Thread: Tom Cat

Things have progressed well over the past couple of weekends. The Seat Supports have been installed and an additional 2 coats of varnish applied. This is an attempt to cover the screw heads and epoxy joins as well as bring the coat count to five. I think I’m done with this and am now ready for the Seat Boards.

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The Seat Boards have had 3 coats of varnish all over with the routine explained in my previous note between each coat. I pondered on a methodology to get full coats top, bottom and edges and ended up using screws in the bottom of each board using the predrilled screw holes. See pics. This worked a treat and solved the issue with handling the Boards whilst wet. Just need to wait now for the varnish to harden right up prior to installation. I intend sanding back just the top surfaces prior to this and giving these a couple more coats once in place.

Greg...the temps have risen as of late hence the work progressing. We're looking at temps in the mid 20's in the next week so may be able to get the Seats in and and get those extra coats on!

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I have no idea where the time goes but construction moves along.

I have installed and uninstalled all the Seat Boards in an effort to ensure I have the necessary screw holes in the structure for when the final installation takes place. I have sanded the tops of each in readiness for the final two coats of varnish to be applied after the permanent installation of the boards. I anticipate this will be completed post the fitting of the Coaming and Deck but prior to these being permanently installed. I’m still worrying about access to screw them down.

The major work has been the installation of the rear Coaming Supports and the subsequent shaping of the Deck Support structures to achieve an acceptable Deck Camber for the boat.

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This has created an utter environmental change in my shed due to the shaping of all these ie. Breast Hook, Chocks and Quarter Knees. This created an unholy mess that had to be cleaned up.

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On the positive side I now have Deck Supports that are graduated with the appropriate Deck Camber on which I can lay the Deck. In lieu of using a single Camber Board I used the lofting to provide the patterns for individual Camber Boards at various Station points along the Centre Line. Yes, it’s a lot more work but what the hell, this is supposed to be fun as well as a learning experience that in the end provides a nice looking boat, right?

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On completion of the camber work I went ahead and laid out the Coaming lines and cut them out utilising the 3” in 12” rake that was on the plans. Even this was another thought provoking challenge as I didn’t know if I should just adjust my sabre saw as read, straight off the plans or adjust slightly for the camber of the Deck. In the end I adjusted for the camber of the Deck considering the rake would, in my opinion rake too much so set the saw as if it was being set from a horizontal surface. Does that make intelligible sense? On completion I was happy that I did anyway.

I continually look at past Tom Cat builds and I find the info there extremely useful. I have to acknowledge and thank Alex Low and Martin Nelson for their many posts on the build of their boats. Considering my aim is to have a laminated Deck I thought it prudent to add some support to the Rear Deck just as Alex did but with a more Laurie view of the scantlings! In an effort to use up some spare bits lying around I have made these from Paulownia (middle), Hoop Pine (inner) and Cedar (outer). They should do the job OK.

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My intention is to use up a lot of my left over Paulownia planking strips as a sub deck to the final planking - these are already tongue and grooved and just require to be bought down to size from 12 to 6mm. I think this will be good if laid at right angles to the centre line and overlayed with 4-5mm thick x 38mm wide decking boards parallel to the centreline. Maybe even lay this sub deck at 45 deg to the centre line at opposite angles either side. The Paulownia should provide the strength once all glued up. Another thought might be to thickness the Paulownia down to 4-5mm and sheath in 6oz cloth prior to laying the decking boards or even just apply a few coats of epoxy before the Decking. Any thoughts from anyone?
Anyway, not far off having the Deck Support all done. Just need to glue these last few sticks in and I can get on with other stuff.

Hi Laurie, phenomenal work. Inspiring! Alex kind of pushed me along and you're pulling me. Can you tell me where Martin Nelson posts please? i have spent perhaps 4 - 5 hours going ove your posts and boy, do they help! Thanks!

As mentioned in my previous post I have gone ahead with the manufacture of the Sub Deck. I finally decided on laying 6mm strips of redundant Paulownia at 45 deg to the centreline utilizing BoatCraft Purbond adhesive. The methodology was simple and involved laying down some plastic to stop the strips adhering to the frame and fastening them in place with staples. This has resulted in a construction that I have subsequently removed and sanded the underside ready for masking and paint prior to final installation.

