Dave's Boatbuilding page
The diary of building the Outboard Skiff 15 from bateau.com
The Hull
In the Beginning
The Jig
The Hull
Finishing & Rigging
Bruce's Boat
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amateurboatbuilding.com
Well, I finally got to the stage where I can start work on the actual boat. With the jig all done I can concentrate on the boat (YEE HA!). I do recommend taking as much time as possible on the jig. Better safe than sorry.
Friday night I lofted the hull onto the plywood. I also got the hull pieces cut. I was going to try to get the hull bottom butt blocked together, but figured I sit back, relax and have a few homebrews. That can wait until Saturday. My main goal for the weekend was to get the hull bottom on the jig.
Time spent, approximately 3 hours.
Saturday was kind of an easy day, seeing ahs how all I really had to do was butt block the hull bottom together. I had little things to do like gut out the butt blocks and minor other stuff to get prepared. I wanted to wait overnight for the epoxy to cure. I made a major mistake (first and last but probably not). When I butt blocked the bottoms together, I had them laying on the floor the same way as the pictures will show. This would have meant that one of the butt blocks would have ended up on the outside of the boat. Fortunately, the epoxy was not set up enough and I was able to remove the butt block, flip the panels over and reepoxy them together. Had I figured this out 30 minutes, later, I would be off to buy 2 more sheets of marine plywood. having a short day gave me the time to spend on things like cleaning the pool and yard work which I have been neglecting.
Time spent, approximately 4 hours.
Sunday I spent time stitching up the hull bottom. Finally getting work done on the actual boat. I lined the panels up, drilled the holes and stitched them together. I kept the stitches quite loss thinking the hull would lay better on the jig. One the first attempt, it spread open pretty good. I started to look at it and didn't like the way the panels were overlapping. Needles to say, that was a good practice for stitching a hull. I folded the hull back up and placed it back on the sawhorses. I took all the stitches out and restitched them. I needed to have the stitches tighter than the first try. After stitching the bottom up again, this time making sure the stitches were tight, the boat opened up and fit together much better. Another thing I did was to follow Sam Devlin's advice when stitching two pieces together, put a 45 degree bevel on the inside of the panels one half the thickness of them. It lets the panels fit together much better. The stitches have to be pretty tight for the bottom to open correctly. You will also have to let the panels set for a few days to let them take the curves the hull needs. They open up pretty good at the beginning but need the time to spread open that last little bit. I have about a 1 to 2 inch gap between the bottom and the jig at the keel line.. The panels should relax enough in a few days to fit the jig. Other than that, the bottom looks pretty good. the keel looks like it is going to come out very straight. I just need to wait and get the panels to fit the jig.
The best part of this weekend was seeing the panels take their shape as you open them up. It really makes you feel like you're getting somewhere now. I can't wait to get the sides fitted. I order the glass kit from Jacques last week so I should have it in a few days. Hopefully by then I will have the side mounted and can start to fill and glass the outside of the hull.
Time spent, approximately 5 1/2 hours.
This is after I took them off the mold and restitched.
Monday July 8, 2002
I'm really starting to get something that looks like a boat. I have my glass kit from Jacques. The hull is almost ready to start getting some structural fillets and glass. I have the hull pretty much set on the jig. All I have to do is a little trimming to get the bow the way I want it and I am ready to start with the fillets. Didn't get much work done over the holiday. We had some friends (our best actually) from Fort Lauderdale come up and hang with us for 4 days. It was great to see them. My buddy, Captain Mikey, is a master boat carpenter and he was extremely curious about the boat. He helped me get a good portion of the hull set on Saturday. If you need any work on your boat, give him a call he is very talented. Look him up in Fort Lauderdale under Michael's Marine Services (954-765-1466). Of course the Pepsi 400 was on that evening so we had quit early, pour a couple homebrews and watch the race. I spent a few hours Sunday tweaking the bottom and side to get them to fit just right. A few more hours max and it's epoxy time. I hope to get some fillets done this weekend.
Time spent, approximately 5 hours.
