/mark-up.
cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

Note to self.
Buy pack of 2 fine cut jigsaw blades before starting.
3.6M of cut each side of 10 panels, plus 3 or 4 permanent bulkheads plus the 3 x 19mm
chip-board formers = .... about 90M of cutting.

Second note to self.
If jigsaw becomes hard to push through 4mm ply, sometimes it's because the work bench
top is thicker than 4mm. But more often, it's because one foot is on the power cord...
:doh:

Third note to self.
Epoxy makes some inks turn invisible. Invisibility makes a line hard to follow with jigsaw.
Test ink on scrap of ply before committing several hours to its use. Or use dark pencil.

[Darce]

If jigsaw becomes hard to push through 4mm ply, sometimes it's because the work bench
top is thicker than 4mm. But more often, it's because one foot is on the power cord...


My first build project was a stich and glue pram, the D5 (http://www.bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=D5) by Bateau. Halfway through I decided it would be the sail version with centerboard. I drilled two holes at either end of the slot - just inside the bulkheads for the middle seat, rolled the boat over, inserted the jigsaw and began cutting.

Gee wiz! I thought. Cutting through fibreglass fillets is hard going. Suddenly the going became much easier as the blade finally made it through the bulkhead. I was cutting in the wrong direction!!!! :doh:

[b.o.a.t.]

Suddenly the going became much easier as the blade finally made it through the bulkhead. I was cutting in the wrong direction!!!! :doh:

So far, touch wood, I haven't done that!!

All parts cut out now.
Making the chine panels identical with plane, spokeshave & sandpaper.
Finding differences in shape & size between chine pairs. Again.
Spent a few hours with an adding machine, checking numbers for sanity.
Unfortunately, they are all sane. That means the differences are id10t errors. :(

Worked out the biggest ones are where I reversed the direction of my square.
Conclusion... parallax errors lining the square up with the grid lines during mark-out.
I do my marking out on my work bench, not the floor, so I can't get my head vertically
above the middle lines of the grid. Could be avoided by doing mark-up on the floor :C,
or marking one side only, cutting & finishing it, then tracing item to other side of the
sheet. Then cutting & finishing that... I suppose the extra labour of two lots of finishing
would be largely off-set by reduced labour marking out parts.

Anyway... did the cockpit cut-outs today. The little triangular cuts are to allow the rear
of the cockpit to be a bit lower to easy ingress/egress. Will tape the cut-outs back in
place once the deck is assembled & shaped. Also have to hang onto the cockpit cut-
outs to use as a template for the coaming.

[b.o.a.t.]

Can't believe it is really only a week since last touching it.
Alas, life & the need to earn a quid intrudes.

Could have chosen a nicer few days to have off-shift. 44C (111F) yesterday.
45C (113F) today. Cool change tomorrow - 41C. Maybe.
Predicted wind hasn't eventuated. Yet. No fires. Yet. Turn-out clobber set up
behind car so as to just step into boots, pull up pants & go. Water pouring out of skin
faster than can be poured down gullet. :C

Hopped into it yesterday anyway. Doing everything s-l-o-w-l-y to avoid sweating or
otherwise accellerating fluid loss.

Got the formers onto the strongback. It seems to have warped since last use. So
had to work out corrections for warp factor before starting. Got there in the end.
Formers aligned & affixed in 3D. THEN realised I'd put them on the right way up
instead of upside down. Heat must be addling brain. *shrug* Situation normal, I
suppose... Do the deck first rather than start former alignment all over...

A bit of tape on the corners of the formers prevents them becoming a part of the boat
when epoxy drips through the joins.

Drilled wire tie holes with deck panels clamped togther, threaded & very lightly twisted
wires - just enough to stop them falling out. Any tighter & they stop the panels
opening out flat. I use 0.9mm telephone jumper (hook-up) wire. The PVC sheath
allows it to be easily pulled out once the panels are edge glued.

Align deck panels fore-and-aft and side-to-side, & tack them in position on the formers.

Adding chine 4... a nail in the former just below the bottom edge holds it in place for
drilling & tying. Extra ties needed to hold it all together neatly through the complex
re-curve around the cockpit. Start from the middle & work out to the ends, drilling &
tying. Aiming for a completely even gap without wobbles & etc. Wide gaps need tape
behind them when edge-gluing the chines. Took some extra care with shaping this
time - no wide gaps. YOU BEAUTY !!! :2tsup:

Tied frame 1 on temporarily to assist shaping at the bow. There's a fair bit of twist
needs applying to the tips of chine 4 to bring the ends fully vertical.

Pressed down on the narrow strip behind the cockpit until it's just slightly raised in a
sweet curve. Mark the overlap on each side & remove half of it. Tie it & weight it in
place - a soft drink bottle can easily have its weight adjusted to suit the ply stiffness.
Tie the two triangles back in - they don't fit perfectly. If clear finishing the exterior,
there'd need to be a fair bit of twisting & bracing these to sit nicely along their edges.
I use paint so can hide the unfairness with filler. This whole fancy cockpit back is
pretty optional, but I like a lowered back on a smaller cockpit - much easier to get in &
out of it.

Epoxy has pot life of about 30 seconds in this heat, so only mixing very small batches.
The scoops out of Omo front-loader powder are ideal for these. Handle to keep fingers
clean, & cured 'pox pops out of them easily - many re-uses each.

I use a 25cc syringe to feed epoxy into the gaps. Neat epoxy first to wet the ply, then
as thick a brew of filled 'pox as the syringe can pump to fill the gaps. Usually this is a
two or even 3 day process, but with it so hot, gaps filled & curing in 1 evening (still 36C
(97F) at 21:00).

[b.o.a.t.]

28/1/09
Cured by this morning. Pulled all the ties, & levelled all the lumps & bumps with the
dreadnaught file. Sanded everything smooth & rounded chine edges, ready for glass.
Will need to put a little extra filler in a few spots... pretty normal. About a 20 minute
job. Pretty exciting at this point can already see the shape & style of the boat.

The 3D structure is already strong enough to take off the strongback & handle around.
As there is no rush to tape joins or glass the outer, I will probably do the coaming
next. Once the upright part of that is in place, it will be even more rigid.

The other thing I realised whilst sanding - the outer tape on the butt joins can probably
be sanded almost completely away once I'm ready to sheath it. This will allow the joint
to totally disappear. Sad that it's taken 5 boats in this syle of build to realise this...

[b.o.a.t.]

Been picking away at it in between other commitments.
Thought I'd made little progress until I looked at this log.
Missed a few steps of taking photos too.

4th Feb 09
cut & fit coaming riser.
I use 5mm bendy ply. Amazing stuff. Bought a sheet 5 years ago, roledit up & brought
it home on the back seat of the car. Wish all ply was that easy to transport !
Cut a couple of notches in bulkhead 2 to support it at the right level. Cut a 120mm
wide strip of bendy ply, wrap it around inside the hole, mark and trim excess length.
Dry fit with packing to get good fit all round, and tack in place with neat epoxy squirted
into the joint with the syringe.

[b.o.a.t.]

the tack gluing is not strong - most soaks into the timber.
It will need a large fillet to make it strong enough to support a heavy huming bean
entering & exiting, but will do that later when I glass the outer deck. For now, a small
fillet is all that is required to make it strong enogh to work around.

The deck comes off the molds then, and the gaps in the tacking are filled.

[b.o.a.t.]

11/2/09
Trimming the excess off the underside - free-hand with a jigsaw.