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For the fwd area I have used Titebond lll as an experiment as I have heard a fair bit about its adhesive powers. My take on this was that it has similar handling characteristics of the Purbond but was harder to sand so will stay with the Purbond going forward.

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I’m on holidays at the moment so am taking the opportunity to get the Sub Deck and under deck painted. I masked off any areas that were to be glued. I don’t think there’s anything worse than painting when you’re a--- up and head down with the paint dripping (flooding) into the ferrule of your brush. Anyway, 2 coats Yacht Primer, 2 coats Pre-Kote (one mixed with Toplac) and 1 coat Toplac should do it. It’s not as if the coating is at the mercy of the elements under there. Right now only the last coat to go.

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Also I have pulled out the Rudder to get it into a painting condition. After adding some glass to its bottom board some time back it needed some filling and fairing ready for paint so that’s currently happening whilst I have the paint out. I will give it the 4 coats of Yacht Primer and 2 coats of Pre-Kote recommended and put it away again ready for final fairing and top coat later down the track.

The Sub Deck is all but complete now with the exception of the rear area. The Fwd sections have been permanently glued down..........

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and the Seats have also been permanently installed with two further coats of varnish applied (last coat this morning). This now paves the way for the installation of the rear Sub Deck sections when the varnish dries.

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In the background I have prepped the Rudder and applied the various coats of Primer and Pre Kote as mentioned previously so it’s all ready for the hardware and Cheeks to be assembled. Final sanding and Top Coats will be applied when I’m ready for that further down the track.

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So we‘re now all done with the Rear Sub Deck…so the whole Sub Deck is now epoxied down, dressed off and ready for glassing. I’m hoping I’ve enough of the 200gsm left that I used on the CB and Case for the job. I will drag it out at next opportunity and see.

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Meanwhile on to the Coaming Templates. I have made these from 4mm fibreboard and to say this was a simple job is understatement. Took me ages to get it somewhere near where I think they should be and I may need to tweak them a bit to get a visually pleasing top line on the actual ply. Speaking of which….there are 16 pieces of ply in all that I have coated with epoxy in a layup that may or may not have been necessary. To get the correct thickness (according to the plans) I need to lay up 3 pieces of 4mm all round with two extra layers in the cabin area to give a total there of 20mm ie. 3 pieces Port and Stbd and Fore and Aft with the 2 extra in the cabin area. I gave the external surfaces 3 coats of epoxy with all the gluing surfaces a single coat of epoxy. Just need to hit them with the ROS before cutting and installing.

When contemplating where to join them I have opted for the no brainer at the Bow and one on the centre line Aft. The difficulty was where to do the others so I have added a join at the maximum beam which leaves the two extras being finished fwd of the bulkhead Pt and Stbd (this was also a no brainer). One could have argued to make the inner layer of the Coaming end aft of the bulkhead but what the hell – it has to be joined somewhere and it is being painted so……….The joins in the layers will overlap approx. 50 to 100mm to ensure integrity and continuity of bend. The fwd join will also overlap so that I don’t have to worry about a butt join there. It will also be reinforced with a small infill piece, size yet to be determined.

To assist in the process of template making and final installation I have screwed a few blocks to the Sub Deck that have been profiled to the angle that I want the coaming to follow. The plans specify a 75 to 300mm rake for the Coaming and I have followed this from Fwd of the cabin to just aft of the maximum beam where I have slowly pulled the rake to 90 degrees to the deck. I fussed with this for some time and overall I think it provides a more amenable profile for this piece. I was not happy with the bowl shape of the Coaming from a number of angles. Anyway proof will be in the pudding so they say.

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h
Hello Laurie!

REALLY like picture 3 of 5 showing the curves and lines! I was going to use ply for the decks but the compound curve you've developed on the stern deck has me excited and I will use strips to try to get similar! I've bogged down on mine but will be going again soon.