Monday July 15, 2002
This past week I did a lot of filling and sanding. As you can tell from the additional pictures, the chine fillets are pretty much done. All I have to do is one last sanding on them and they are ready for a layer of tape. The keel has been taped and a milestone has been reached... there are no stitches or screws hold the hull together. I followed Sam Devlin's advice again regarding the bow. I cut some notches in the side panels so the bow wouldn't have an over bite. The boat will have a nice smooth transition from the flat chine to the bow with and be nice and sharp. All I have left to do before glassing the outside of the hull is to finish sand the flat chine and fair the bottom. The bottom has a little ridge/valley in it where the panels were butt blocked together. I need to sand it down and add a little putty to it to get it nice and straight. That shouldn't take too long but we are going on vacation at the end of this week so I won't get too much done. Where are we going you ask... to the Florida Keys for mini season. We need to get together with Team Tickle to do some lobster slaying. A few of us are heading to Long Key State Park in our state of the art 1987 Jayco Pop up trailer (hereunto referred to as the doghouse) and with a friends 2000 Coleman top of the line pop up (hereunto referred to as the penthouse). We will be roughing it smoothly for a week and eating lot of lobster. Sure do wish I had a boat to bring with me. Good thing our buddy Michael has a little deflatable to use.
I do believe that I am at the point where results don't show too quickly. There is a lot of detail work to be done before I am ready to put the final layer of cloth on the exterior of the hull. I can be, at some times, very picky and detailed about how things progress. I will take my time and make sure the flat chine and hull are exactly how I want them before glassing it. After that it's painting the bottom and flipping it over (another milestone).
Time spent, approximately 12 hours.
Friday August 16, 2002
Well, where do I begin. It's been a long time since I've had a chance to update this page. With the vacation last months and then a trip to Long Island last weekend and being sick before that, I didn't have much of a chance for updating. I did however get a chance to work on my boat (thank god). It has been a couple of weeks though. Since the last update, I have faired the hull and taped all the seams. As mentioned earlier, I can be pretty picky (anal) about some things and getting things just right is one of them. I probably spend too much time on some things but would rather do that than no make it right. The faring wasn't all too bad but took time as well as taping the seams. prior to taping the seams I took the advice of Christian Rasmussen (check out his OB15 http://rasmussen.org/ob15/ ) and round all the edges prior to glassing. It is easier to apply that way without having a sharp corner. Boy, does that work good. His suggestion of using a router to round the edges may not work as the epoxy fillet material will dull the blade very fast. Sanding is what I did after dulling a router bit rather quickly.
Tomorrow I plan to do a lot of sanding and them cover the entire hull with cloth and epoxy. I hope it doesn't take as long as I think it may. I am also going to roll on at least an extra layer of epoxy to make sure the cloth is completely covered and to have a little extra for sanding. If I have to, I will apply a third coat. After that, it's painting time.
Time spent, approximately 12 hours.
Tuesday October 22, 2002
It sure has been a long time since I updated this page. Sorry for the delay as I've been real busy. Got a bunch of work done on the boat though (thank god). There was some time where I was just too busy to do anything.
Anyway, since the last time, I have got quite a bit done on the bottom. The hull is all glassed and I am currently sanding it for paint. What a pain in the ass that is. Epoxy is not the easiest thing to sand but if you want it to look good, it has to be done. Glassing the hull wasn't that big of a deal. It took some time and patience but other than that, it went pretty well. I rounded al the hard corners so the glass would lay on the corners better and that help a lot to reduce air pockets. I only had a few that I ground down and made a paste of resin and chopped cloth and filled the areas with that. Worked pretty good. The glassing took 3 weekends (not full time). I had to do some more faring on the hull to get it a true as possible and that took a few weekends. That took another few weekends. With the glass done and the hull faired, I then coated the hull with 2 coats of resin using a small roller. Now comes the fun part, sanding the hull. I'm glad I have tons of patience because this is a pain in the butt! I guess this puts me up to date on the construction. Sorry it took so long to update. At least I did it. I guess in a couple more weeks I'll be updating again. I hope to be done sanding by then. Can't wait to get some paint on it.
On another note, If you have visited Jacques' new website amateurboatbuilding.com and checked out the for sale forum, you may be wondering who bought the 50hp Evinrude from him. Well, look no further, you will see it in a picture or two from now on. It's in pretty good shape. I have been cleaning the carb and fuel pump and hope to fire it up this weekend. I have gotten it to fired up but the carbs were all gunked up so I rebuilt them. I took the cover off the fuel pump and when I put it back on, the gaskets were obviously no good so I rebuilt that also. It sounded pretty good when it did fire up though.
Time spent (probably around 40 hours with a big plus or minus)
Update, Thursday October 24, 2002.
I just got the Evinrude fired up and running. It sounded pretty good for a 22 year old motor. Sounded like it was running pretty smooth.