At this point I took a step or two backwards... Incautious handling of the deck (I dropped it) caused a couple of the glued edges to crack. So I had to bring forward the taping of the seams. Was going to leave this until nearly ready to join deck & hull to
avoid changes in humidity changing the shape of the deck & hull (as discussed in a thread a year or so ago.) Not all bad though. Took advantage of it to adjust the shape at the stern to better fit frame 8, which will be the rear wall of the gear stowage compartment (the first I've ever done)

once cured, tossed the deck under the workbench & started on the hull

[m2c1Iw]

Hm...not much freeboard on that boat :D

Looking good :2tsup:

[b.o.a.t.]

12-2-09 to 16-2-09

flipped the moulds over on the strongback & built the hull.
Overall, taking the extra care this time with my panel shaping paid off richly.
Only a few spots where wavy edges needed relieving to get fair chines.
At the ends, the twists in chine 1 always cause edges to not line up well.
Screw strips across the joins to pull/push it all into line. (pics from an earlier boat -
forgot to take any this time)

Same drill, tie, tack, fill, wait for it to dry.

[b.o.a.t.]

22-2-09 - 27-2-09
Having learnt by the handling error with the deck, taped the insides immediately.

Put it back onto the moulds to sand the outside. Seems easiest.
Also clamped the strongback to the bench to stop it 'wandering'...
Sanding is about half done. Don't know when I'll next get to it.
Busy times, & coming back into a period of stright mon-fri day shifts.

[b.o.a.t.]

Had an unexpected day off work today, so hopped into it.
Actually a nice day too - 25C-ish, moderate humidity. possibility even of rain.
(Whatever that might be...)

Finished sanding the bottom (all by hand - sum total of my exercise for the week I think).

The 2oz glass truly is easy to work with. And uses so very little resin to wet out.
At this stage it looks like it wil only need maybe two topcoats of resin to disappear the
weave completely. Probably saved 1.5 - 2 Kg of resin. And weight.

It also goes around the ends soooooo much easier than 6oz.
Pics of the ends with paintbrush to show why getting 6oz glass to go around the ends
is always such a flamin' mongrel of a job.

I noticed that one sheet of my pac.maple ply was significantly different grain to the
others. Much softer cutting with the jigsaw. Difference seemed to reduce with sanding
of the ply. The resin really makes it stand out again. <shrug> It'll all look the same
under a coat of paint.

[b.o.a.t.]

Steaming ahead...

Flushed & glassed the cockpit coaming inside & coated the insides of both halves
with 'pox. Also put some 2oz off-cuts inside the bottom to better resist hoof scrapage,
and locating lugs for the bulkheads.

When the pox was dry, I just couldn't resist trying one bit on the other, just to see how well they align... feeble excuse - really just wanted to know what it will look like. :U
Hopefully it will look a lot less like a U-boat once the conning tower is trimmed down..

[rob540]

Lovely project. Great to see her gleaming with progress...how many torpedoes does she carry?

[b.o.a.t.]

The number of torpedoes depends on whether you work for ASIO or AFP...
If you do, then none. Just ignore the hatches below waterline in the bow - they are
an experimental emergency braking system. :U

[b.o.a.t.]

Tempted to think no progress for a fortnight. Not true.
Sanding insides. Sanding , sanding, more sanding. Followed by even more sanding.
Mucho clogged Al-Ox paper. Only the corners of the block toch the convex inner
surfaces, so all the work is done by a bout 10% of the paper. Tried using different
strokes & pressures but no faster. Broke out the ROS for the first time in 3 boats.
Job done in about an hour.

Design work on the fly.... hatch location.

Was goint to put one only in flattish section behind cockpit (pic.1) But as that is a
fairly large compartment in a short boat, any significant content will drag down the
stern something chronic. Wouldn't it be nice to have a bow hatch as well. (pic.2)
Hard to fit a flat hatch to a peaked deck, & I don't feel I have the skill to make a deck
cut-out hatch really water-tight.

Solution - recess a flat panel in the deck fore & aft. Advantage aft - the hatch can be
near the centre of the compartment, making all parts reachable, not just the forward
bit. (pic.3) . Cut out 2 more-or-less squares & insert hatches. Mark-out & cut deck
from the inside to keep the edges clean (pic.4)

Trial fit hatch panels (pic.5) Glued them in, being careful not to introduce any twist
which would prevent the hatch surround seating properly. (pic.6) Taped filler triangles
in place & glued. (pic.7) Will glass tape the joints on the inside, & the outer will be
reinforced when I glass the deck.

Got a bunch of night shifts & regular mon-fri day-shifts coming up, so may not make
much progress for a few weeks again. Nights getting a bit chilly too - had to don a
jumper last night...

[rob540]

Neat solution and I bet you'll be grateful for the hatches.:wink:

[b.o.a.t.]

Massive "Oh No" moment last night.

Been thinking the cockpit looks set a bit far back.
Checked the plans - yes, that's what I wrote up for the first boat.
Measured my other boat - it's cockpit is set 10cm forward of this one's.
Hmmm... must have moved it forward for a reason. Was it because the
original boat (now 2100km away in Qld) was a bit tail heavy? Or was it
because boat #2's different bottom shape had a different CoB ?
Cold sweat breaks out at this point...

Finally got around to calling my sister & getting her to measure the original.

Lesson for today....
if, as the designer, you build something different to your own plans, it is
important to write it down somewhere and change the plans !!
The original boat's cockpit is also set 10cm forward of this one's.
:doh:
:o
:doh:
etc.

10cm doesn't sound like much, but in a boat as short as this with fine ends as
this has, 10cm change in body position can make a huge difference to pitch.
I can nearly kill hull #2's squat when pushed past hull speed just by leaning
forwards. A lighter person will have less effect, but as the main stowage
chamber is behind the paddler....

So today I talked to the deck with a jigsaw, whilst talking to myself in a suitably
annoyed tone of voice. Ruined a blade cutting through the small fillet I put around
the coaming. One good thing - I didn't quite get around to final trim & big fillet.
That would be *much* harder to recover from.

Extended the forward edge of the cut-out 15cm. Cut & fit filler plate into the rear
of the hole. Clamps are the ones I made up to align & secure deck to hull when
joining them. Being rigid across the join, they twist the ply panel into alignment
with what's already there. Tossing up whether to try re-using the coaming cut-out.
Probably harder to cut a hole in a 3D structure to fit it than to cut & fit another strip
of bendy ply - which will fit any shaped hole.

Of course, this means that the bulkhead behind the cockpit needs to come forward
10 or 15cm, which in turn, means it needs to be a different shape...

And when I find my plans again (MIA since I finished cutting out the parts) I'll
try to remember to amend them.

[rob540]

Of course we admire your transparent honesty, but you will have to be punished...At my place this sort of thing is passed off as a 'middle aged moment'...but we can't let you get away unscathed.:no: Have you tried self-flagellation? Birch twigs are very good. Nothing like a good thrashing.:2tsup:

[b.o.a.t.]