Best,

Greg

Looking good. My 2c though is that you could have saved yourself some messy work by doing most of the coaming out of solid stock, old style. Messing around with lots of epoxy and laminations is not really my idea of fun.

Considering the state of the CB and Case Slot has not been completed and whilst the deck and environs are not finished I am taking this opportunity to get the final work finished on these. This involves coating the CB and Slot with graphite and epoxy. I note there is much comment on the various forums regarding this and I have made the decision to go ahead despite some negativity amongst fellow builders on the subject. I have convinced myself that a 10% addition of graphite, together with a small addition of black pigment followed by a fine Scotch Brite rubdown and with a fine coat of oil (to be determined) to finish off will provide the lubricity, UV and wear resistance required in this important area. Anyway, that’s my argument. The CB, Slot and CB Supports have given the full treatment of 3 coats of graphite/pigment and epoxy. The pics shows the CB prior to rubbing down with a fine Scotch Brite pad.

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Greg…yes, I’m impressed too but not by my doing, this is how it came out, stock standard! Then again the actual curve will depend on the methodology used for the deck beams. Same curve throughout or developed one at time. I developed mine one at a time.

Sumbloak…thanks for your comments. The plans specifically call for the construction method I’m using - errr…to a point. They actually call for 3 x 4mm layers aft of the bulkhead and 2 x 10mm layers fwd of the bulkhead. The scrooge that I am could not see me buying a sheet of 10mm just for this purpose so I have gone with all 4mm material and don’t have to worry about steam and crisis management! However, like you I did ponder the traditional method, purely for the fun of doing it, but after weighing up the pros and cons I have stuck with the lamination methodology. The main reason was the flexibility of the thin ply, plenty of time to muck around with construction and the fact that the thickness of the Coaming in the Cabin area was increased by the 8mm mentioned above so either laminations or a thicker board in this area would be required anyway.

Fair enough. I'd assumed that Garden would have specified something a bit more trad than lotsa strips of plywood. Nothing wrong with the way you've done it. Just a bit too messy for my taste. I'd probably choose a different style of drama. There's more than one way to make boatbuilding aggrevating.

been a while since I've checked in on this forum and have very much enjoyed browsing through your build thread. Sometimes it's the simplest looking things that grab my attention and I store away for future use, in your thread it's the clever way of doing the subdeck over plastic sheeting so you can take it back off and paint it. Would have saved oodles of crawling about on your back trying to paint some very small areas. Thanks for the idea and excellent build thread

Cheers

Simon

I am slowly building an Ian Oughtred lapstrake (6 planks) Macgregor Canoe it should have 2 sails when finished as well

Once again I’ve let time slip by but as ever the myriad of little jobs has continued. The CB is now finally fully painted and ready for installation.

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The external CB Case strengthening side pieces have been glued on.

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The CB Case Cheek Pieces have been coated with the same mixture as the CB Slot – 10% graphite, some black colorant and then rubbed smooth with some Scotch Brite. These are now installed – I had intended to use RH SB bronze screws from the outside but couldn’t find them so have gone with SB CS slotted screws. Anyway, all done.

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The Keel in way of the CB Slot has had the screw holes plugged, smoothed off, primed x 3, Prekote x 3 and awaits final sanding prior to top coats. Lots of work on my back under the boat! but the saving grace was the small purchase of a Mechanics Creeper some time ago - all workshops should have one. I love it!

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Meanwhile, layer 1 of the Coaming has been sanded ready for cutting and installation. This will come after I have glassed the deck.

While all these bits and pieces have been happening I have thrown on a layer of epoxy on the deck ready for sanding and glass. The glassing is my current project. I had a dilemma here - should I or shouldn’t I glass the deck prior to the installation of the final decking? Heck, no muckin' around, decision made, 125gm glass procured, deck sanded and away we go. Hopefully this will give me piece of mind.
All of this has taken the best part of a month of part time work a couple of hours every week day to accomplish. Hasn’t anyone ever told you boat building was fun but also terribly time consuming? Another I love it!!

Question: if you're going to glass the deck why coat it with epoxy first? Why not just glass it?