Thread: Puddle duck building the South African way

HI Puddleduck,

good to see another budding boat builder,.

Meranti is a highly variable timber, for grain colour and strength,. Be sure that you as a minimum glass the outside of the hull and saturation coat the inside, 2 coats first coat thinned 5-10% to get penetration , a light sand then 2nd coat normal mix apply with a 110mm roller with a short nap.

This will ensure that your hull timber will be totally sealed and if water cannot get in , no rot later,.

Regards your glue ,is it a glue or epxy resin mix??? if it's an epoxy mix you should use a glue powder / filler to thicken the mix, this will help with application , and mess.

You should be able to get BOTECOTE over there if not there should be other brands of EPOXY or resellers who can supply the necessary fillers.

Cheers from Downunder,

Jeff

Jeff

Appreciate the advice, thanks.
Pardon my ignorance but does saturation coating mean a thinned resin mix? If you say 5 to 10% does it mean diluting the resin with acetone or similar solvent? Finally, do first add the acetone to the resin, mix and then add the hardner?

Marine glues and epoxies are hard to come by where I stay so it often requires some innovation and substitution to get the job done though.

I got a great tip from our local swimming pool dealer who indicated that good fillets can be made by mixing diatomacious earth with resin and mixing it till eat has the consistancy of peanut butter. Sounds like I will try this method.

As for the meranti, the hull will be glassed externally.

Yes add to mix before you mix the 2 parts together, as for a filler you can use just about any material as long as it it is basically inert and non carcinogenic.

Acetone is fine for the saturation coat but do not exceed 10% , A set of small digital scales are a good addition to the workshop as you can get very accurate proportions.

Jeff

The PD boatbuilding is progressing much slower than anticipated due to family and employment responsibilities
I have managed to finish the in- and outside panel chine logs as well as framing the bow and stern. The air boxes have been cut, framed and home made access hatches installed. I found laundry soap containers with a rim wide enough for drilling and attaching it to the wood with screws

I also laminated hard and softwood and profiled the daggerboard camber. I am rather pleased with the result. The rudder profile is curing in the vice.

I fabricated drain plugs from cold drink bottle tops inserted and glued into the stern

Next steps:

Take 5 days off from work and boatbuilding to the coast for some kayaking and serious skiboat fishing. Come back and spend a week on the preperation for going 3D.

Once done I will provide updates on the progress with the daggerboard case, rudder case assembly and finishing

Some pics of progress up to now:

G'day Stoffeltoo
Before thinning your epoxy, suggest reviewing WEST & other sources of info.
"Saturation" is no longer the "S" in WEST.
It now stands for "stabilisation".
These two earlier threads will give some of the background on why thinning is
not best practice. Save you a quid or two and some effort as well.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f32/thinning-poxy-36431/
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f32/thinning-tpdra-96677/

regards, and welcome
Alan J.

Watching.

RE : Thinning with Acetone.

I have used this when building the MANGROVEJACK , Basically to allow me to wet out the glass cloth quickly , and yes I then gave the whole boat a second coat of straight resin , with Microballoons to fill and fair the hull ,.

I have just done a modification to raise the transom HT, and found that the resin had , as mentioned in a previous post not penetrated to the glue line. The PLY used is Pacific Maple, which is fairly porous grain.

For a quick wet out of GLASS CLOTH , if a second coat is being applied it will work , that does not mean it is recommended. If I build again I would use TRPD, instead of acetone, for initial coat to wet out glass then a filler coat with Microballoons, to fill and fair. This works for me, and all boat builders are different and have their own methods and quirks.

Jeff

G'day to the fellow boat builders/designers!

As always the forum members are very helpful with information for a noobie. I have noted some difference in opinion amongs forum members in the refernced threads on the coating preferences for marine ply. My opinion is that woodworking/boatbuilding is an art of choice with diffrent strokes for diffrent okes.
This TRPD stuff, what is it? Here is lovely South Africa boatbuilding materials are fairly difficult to come by and yes, pricey as a huge amount of products are imported and with the current exchange rate not quite economical.
I will follow the advice of Jeff and resin coat the hull inside and out, the fillets will be done with resin and a filler material for protectiong the seams and joints.

The hull, rudder and dagger will recieve an external fibre glass coating and final painting will be done with a resin swimming pool flow coat.

BTW as a rsponse to Jeff the glue I am using is poly-urethane woodglue which sticks like doggie poo on a woolen blanket! I got some of this stuff on my hands and only won the removal fight after two weeks. Now I rather sacrifice gloves.

I will be back in a week and will keep you updated on the progress

Good stuff mate, CAUTION with the SWIMMING POOL FLOW COAT, I do not know how COMPATIBLE it will be with EPOXY resin , I know that EPOXY will adhere to POLYESTER/VYNELESTER Resins ,but I have that the REVERSE is not the case.

I would check this before committing .Also this material is Brittle , and on a timber Boat there is a certain amount of flexing , So please tread carefully.

Have a good holiday , and beware of the GREAT WHITES , summer is here and they are active.

Cheers,

Jeff

I am back from holiday and as with a visit to Mocambique in April I was followed by unpleasant weather which lead to quality time with the missus and kids
I could go ski boat fishing for one day only with one of the commercial outfits and even managed to fill my bag limit with edibles
Jeff, no great whites but plenty of raggies and duskies were hanging around the reefs and pinnacles making fishing challenging and changing position often to dodge the tax man. The conditions on the water spelt doom and gloom for my fellow anglers as seasickness was in the order of the day so I proceeded to help some of them to fill their bag limits where possible.

Incidentally a chap got chomped by a Great White in False Bay at the Cape last week with very gruesome photos being published in the local Afrikaans magazines. Ugh!

Back to boat building for the remainder of the week and I will keep you updated with the progress. I aim to go 3D by Friday weather and patience permitting

This "ski boat fishing" sounds interesting...
Shades of "Jaws".
How do you select the person to be the 'bait' and set the hook?
Alan J

Hi Boat
You pick the one leaving the greatest chum slick when seasick. You need to club them a little to set the bait hook through the cheek and fit a PDF to ensure they stay on the surface They also normally do this and this when they go overboard

I am progressing a bit faster than anticipated and hope to have the hull go 3D tonight or early tomorrow morning. I have finished the profiling the foils, cut the bits and pieces for the rudder box (Which still have to be assembled) and the side panels have been strengthened.

So I guess I will be sending a registration e-mail soon .....

Woo Hoo!
The hull has been assembled and now it looks like a boat! I think that for any first time boat builder this is a major milestone.
I seriously doubted my wood fitting skills but was pleasantly surprized when the hull corners were square and I need minimal gap filling in tight difficult to reach joints.
It was a surprize to feel the amount of hull stiffening when the bottom board was fitted.
Photo's later when there is more light

Sent Shorty Routh a Mail....