No luck with the birch twigs.
All the birches around here died of thirst a year or so ago. :C
I flagellated myself with some Merlot instead. :U
(When living in South Oz one must adapt to local customs... :2tsup:)

Had another, totally different middle-aged moment whilst testing it for 'fit' on the floor.
Getting in & out hurt.
A lot.
The missus & kids can play with this boat.
I'm building a Eureka for me as soon as this one's done.
cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

More surgery with jigsaw & angle grinder.
Old coaming is near enough a fit in the new hole to re-use it after all.
Just needed a bit of TLC with the angle grinder & an 80 grit disc.
The worst of the gaps is only 4mm or so. Easily hidden with epoxy. (AlexN take note!!)
Tacked in place with 'pox in the places where coaming & deck do, or nearly, touch.
Once dry, I'll trim the excess, tape it & finish fixing & filling from the other side.
Must say, at this stage I'm rather pleased with this recovery from a significant stuff-up.
Basking in a rosy glow of success, even.
Now, where's the rest of that Merlot got to... need to flagellate myself some more... :U

[rob540]

Go for it AJ- but don't be soft on yourself, have a cheap shiraz instead.:rolleyes:

[b.o.a.t.]

rob540 - you've been looking at my wine rack, haven't you !!

finished the coaming fixing thursday afternoon & today.
Angle grinder & 80-grit is The Best Way to remove lots of timber in a hurry.
Back in the days when I regularly broke or damaged glass slalom boats, I considered
myself something of an artiste with this tool. Have lost my touch a bit, but nothing that
can't be hidden with a bit of epoxy :U

Filled all the gaps, rounded off the edge & glassed into place with mostly 2oz off-cuts.
Plus a couple of 6oz ones when I ran out of 2oz. Blimey there's a huge difference in
them !! No wonder the 6oz was so damned hard to bend around the stem & stern neatly.
Will be -very- interested to guesstimate how much weight I've saved. The 2oz just disappears
with a single over-coat of pox. Also glassed over the patch join. Not too worried about it.
Once I move the bulkhead forward, the patch will be fully supported. Will be hidden by
paint over glass outside, & the bulkhead inside.

[rob540]

AJ, I bet the hardest moments were those just after the realization that all was not well. That horrible confrontation with the fact that all the work so far had come to this irrepairable mistake, then you get angry, then you get sad then you think that there are plenty of other, much better things that you could be doing with your time, and WHY THE HELL SHOULD I BOTHER, and then you stop caring, and after a few drinks you attack the thing with a very scary tool, but because you don't care anymore you find the old flow comes back and suddenly it all seems possible again.

Well done AJ it looks terrific again.

[b.o.a.t.]

Thankyou Rob
Yes the worst bit was facing the fact that something really was not right.
I think I'd been in denial up to that point.

Sort of rolled anger, bargaining, & depression into one single sickening emotion & in
that spirit hefted the Very Scary Tool.

Acceptance came well after the jigsaw, about 1/2 way through marking out the
location for the new hole. At about the same time as I realized that this wasn't going
to be as difficult or disastrous as first thought. Especially once the angle grinder
made such short, easy work of the clean-up. (The chooks whose enclosure I did the
sanding beside will probably contract some foul lung disease if they live long enough.)

cheers
AJ

[hairymick]

G'day AJ,

I just found this thread and what a cracking blog it is!

I love the lines of your kayaks - all of them and your comprehensive build piccies explain even more. If you don't mind too much, I will drop in here from time to time to ask questions.

[b.o.a.t.]

Thanks Mick.
You do a nice line in JEM boats yourself !
Was browsing their forum last night.
Looking forward to maybe bumping into the Onka Laker chap sometime.
cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

Easter weekend was chock-full of other things. Hardly touched it, & won't touch it at
all now for another week or two. Did quite a bit of sanding, getting the new coaming
glassing ready for painting or adding a coaming lip.

Measured up the new bulkhead for behind the paddler & cut it out.
Also measured & marked ot the coaming lip. Looking to minimise wastage & the size
of ply off-cut needed to extract the shape, I do it in two halves. Rather than join these
at the centre-linewhere there is maximum curvature & stress, I cut fore and aft
sections & join them at the sides. Shapes derived by simply tracing around the
cockpit cut-outs .

The coaming lip needs to be a bit over width to ensure there is plenty of overlap
when offered up to the coaming upright. (there may be proper names for these two bits
but I dunno what they are.) I made the marking jig up 3 boats ago.
Trick is to concentrate on tracking the coaming tracing line with the guide line across
the jig, keeping the two ends of the guide on the traced line. Coaming lip blank is
oversized 15mm inwards & 35mm outwards. Once glued in place, it is brought down
to size.

Have run out of fine jigsaw blades, so couldn't cut them out - coarse jigsaw blades
make a mess of the Pac.Maple ply.

Packed away all the tools which have littered the back verandah for weeks.
Back into it in about 2 weeks or so. The end is in sight. Approx order to completion:

mark & trim down coaming upright
glue in some locating tabs for the new bulkhead.
join the deck & hull
sand & glass the deck
pre-coat & fit the 4 bulkheads (haven't worked out how to reach the end ones yet. If I can't reach them, I'll omit them. They just keep stuff in the chambers from disappearing into the ends of the boat, no structural purpose this late in proceedings.)
mucho sanding exterior
fit coaming lip, fillet under & shape to final size
varnish coaming & interior
mask coaming & paint exterior
add fittings - foot-rests, hatches, handles
cheers
AJ

[rob540]

Ambidextrous? Or have you got a left-handed pencil?

[labr@]

AJ,

The "Onkalaker chap" is enjoying the thread and recommends that you check your PMs.:wink:.

[hairymick]

G'day Bob! and welcome aboard mate.:D

[b.o.a.t.]

Home from hols at Coffin Bay & Pt Lincoln.
Note to self... take boats next time. Both of them fantastic places for small boats.
And fishing. And oysters. Were it not so remote, Coffin would be THE ideal location
for a several day Ubeaut Wooden Boat Squadron regatta. We were forced :oo: to dine
cheaply at the yacht club, golf club & hotel on meals that overflowed a 13" dinner
plate. Also a pizza with lashings of topping and taste on another night. :2tsup:
Went out with a Pt Lincoln dragon boat club on a training paddle one evening.

Many, many non boat-building chores to do on return home. Only progress was about
45 mins in which I cut out the coaming halves (with new fine-toothed jigsaw blade -
sweet!! :U ), glued in some locator blocks for new bulkhead & precoated 1 side of all
4 bulkheads. No pics of boat building so here's some of Coffin & Lincoln instead.

Night-shift this weekend. Will have a few days off next week to do some more damage.
I hope.
cheers
AJ

[m2c1Iw]

Sounds like you had a great time AJ and yes the west does have some terrific spots. Lincoln would be ideal for a regatta.

Back to the grind stone eh :( and boat building :2tsup:

Cheers
Mike

[b.o.a.t.]

Got a bit done yesterday morning after work. Chiselled off the redundant bulkhead
locating blocks. At which point I realised that moving the bulkhead forward 200mm at
the widest point of the boat has vastly increased the volume of that stowage
compartment. :2tsup:

Then sanding & more sanding. By hand. :tdown:

Also mixed up some peanut paste to fillet the coaming. Half way through pumping
resin I was interrupted. Was that three or four pumps ?? :?
Stuffit ! Botecote doesn't seem too sensitive to slight variations in ratio, so I added
another half pump of resin and an extra drop or two of cold weather accelerator.
Formed the fillet and went to bed. It was nearly hard when I woke up this evening.
Too hard to do the old wet thumb final smoothing. More sanding. *sigh*

Mucho condensation dripping off the alsynite verandah roof during the night at the
moment - cold, calm & humid. Have to ensure only epoxy coated surfaces face
upwards. Have got a bit of polytarp somewhere that I've used in past autumns/winters
to cover things but not sure where it is now. Probably the bin - it was pretty clagged.
When Uncle Kevin's stimulus money arrives I might splash out on a new one :U

[rob540]

Mmm... and here we were grizzling about the hot weather. :rolleyes:
Coffin Bay looks stunning, but a long way for Victorians. I'd love to bring a boat (and camping gear) over to the general area in the next year or two. How many hours from Adelaide is it?