Update, Friday November 8, 2002
Still sanding. About two thirds done.
PLEASE SOMEONE COME HELP ME SAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update, Sunday November 10, 2002
Well, I didn't think I would be so happy to say the hull is sanded. Things went pretty well. I am going to skim coat the hull now with some thickened epoxy to fill a bunch of small pits/voids that didn't get filled when I coated it with resin. I have tried a couple of small areas and it looks like it should would just fine. The sanding for this will be real easy. Should be ready to paint by next weekend. Guess I should order some paint. Will be using the System 3 paint & primer. Have talked to Jacques about it and for a real durable shine, he recommends it. I'm just so glad its over (almost). I probably used about 30-40 sanding pads on it (40 grit).
A couple of notes if someone who reads this is at this point or just before. I would think that if I had to do this over, I would do one of two things. Please keep in mind that I am using System 3 epoxy and it can be safely recoated within 72 hours without sanding. If I have to wait more than 48 hours, I sand before applying more.
- Instead of using a roller to apply the resin over the glass, use a wide squeegee. The coats will go on thin so apply many. Pay attention when applying making sure the surface is as smooth as possible. You will save tons of time sanding.
- After applying the fiberglass cloth, skim coat the entire hull with a faring compound. Sanding this will be much easier. A coat of resin will have to be applied to this to seal it and sanded again.
Time spent, approximately 30 hours.
Update, Saturday November 16, 2002
Half the hull is ready for paint. I got the hull skim coated this week and started sanding today. I broke down and bought an inline air sander. I highly recommend using one. It's a lot faster than my palm sander and cuts through the resin pretty good. I wish I had it at the beginning. The hull would be painted by now. If you can afford one, buy it. Make sure you have a compressor that's big enough to run it.
Update, Sunday November 17, 2002
The hull is ready for paint. I can finally take a break from sanding. I should be getting the paint in the next few days. We're heading to Arizona next weekend to see my brother for turkey day. Maybe I can get a coat or tow of primer on before we leave. If not, it will have to wait until after Thanksgiving. The inline sander I bought sure did make things go faster. I can't wait to sand the primer. Will be a lot easier than the epoxy.
Time spent, 8 hours
Update, Tuesday December 10, 2002
Well, the paint finally arrived last week. I ordered it a good week before Thanksgiving. My glass kit didn't take that long. Oh well, it doesn't matter. We went to Arizona for a week to see my brother and his wife for Thanksgiving so I wouldn't have gotten anything done anyway. Had a great time out there. Last weekend I finally got some paint (primer) on the hull. Another major milestone. Tonight, after work, I got the second full coat on it. I figure 5 coats should be pretty good. I am using the System Three paint. I hope to finish priming the hull by Thursday but it may not happen. The primer needs to cure for a few days as it is epoxy based. I wanted to have it painted this weekend but I guess it'll have to wait until the following. I can start making the cradle for when I flip it over. I am planning to have the boat off the jig and on the cradle by Christmas. It will be close and hopefully I can make it.
I am definitely going to spray the paint on. My roll and tipping abilities are not quite up to par. I have never done that before but have painted a car so I know my spraying abilities are up to speed. I know you are thinking, how the heck is he going to spray in that nice immaculate garage and not make a huge mess? Well, I figure about 75 feet of plastic and a roll of duct tape should be enough for me to make a nice little spray booth. I will have the hull ready to paint by the end of the weekend and can paint next week, a coat a day after work. Time will tell.
Time spent, 5 hours
Update, Monday January 6, 2002
I got the hull painted in between Christmas and New Years. The paint sprayed on ok. There are a few spots that didn't come out too well but mostly on the sides. That doesn't bother me too much because I am going to have to add another coat to them anyways. I need to get the shear clapms on fist to finsh the outside. I have just enough paint of the color I used to finish the sides. I used a quart of the bambridge white and a quart of white (System Three of course) to paint the outside of the hull with. I didn't want a plain old white boat. The color is a very light (an I meam light) grey. The inside will be whte though. Didn't do too much over New Years as we went camping for 5 days and had a great time. This past weekend I got the craddle built for it and she is now ready to be flipped over. Another Milestone has been reached. I will have some freinds over Friday after work to help me flip her over.
Time spent, 6 hours
You may also notice that the picture quality will be a little bit better now starting with the picture of the craddle. I got a new digital camera for Christmas. A nice Fuji FinePix 2800 instead of a cheapo $40 one I had.
This page last updated Monday, December 08, 2003.