[labr@]

"vastly increased the volume of that stowage
compartment. "

There's always a silver lining - you just have to look for it!

I'm interested in attending the official launch - would give us a chance to compare designs. Any idea how long it will be til you head for the water? (Remember the formula: pick a number of days that will give ample time to finish the job then double it and add 2 weeks:U).

[b.o.a.t.]

Rob
Coffin Bay is about the same travel time again from Adelaide as Adelaide is
from Melbourne. Call it 7 - 8 hrs. Pt Lincoln is half an hour closer.

Bob
Launch date... has been chiselled in custard and will be the... dang! The
custard has flowed back over the chiselling. Will let you know. The official
guesstimate is June/July. -ish. And of course, every silver lining has a
cloud... I can hardly reach the front of the compartment from the hatch,
positioned centrally when the compartment was 200mm shorter...

Progress...
Bought a new battery pack for the $12 cordless drill this morning. Cost $25,
but came with a charger and a spare cordless drill... Also lashed out on a box
of decent bits. The ones I've been using to date are mostly around 20yrs old
and feeling every minute of it.

Got home from work & various other commitments just after lunch & thought..
"I'll just sit the deck on top of the hull, just to see what it looks like."
Of course, it promptly fell off.

So I figured I'd just fit a couple of clamps, just to hold it in place before going
to bed for a few hours.

Well, you know how it goes.
A few clamps show up a 'high' spot. So I fitted a few more clamps. Which
showed up a significant irregularity. So I drilled and screwed a pulling plate to
bring the edges back into line.

Now the bit on the other side of the clamp that looked all right before, looks a
bit off. So I cut & fit some more pulling plates. Which brought all the middles
into line.

But now the tips of deck & hull don't -exactly- line up. So I cut & fit some
aluminium channel pulling plates to force the tips into alignment.

By the time it was all ticketty-boo, it was 5pm & time to start making dinner.
So I took photos, and hunted out the scungy old polytarp cover to ward off
the condensate 'rain' tonight.

Looks all right. I think I can live with this boat. Might even put my name to it
somewhere.

cheers
AJ

[labr@]

Looking good - love the profile view!

June or July launch eh? Might have to invest in an ice pick...........:U

[rob540]

Good stuff. From the side, I particularly like the way the purposeful forward deck line becomes a concave rear deck line as it intersects with, or passes the cockpit.:2tsup:

[b.o.a.t.]

Good stuff. From the side, I particularly like the way the purposeful forward deck line becomes a concave rear deck line as it intersects with, or passes the cockpit.:2tsup:


Done for a reason Rob - sloped cockpit is a bit easier for old bones to get in
& out of. Allows it to be kept smaller so that paddle drip lands on deck
rather than on knees & in boat. The deck needs a bit of height, both for
knees & toes, and to keep it drier when it gets choppy.

Hope there was nothing else I was planning to do inside the boat.
It's glued now. Still haven't tried the Duck Flat mixture bagging technique.
The mixture is so stiff & the hole so small that I suspect tearing might occur
due to pressure required to extrude the mix and force it all the way into the
seam. A 45cent 20ml syringe does the job, although it can be a pain to load
- ladling it in the back with an ice-cream stick.

[rob540]

Good design for sensible reasons often makes for good lines! And I agree about the bag- it's terrific for peanutbutter fillets, but a small hole with a stiff mix nearly always causes messy explosions:- (I'm talking about epoxy here)

[b.o.a.t.]

Removed all clamps & pulling shims yesterday, and roughly filled the holes.

There is quite a bit of tension in the very tips of the joint. There's also a little bit of
tension both sides aft of the cockpit & up near the bow where the deck was splayed
wider than the hull & had to be pulled into line. After the accident with the deck, I feel
some urgency to reinforce the joint with glass. Family visiting from interstate starting
tomorrow, so the urgency has to happen today...

Boat needs to be propped with the average angle of the joint more-or-less bisected by
the vertical. This means it leans over at greater than 90degrees. probably more like
110 degrees or so. So a couple of stands knocked up 4 hulls ago were rescued from
the spiders under the workbench.
Again.
Cut-outs modified to more-or less match the edge profile of this latest boat.
Again.
As you can see from the pics, the back verandah is a busy place on washing days.
Sanding verboten !!

Also pictured is the brush extension I assembled to get to the tips of the boat from the
cockpit. About a 4ft length of permapine trellis lath. with a 30-ish degree chamfer on the
end. Using this, I only have to insert head & one arm to reach the ends. Have
"interesting" recollections of inserting head and shoulders into the fibreglass kayaks
I made as a younger & foolisher man. Wierd dreams that night... Each boat... And
there were a few... :o

Anyway, cut a length of glass tape a little longer than the boat so that there is excess
to wrap around the inside of the ends, and so it doesn't matter if the tape moves a little
during wet-out. Wet-out starting from the middle, keeping it a bit "dry" so it sticks to
the hull, resisting movement whilst wetting out towards the ends. Then came back &
properly wetted the dry bit in the middle. Will give it a second coat later this afternoon.
Tomorrow I'll do the second side, & mum will just have to be entertained by the performance...

[b.o.a.t.]

Am ready to install the end bulkheads.

Problem... they are a loose fit & need a fair bit of filling around the edges.
However, I can't reach them from anywhere I can see what I'm doing (the cockpit).

Thought maybe a caulking gun of sikaflex. The rear one I can probably -just- get the
tip of a caulking gun to, but the forward one is a clear foot away from the tip of the
most aggressively brandished gun.

Could possibly affix a mirror somehow behind the hatches - would be a bit of a Heath
Robinson affair, and with my arm filling much of the hole, visibility would be limited.
At best.

An epoxy putty syringe taped to a stick, plunger depressed using a second stick ?
Clamp a caulking gun to a stick & jury rig some sort of wire puller to the trigger?

Even though no-one will ever see these once complete, I would prefer they were neat
and use minimum possible material. There's also a 1mm pressure-relief hole in each
to be preserved.
Has anyone else here faced & resolved this particular conundrum ?
cheers
AJ

[labr@]

AJ, where are these bulkheads going - are they between the cockpit and the hatches or between the hatches and the extreme ends? (I know you said "end" but the small bulkhead panel shown on the first page looks to be unnecessary so I am unsure if this is what you are referring to.)

[b.o.a.t.]

G'day Bob
They are going about 12 inches from each extreme end.
Main purpose is to keep small items from disappearing out of reach into said extreme
ends. Secondary purpose is to keep some small measure of inviolable buoyancy.
Hatch covers may not be properly shut, grit in the seals, earthquake, pestillence, etc.
Not essential to the basic integrity of the boat, but desireable.

Did some mucking around this evening with a 20mm syringe on a stick. (Only thought
of it as I was typing the earlier post.) I think I can make it work. Won't be pretty, but
should be functional. If someone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.

cheers
AJ

[labr@]

How about a flexible tube eg pvc attached to the caulking gun or syringe with the other end controlled by the tape-to-a-stick method? It would take a bit of filler just to fill up the tube but you might get better control of the application rate and a neater job.

I would be worried about a permanently closed volume like that slowly picking up moisture and never drying out. Made sure all compartments in mine can be opened - even the void under the seat. Inflated wine cask bladders or plastic milk bottles could be put in for flotation and small items packed together into containers. Good luck with it anyhow.

[b.o.a.t.]

Agree with concerns about moisture ingress.
To address them the space is triple coated in pox.
As per attached drawing, I leave a tiny hole at the very peak of the deck by inserting a
piece of thin wire when glueing in the bulkhead, & pulling it out when the pox is dry
enough. When inverted in storage, as the compartment "breathes", air is inhaled, and
any accumulated water is expelled. That's the theory anyway. Not as good as an
inspection port, but seems to be holding up ok on this boat's predecessors.
cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

Wandered into DFWB today to see what things there might leap out at me.
A tub of soft fairing filler did.
The price tag on a tube of Sika 391 did too. Slapped me across the face a couple of
times. So I put it back on the shelf. Epoxy in a syringe wins on price.

Found a bit of electrical conduit & some dowell that was a loose fit.
Couple of feet of duct tape later & Voila !! Syringe-on-a-stick !!
Perfect for adding sedative to that 'difficult' patient...

Ended up being only moderately difficult. Keeping constant pressure on the plunger
from 4 ft away while making tiny movements of the nozzle 4ft 6in away was a bit
tricky, but manageable.

Syringe was too fat to fit in keel angle of the bow. Fixed by feel with a gloved finger
inserted via the forward hatch.
Wire is visible in the bow shots - will remove tomorrow to create breather hole.
Gaps were a bit variable, but nothing a wee drop of pox couldn't hide... er.. fix.
Rear fillet finished with square ended ice-cream stick (by feel via aft hatch).
Forward fillet finished with finger (dry, gloved, by feel via forrard hatch).

Will have to QC inspect them tomorrow with binoculars or summat. Can't get close
enough to see if I've left any unwanted holes using Mk.1 eyeball, naked or bespectacled.
cheers
AJ

[rob540]

You get the Surgeon's Award in the 'Most inaccessible Place' category.
:artist1:

[b.o.a.t.]

You get the Surgeon's Award in the 'Most inaccessible Place' category.
:artist1:


Sounds uncomfortable... :C not sure I want to accept it.

[labr@]

No, those fillets are too rough - now take them out and start again!:hahaha::hahaha::hahaha:

Seriously, a remarkable effort :2tsup:. Reminds me of the gynaecologist who took a midlife career change to become an automotive engineer. In the final exam he had to replace the rings and bearings in a small engine and although he only just finished in time they gave him a special merit award for doing the entire job through the exhaust port!

Have to ask - is there any reason why you didn't put the bulkheads in before installing the deck? It would have only left the top join to be filleted.

I like the idea of the breather hole.

[b.o.a.t.]

Have to ask - is there any reason why you didn't put the bulkheads in before installing
the deck? It would have only left the top join to be filleted.


Yep. Sure is a reason.
Seam taping, in my view, is a more important structural element than bulkheads.
Can't run the inner seam tape all the way to the tips of the boat with a bulkhead installed.

Ask me how I know this.

On second thoughts, don't. Another one of those "jigsaw moments" (4 boats ago).

:C :doh: :~ in about that order.

Breather hole isn't original. My 1980's 16ft Rosco had them in its miniscule buoyancy
boxes, but wrongly located to expel condensate & other imbibed moisture.

cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

More gratuitous pics...

removing the wire for the breather hole... front compartment = ok.
Rear compartment... :C :~
Wire snapped off. Couldn't remove.
So I drilled a 1mm hole instead.

Pics show glassing of the deck - another coat to hide the weave to be applied tomorrow.

Made a significant whoopsie on the third batch of pox during wet-out.
Was thinking of other things when I returned to the baot from the shed,
picked up the brush & started spreading. After about 10 seconds I realised
the pox seemed a bit runny (air temp only 16C - next 20+C day forcast in
about 5 months time...) Another 10 seconds staring at it trying to understand...
Then it dawned on me I'd forgotten to mix the pox & was wetting cloth with neat
hardener... :o :doh: etc.
Quickly located Stanley knife & excised the glass, plus a bit. Grabbed cloth &
mopped up as much as possible from the bare wood underneath. Hopped from
foot to foot for a bit trying to decide what to do with the fractionally damp remainder.
Decided the tiny remnant would possibly interact with a coat of mixed pox &
hopefully not delaminate immediately. Hopefully. Cut a piece of glass to cover the
gap and ***thoroughly mixed the epoxy*** before continuing...

15/5/09 - Yesterday's poxing went off just enough to be able to sand off the worst of
the lumps, bumps, doublings & edges this morning. Green enough still to glug AlOx
paper. Second coat has filled the weave nicely & covered the sandings. This 2 oz
glass is soooo easy to use compared with 6oz, & takes soooo little resin to wet & fill.
A teensy bit of sanding filler tomorrow along the edges of the glass will complete
the sheathing. Just the coaming ring & 2 bulkheads left to glue in place, a heap
of sanding & painting, and attaching fittings.

Rightly or wrongly I am starting to feel like the end is in sight.

[rob540]

Nothing gratuitous about the pics AJ. Very helpful.

-But a short movie of you hopping from foot to foot would be very useful. Great strategy that, and I intend to pracise it in a minute, I've just got to decide which foot to start with. As for "quickly locating the Stanley knife", that might take a bit more work.
I guess that once the glass gets put away things will resolve themselves quickly. Just in time for some cold weather!

[b.o.a.t.]

G'day Rob
I've found the foot hopping thing comes fairly natural when pressed to make important decisions.
Have just started the Global Corporate Challenge - aim is for the pedometer to record
10,000 steps per day. Will need to do lots of hopping from foot to foot to make that
total. Was disappointed to read that strapping it to the random orbital sander is
specifically forbidden. So is strapping it to the dog.

Coaming lip is now on. Can't get clamps to grip the glassed & sanded inside of the
deck where it meets the coaming, so I whacked on some poxy dags to give the
clamps something to grip. In the pic below you can also see the locating blocks for
the foward bulkhead. That was Tuesday.

Wednesday I attached the coaming. Did a dry fit & marked the inner edge for the glue
on the coaming lip. Mixed a fairly runny filleting brew to attach it as neither the coaming
upright end-grain nor the coaming lip had been pre-coated. The two went together easily
& the glued faces met perfectly. As you can see. the coaming lip is over-sized & will be
trimmed down to something a bit more sensible. As the blank is measured & cut on the
flat, while the actual fitting has complex curves, this is the only way to be certain of having
enough material on the boat... Trimming back is a nuisance, but not nearly as much as
making new coaming lip blanks would be.

This morning I removed the clamps, & filleted the underside. We were discussing
filleting tools on another thread. Here are 3 of my favourites. There's another
sharpened ice-cream stick somewhere about. The middle one is used to fillet under
the coaming. The bottom one was 'developed' to fillet the coaming riser to the deck.
And Other Stuff. The ice-cream stick does about 90% of the work.


Anyway.... boat is looking more & more complete. Trimming back the coaming lip
will stop it from dominating the visage. Going to bed now - one more night shift to
do, and I need an excuse why I didn't get to 10,000 steps today... :U

cheers
AJ

[rob540]

The lip and coaming will really finish off the lovely lines. Will the inner edge have much of a radius on it?

[b.o.a.t.]

Not really Rob.
Not enough timber. The vertical is 5mm & the horizontal is 4mm.
So will round it just enough to take a smooth lay of glass.
cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

An expensive week to be sure, to be sure.

On Tuesday the printer carked it. With two kids in high school with assignments due...
Swung past Officewoks on the way home from night-shift Wednesday. Hoped to pick
up a printer using the same cartidges as ours, as I have a few spares. Nope.
Cheapest using that cartidge now is the wrong side of $250. All the cheap printers
now use hideously expensive tri-colour tanks. So got a HP C5380 instead. At a good
price, but rather more than the Chancellor of the Exchequer had imagined... Never
mind that it will be level-pegging with the cheaper units at the first change of inks, &
steaming ahead thereafter.

Then yesterday, I started trimming back the coaming lip with the trusty Black & Decker
angle grinder. For about 10 seconds. Then it growled at me horribly & stopped dead.
Only 25y/o too. Just don't make 'em like they used to... :no:
Looks like the motor is fine but the gearbox is shot. Same death as my B&D drill
died a few years ago. That sat in pieces around my shed for years - couldn't bring
myself to throw out a perfectly good, working universal motor. Got ruthless last year
& will be ruthless with this one.

Eventually.

So this morning found me at Bunnies, standing front of 25 or so 100, 115 & 125mm
angle grinders testing each one for "fit". I figure a little tool like this is the equivalent
of a fine art brush - for the delicate stuff. Big stuff - hire a big grinder/sander. So it has
to be a good fit to the hand, nicely balanced, easily & comfortably eased around
curves, nicely located switch, etc, etc.

And no cheap stuff. I've had my fill of cheap power tools (although can you believe
Bunnies are flogging their Ozito's with a 3 year exchange warranty?) After about
45 minutes (glad I went on my own) I'd narrowed it down to just 3 x 100mm units -
a Makita, a DeWalt and, would you believe, a Ryobi ?!!

Another 15 minutes of upsetting customers & making staff very nervous by waving
them around in a sort of demented Tai Chi routine, imagining paring back gelcoat
on a rounded chine, trimming a kayak coaming, cutting pavers, rounding bolt heads,
etc, etc, I made a decision.... (drum-roll please)...

The Ryobi !! (the most expensive at $99) in a cardboard box with no accessories or
warm fuzzies. Just a solid, simple 1000W grinder with outstanding balance, grip &
switch ergonomics, and a 2-year warranty.

As wetness is forecast from tonight, I felt it essential to knock over the sanding jobs
immediately. Niiiiiiice !!! A worthy successor to the B&D. And bonus!! - double the
wattage.

So, to the pics.

If you think you've seen the marking jig before, you have. This is its designed &
intended useage, but inverted, it worked really well as the oversize mark-out jig.
Pics of that mode d'emploi back in early April.

Aartistically wielding the new Ryobi, with boat lowered onto a pair of carpet-covered
saw horses, I pared the coaming back to about 1mm from the marked lines, and
removed the clamping dags inside the cockpit. Brought the coaming down to the
line with the ROS. (also a Ryobi come to think of it, but only about 17y/o). Final
shaping & removing last vestiges of the dags with cork block wrapped in 120g AlOx.

Back up onto the table, & gouged out the lumps where a few bubbles of air were
trapped during filleting. In the process blunting a carefully sharpened 1" chisel.
Filled the holes, & will one day resharpen the chisel.

At this point, Miss 14 came out & advised me that the monitor power led wouldn't
stay on. Well, we fiddled & poked & swapped cables & concluded that it is time
for a new monitor. So back down the hill to Officewoks & Hardly Normal to find
they only stock over-priced wide-screen monitors. After an hour or so, managed
to locate a "normal" 19" LG at IT Warehouse for a shade over $200. At this rate
I might have to get a second job.

The pics look good on the new screen though.
cheers
AJ

[m2c1Iw]

AJ are you and Alex related :D....just kidding both of you.

Ah........ the purchase of a new tool even if it does have a tail.

Great thread AJ, the project looks like it will fly.

Cheers
Mike

[b.o.a.t.]

AJ are you and Alex related :D....just kidding both of you.

Cheers
Mike


Nah, just trying to catch up with Alex' word-count.
There's no way I can match him for toy-count !! :U
I find his thread an interesting & entertaining read, even if he is doing it hard
at the moment, so I figure imitation is the sincerest form of approval.
cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

Am also envious of the fact that Alex is making progress at the moment.
I glassed the coaming lip shortly after last post & have done very little to it since.
The poxy set ok but went cloudy. A scrub with soapy water just made it cloudier.
It was a cold humid afternoon & night, so I suspect it has ingested too much moisture.
Started sanding it back smoothe, but got a bad feeling that I'll be sanding it all the way
off & doing it again. Usually it's high summer when I get to this point, so this is my
first experience of glassing in cold & wet. On an open back verandah... brrrrr...
Motivation struggling.

Spent part of today making a wall bracket for some new toys I picked up yesterday.
Jaycar have some LED torches on special. Picked up a 176 lumen 3x D-cell maglite
copy that can char-grill koalas right there in their trees. :D MUCH brighter than the
equivalent maglite, & lasts about 8 times as long on full power. Also bought an 80
lumen pen-light which has roughly the same light output & beam as a Mk1 Dolphin
with brand-new batteries & bulb, but uses a single AA cell. A bunch of us from work
put in a 10+ order which brought the price down even further. :U :U

Also brought myself to finally throw the dead angle-grinder and a long-dead jigsaw in the bin.

[b.o.a.t.]

Great thread AJ, the project looks like it will fly.

Cheers
Mike


Just re-read your post Mike.

Merely aiming to have it float, not fly. :U

And hopefully keep up with OnkaBob's Laker.

cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

I have never applied epoxy with a roller.
Have been less than impressed with rollers as being anything other than a
quick way to cover large areas. Economy of product ... skeptical.
Besides which, on my kayaks, there isn't enough area to make the extra fiddling
with a roller & tray & etc worth-while.

On Monday, I changed my mind. On all fronts.

Sanded & final pox-coated the coaming, which I last week took back to bare wood
and re-glassed, to to full thickness blushing. Then thought, with an hour or so up
my sleeve, to coat the hull, one last time to fill the sworls & swirls that 80G
paper on the ROS left behind. Decided to try using a roller. Because it was there.
Unused.

Pumping 14x resin/7x hardener is about what the 2 deck chines take for full
coverage with a varnish brush, allowing for the large hole in the middle.
So I figured the roller would probably cover the next chine down. Which it did.

With almost 1/2 of my mixture still to go !!

Lifted the boat onto narrow supports & coated all of the next chine and more
than half of the bottom chine. There's enough left to finish the bottom, but I
can't get at it to coat it. (pic below)

Tipping afterwards with a varnish brush left a finish not as smoothe as MIK's
pics, but a quantum leap better than brush alone.

By my calculations, the 3" roller has saved me 2 hrs painting, 6 hrs sanding
irregularities in film thickness, and made my pox go 2.5 times the distance.
With a corresponding weight saving in the boat.

Thanks blokes !!

Afterthought...
When I got home from shift early Tuesday morning, I felt moved to lift the boat
off its precarious perch on the narrow stands. Just as well I did. A few hours
later at 10am, I was woken by the wheelie bins being blown over & tumbled
along the street. The boat, while wet, had not shifted.... bow to wind, whew !!
Nearly everything else except metal hand tools, also wet, had been blown off
the table. The table has never been rained on before. That was some wind.
Felt dreadful, so went back to bed until re-woken by pager announcing storm
damage, & time to go play fireman.

Today I fitted the forward bulkhead. Nice to be moving again.

cheers
AJ

[labr@]

Noice!:2tsup:

What type of roller did you use?

[rob540]

Glad to see you back at it AJ. We got that big blow this afternoon too. I wondered if it came from your place!

BTW have you tried Mik's tip of dragging the roller with a gloved finger preventing it from rotating? It certainly improved my agricultural efforts

[b.o.a.t.]

Foam epoxy roller from Flat Duck.
Has about a 3mm thick (thin) layer of fine foam on it.
Holds surprisingly little epoxy off the job, not at all like the furry paint ones that take
half a litre to fill the nap before they'll transfer anything to the job.

Tried the locking-the-roller-with-one-finger trick, but it kept sliding off the frame.

Got two more days off, then back for afternoon & night shifts. Before then I hope to
install the aft bulkhead, drill out the footbrace screw holes, hatch screw holes, and
maybe even fabricate securing plates for the carry straps at each end.

That will just leave sanding, painting & final fit-out. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
hasn't delivered a ruling on what colour she wants it yet.

[labr@]

Well, tomorrow is the horse's birthday so that means July has been and gone. I know the estimated launch date was only chiselled in custard but must ask - how's it going?

Are there any pics of painting progress or is the C of E still deciding on the colour?

As a little incentive I must say that it looks like Sunday's weather is going to be brilliant if the charts are right and I suspect there will be more days like this over the next month or 2 in between the rain.

[b.o.a.t.]

Little progress. Family emergencies interstate, over-time, cold wet weather, &
general life intrusions. Also dreaming of next boat. (Unable to decide between MIK's
"RAID41", Ross's "First Mate" or Radoslaw Werzsko's "4M Dayboat". None of them
is exactly "right", but with some tweaks here & there.... But I digress.)

Bulkheads are installed. Most of inside & coaming is sanded ready for varnish.
Still a bit of sanding to do there.

Outside is un-sanded, holes un-drilled, straps & plates un-made.

Colours are chosen, but from the Bright-side cattledog. Will try to get Norglass from
Goolwa, perhaps this weekend - nice day for a drive to Clayton to look at the new
weir.... errr.. regulator.

cheers, & thanks for asking.
AJ

[rob540]

Dreaming's good, not effected by weather, take it with you wherever, costs nothing, gives your mind room to move, the outcome is academic because what you end up choosing will be right at the time even if it isn't what you fancy now. The process is recreational in itself.

[b.o.a.t.]

Very sage advice Rob.
I'm trying to reconcile the "need" for a big stable cabin boat (I call a TS16 'big') with the
"need" for speed, and the "need" for reasonable and comfortable choppy water shelter,
and the "need" for shelter from the savage SA sun, and the "need" to fit it all on a 6x4
box trailer.

I've got as far as "my brain hurts". :p Suggestions welcome.


On an vaguely related note, we did go down to the Lake on Sunday. Have dived into
the realm of on-line picture albums for the first time & posted a few up to
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/aaar1au/LakeAlexandrina2ndAug2009#

Hard to describe the scale of the Big Dry. Imagine Port Phillip Bay with sandy/muddy
beaches extending hundreds of metres out. Or Sydney Harbour with just a narrow
shipping channel left. (Ignore the difference in depth of those two bodies of water, just
the scale of the thing.)

No immediate end in sight & gunna take more rain than you can poke a stick at to
relieve. I have a mate on a farm south of Wagga. There's a spring on his property
which didn't dry up even in the 7 year Federation Drought. It stopped flowing this
summer. And we've another el Nino event beginning. :o :no: :C etc.

Extra criteria for dream boat.... must have wheels.

Didn't get to Goolwa to buy paint for the kayak. Had a great day anyway.
cheers
AJ

[rob540]

Thanks for access to the pics, I haven't been there for over a decade. Pretty depressing to think about, but more of us need to.

With regard to the aching brain, your condition is of course the old:
'Want-self-righting-8-berth-floating-home-small-enough-to-fit-in-the-car-boot-that-costs-what's-left-at-the-end-of-the-month-and-not-a-penny-more-and-goes-incredibly-fast-on-command-oh-and-it-must-be-drop-dead-gorgeous-to-look-at' syndrome. I recommend you have a cup of tea and a good lie down. That way you'll get almost as close to your objective as you would if you did everything possible, or nothing whatsoever.:doh:

[b.o.a.t.]

Believe it or not, the boat being semi-wrapped in a decrepit old polytarp
is a symptom of progress. Coat #3 of varnish went onto the inside & coaming
this morning. But at night, when it is often still & cold, there is an enormous
amount of condensation underneath the polycarb roofing. All this condensate
makes a bee-line for the boat. So At night, I have to flip it & cover it.

Reckon I've got one, or perhaps 2 coats left in the tin. Can live with 4 coats
inside, but the coaming needs many more than that to resist our UV. These
boats live upside down on a rack in the back yard, not indoors.

[rob540]

If I was a kid again, I'd be under there playing ships or aeroplanes, or pirates....

Outdoor boat building sure has its challenges. It's so ironic that we've had so much trouble with moisture during one of the worst dry spells in history. What doesn't kill us makes us strong:rolleyes:

[b.o.a.t.]

It's so ironic that we've had so much trouble with moisture during one of the worst dry spells in history. What doesn't kill us makes us strong:rolleyes:


Funny thing is that despite the empty water storages, as far as I can ascertain, the
coastal parts of our capital cities have had near-average rainfall these last few years.
It's the catchments which have missed out. Most of the capital city people I know
running their houses on rain water have been saying "What water shortage?"
Last year was an exception for Adelaide.

Anyway, inside the kayak has had its last (4th) coat of varnish. The remainder in the
tin should build the coaming up to 8 or 9 or 10. Then sand & paint the outside.
Hoping now for a 2009 launch... :U

cheers
AJ

[b.o.a.t.]

Friday was our first 'nice' day for two weeks (when I haven't been at work or
sleeping off night-shift). So spent it sanding the outside getting ready for when
Capt Sturt get my paint in.

Only one trouble with 2 oz glass & rolled pox. Even with 180g paper on the ROS,
you can sand right through it in a puffteenth of a second. Certainly, you can
do so in the second or two between exhaling through the dust mask fogging the
glasses, and the gentle breeze de-fogging them again. Vision... no vision...
vision... no vision... etc, etc.
:~
Will have to do some touching-up termorrer.
Suspect my paint is still a week or two away, so no major dramas.

No pics either. Sanding.... ho hum....

[b.o.a.t.]

Capt. Sturt at Goolwa have rung to advise my paint is in.
Ripperbewdybonza :2tsup:
.
.
.
Got to figure out how/when to get down there to collect it... :doh:

[b.o.a.t.]

4 day window of time off & reasonable weather, if a bit windy...

First coat of bottom paint on today.

But before I could do that, I had to make the stands narrower so that I could roll
paint along the 4th chine. While I was at it, I made them self-adjusting for slope.
Been meaning to do that for a while.
But before I could do that I had to charge the drill battery.
But before I could do that I had to find the charger.
To do that, I had to do a clean-up of the bench top, which included packing tools away.
Before I could put the tools away, I had to treat the rust on them from condensation.
(still quite a few to rehabilitate)
etc
etc


Anyway... Paint fairly rockets on with the roller.
More even coverage than I ever achieved with a brush, at about 1/2 the volume.
So thin & even that I can see the outlines of a couple of drips which started to go off
before I rolled them in. Wasn't able to get any of those micro rollers. Not willing
to make a special trip 10km to a rabbit warren. Got a high-density foam one for my
'proper' roller instead. Still got a little bit of orange peeling, even tipping with a brush.
Possibly due to the roller still being a bit coarser foam than a micro roller? Even so,
it's still a better finish than I have achieved with a brush alone.

Will have to find a pouring spout for 1L tins though. Have some 4L spouts & they
save such a mess getting paint from tin into roller tray. Which, when I think hard
about it, is the only real reason I went off using a roller years ago.

Oh, and I double-bagged the roller & put it in the freezer. Is that the right action for
enamel to maximise roller use? Or am I confusing it with acrylic?

cheers
AJ

[Daddles]

There's something wrong with your camera, the boat's come out a funny blue :C

Looking good mate :D

Now, with the roller, you're putting on less paint and getting an even finish but, is the paint an area where a good, thick layer is better? If so, are you better off laying lots of thin coats with your roller?

Richard
not wanting to give up his slap and daub painting habits :cool:

[b.o.a.t.]

I reckon 3 coats for better build.
On the bottom.
Might skimp & just do 2 coats on the deck.

Have I done the right thing with the roller & the freezer.
And should I tell the missus ?

cheers
AJ

[m2c1Iw]

Have I done the right thing with the roller & the freezer.
And should I tell the missus ?

cheers
AJ

I refuse to give advice in this case as it may get me embroiled in a domestic disturbance. :rolleyes:

AJ tell me you didn't really put a roller full of solvents in the freezer if so DO NOT TELL THE MISSES, go and remove it now.
Nah forget that she'll ask what the funny smell is in the freezer anyway so whadya gunna say. I suggest start thinking up an alibi now just in case she moves the frozen peas hiding the said roller.

:D Nah forget it I'd just start running.

Mmmm.......paint finish looks good though. :2tsup:

[b.o.a.t.]

Got away with it. :D

Double-bagged in zip-loc bags, hidden at the very back at the bottom.
No give-away smells. Handle was a bit cold for a while...

Foul abysmal painting day. No dust, but mid-twenties, both for temperature & wind speed.
Couldn't maintain a wet edge, Couldn't tip it off as fast as it was going off. Distinct orange-peel finish.
<shrug> Will treat this as a build-coat. Sand it smoothe in a week or so when I can get back to it.
This weekend just closed off, so not too much lost.
cheers

[b.o.a.t.]

Turns out mid-twenties was an optimistic under-estimate. Was well over 30C.
Instructions - do not apply if below 10C or above 30C. :~
On the positive side, after a week of drying, it sanded easily to a really good
smoothe surface with 180G alox over a cork block.

I've taken this week off to finish the job. Naturally the weather is filthy - wet, gales,
falling trees, & etc. Moved things as far from the rain & splash zones around the
verandah as I could & went ahead with painting anyway. Got a few splashes from
the really heavy stuff yesterday, but no marks. Still not a mirror finish, but it's as
good as I think I'm going to achieve, so I'm reasonably happy with it.

Thrilled with the overall shape & sheer. Stood back & admired it tonight for so long
the paint started to go off on the brush. One final coat on the deck, then fit foot-rests,
hatches & carry straps. A week for the paint to toughen up, then launch probably
second week of the school hols. Give or take a year.

And best of all, my rainwater tanks are full again. :2tsup: :U

[rob540]

Congratulations AJ not even a cyclone will stop you now. It looks great after your magnificent showing of patience above and beyond the call of boat building.
In future though, let your missus choose your time off, she can't do any worse than you in choice of weather...
Rob

[b.o.a.t.]

FINISHED !!

As finished as it's gunna be anyway. Bulk brush-marks in the top-coat. It sure does
start to go off quick !! Added a bit of turps into the last bottom coat for better result.
Should have done same for deck. <shrug> Managed to beat the Wisteria petal-drop
by half a day. It has been raining petals all over everything since the paint dried to
the touch.

Hatches glued in using an Oz-made marine sealant that I haven't seen before. Says
it's free of silicone & various other chemicals. Tested exclusively on baby seals or
some-such... One thing for sure - it is very slow curing. Didn't use screws. The
sealant is seriously sticky straight out of the tube, so should be ok when (if) cured.
The bricks are resting on the cover rather than the rim, so that it all stays nice &
straight - no warping to bind the threads.

Foot-rests bolted in with a wee dab of sealant around each bolt, and inside each nylok
nut where the bolt doesn't quite reach the nylok. :doh:

Finally, today the 8 holes & plates securing the end straps screwed into the epoxy
fillet & double thickness backing ply installed all those many months ago... A drop or
two of pox on each screw to encourage it to stay put, and not leak.

At this stage, it looks like launch in about 12 days. Or possibly 3.
But, looking at the weather forecasts... more likely 12.

Now there's just the cleaning up to do - too late for the paint which dripped off the roller
onto the concrete paving... :doh: And rust to scrape off tools left out over winter. :doh:
cheers
AJ

[Daddles]

B...b...but it's blue :oo:

Is it as good in real life as in the photos? Looks pretty sexy there under that purple horror (I had a wisteria once - after many tries, I finally killed it by building a house on it).

Give a yell when you're launching her. It's school holidays and I'll be looking for things to do with the kids.

Richard

[b.o.a.t.]

It's school holidays and I'll be looking for things to do with the kids.

Richard

You too huh ?
I've tried all sorts of things but they keep coming back.
I figure a kayak has gotta be worth a go... :U

Booked solid until late in the second week. How's that sound ?

cheers
AJ

[Daddles]

Booked solid until late in the second week. How's that sound ?

cheers
AJ

It's possible. I was booked to take the kids over to Vinnie that week but the lad's soccer club has decided to have its U19 trials that week so we have to stay home :(

Richard

[labr@]

Very impressive AJ - even the inside of yours looks better than the outside of mine.

Are you planning a local launch or heading to Goolwa? (My sources say the water level there has risen significantly since the new dam was finished).

[b.o.a.t.]

A flash hideth many sins.
Wish I could have got the outside as good as the inside though.

Yes the water level has risen in Alex.
It had already risen appreciably from the rain before the weir was completed.
As at 2 weeks ago almost all sandbanks were gone, & water was lapping the
Clayton Bay Sailing Club marina entrance.

Most likely launching at Clayton Bay. But by no means certain. Could be
anywhere between there & Westlakes. :U Will let you know. Maybe make
a day of it with the SA Chapter.

cheers
AJ
(Hmmmm... better have a secret pre-launch launch to check that the darn thing floats... :C )

[Daddles]

(Hmmmm... better have a secret pre-launch launch to check that the darn thing floats... :C )

Do that and I'll mount a cannon on Redback :cool:

Richard

[b.o.a.t.]

pwomises, pwomises... :U

anyway, given your enthusiaism for Redback's ergonomcs, just exactly how do you
propose to aim & fire the thing ?

Except for possibly straight downwards... :D

[Daddles]

pwomises, pwomises... :U

anyway, given your enthusiaism for Redback's ergonomcs, just exactly how do you
propose to aim & fire the thing ?

Except for possibly straight downwards... :D

Bugger firing it, I was going to intimidate you long enough to be able to ram you :2tsup:

I guess letting off a flare would be considered antisocial :(

Richard

[b.o.a.t.]

Sat 10th Oct
Late morning : 11 o'clock-ish
Seacliff Sailing Club
forecast looks ok too.

Saturday
Precis: Fine. Mostly sunny
Noarlunga: Min 8 Max 20
Wind: E/NE 8/13 knots, increasing to 13/18 knots late evening.
Afternoon and early evening sea breezes 5/10 knots.
Sea: around 0.5 m.
Swell south of Marino Rocks: W/SW below 0.5 m

that's the plan anyway...
didn't get around to a trial, so no idea if it will float.

cheers
AJ