Gluing the Deck Down

I finally finished sanding and sealing the inside of the boat in preparation for the deck to go down.  The deck has been coated with two coats of epoxy.  I then sanded the underside of the deck to ensure a good bond with the epoxy.

I mixed up some epoxy with Cabosil to a peanut butter consistency, spooned it into a zip lock sandwich bag, cut one corner out, and applied a thick bead of the goop to all the surfaces the deck will contact.  First, though, I trial fitted the deck and was impressed with how well it contacted all the surfaces.  No more than about 1/16" out of contact throughout.

As soon as the deck was down, I pressed it in place and started weighing it down with whatever was handy. 

Fitting Deck Panel

I sanded the panels I coated earlier with epoxy and found that they sanded just fine without clogging the paper.  Though the surface feels a little tacky, as opposed to the glass-hard surface that West system epoxy left after the same amount of curing time, workability appears to be unaffected, so on with the show.

I notched the aft end of the cockpit sole panel to accommodate the gluing strips and placed a mark on the centerline of the panel so I know it's centered on the backbone.

Next, I located the daggerboard trunk and drilled a couple of holes to verify that the slot I was about to cut was located properly.  I picked up a new toy . . . er . . . tool at the local Harbor Freight Tool store.  I've been intrigued by the Fein Multi-Master for years, but its price (around $400) was ridiculous, for what it is.  I could almost buy a tablesaw for what this handheld doo-hicky costs.  Fortunately, patents don't last forever, and Fein's myopic management's decision to charge an arm and a leg provided sufficient incentive for some enterprising individual to reverse-engineer their product and offer something similar at a substantially lower price.  Actually, several companies have now done so.  Home Depot carries one unit by Dremel that costs around $100, but even that's steep, considering the simplicity of the tool.  I bought the lowest priced knock-off of the lot, the Harbor Freight Multi-Function Power Tool.  Score 1 out of 10 for creativity with the  name. Before buying, I spent a couple of hours reading reviews of all the similar tools.  Of course, the Fein, being the gold standard, scored the highest.  And at 10 times the price of the Harbor Freight tool, it had better be of better quality.  Certainly, if you are a professional builder, you'd be better served by the better tool.  But I'm just a weekend wood-butcher.  I don't earn my living off of this tool.  You get the idea.

The tool is really pretty neat, and once you've used one, you find yourself reaching for it to do a number of tasks.  It comes with several attachments, a couple of saw blades and a hook and loop triangular sanding pad that is great for getting into corners.

But what I find the tool indispensable for is for making small cuts that you'd use a backsaw or a keyhole saw for.  It's also great for making pocket cuts.  I used it exclusively for making the cuts in the side panels for the wing beams.

The head of the tool oscillates back and forth a few degrees and the included sawblades do a great job of cutting without wandering all over the place, or binding or kicking back as circular saw blades do.

I made a couple of cuts along the centerline of the daggerboard trunk and removed a sliver in order to see the sides of the trunk.  Then I made several more cuts, each closer to the side of the daggerboard trunk.  Finally, the last cut was made with the blade riding along the edge of the daggerboard trunk.  This is one of the best features of the tool; it cuts flush against surfaces without gouging.

After cleaning up the cut with, first, a mill file, then the triangular sanding head on the multi-tool, the bottom panel is ready to glue into place.

Preparing to Set the Deck Panels

I joined the deck and wing panels with 2" fiberglass tape, then sanded everything smooth and rolled on two coats of epoxy.  The U.S. Composites epoxy seems to be a little thicker than the West epoxy I used earlier, and it smells different, too.  Seems that surfaces are left a little sticky, which will make sanding frustrating.  Amine blush?  Will see after I wash it with ammonia solution.  We'll see if the appx. half cost of U.S. Composites epoxy relative to West epoxy is worthwhile.

Finishing the Wing Beams

I found some free time between ferrying kids around and keeping employed to finish installing the wing beams, including the dreaded aft wing beam with the funky 45 degree takeoff from the transom.  I decided to try to discern the method of attachment indicated in the building instructions, which are rather vague on this point.  The applicable drawing shows nothing, while the photo in the building instructions appears to show a much thicker piece of wood than the 22 mm thick wing beam material that is used for the other beams, but nothing is said about that.  But it's not rocket surgery, so much about naught. 

[Edit:  I heard back from Jim Phoenix and Scott on this point.  They both said the way I attached the aft wing beam is exactlly how they did it.  So I'm going to stop worrying whether I did it right.]

 

The alignment of the wing beams was checked by placing a straight piece of fir across them.  They lined up just fine.  So I placed the upper wing skin over the beams (above) and checked their fit.  Perfect. No humps, no hollows.

 

At this point you have to be VERY careful and double check that when the wing beams are held level, the sheer is nice and fair, with no hollows or outward bows.  With no sheer clamp installed yet, the sheer is very easily bent.  I made sure everything was in alignment while the glue was setting up.

Then I sanded down the upper edges of the hull side panels so they would meet the wing skins at the proper angle, and I removed the inevitable glue globs and unevenness on the surfaces to be bonded and checked the fit again.  It was fine. 

 

In the pic above you can see the aft wing beam which sweeps forward from the inside of the transom at a 45 degree angle.  I held it in place with a single wood screw, which allowed some movement while I lined up the aft beam with the beams forward of it.  The screw will be backed out once the beam is filleted and fiberglassed in place.

 

 Above is another view of the aft wing beam where it joins the transom.  Generous fillets of thickened epoxy wedge it in place. 

 

Above is (yet) another view, this time from directly above the aft wing beam.  The transom is on the left.  The beam will be capped with a thick section of mahogany or something durable once the skins are installed.

Installing Wing Beams

Last week I visited the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, WA with my lovely, indulgent and boat-loving wife (how'd I get so lucky?) and saw some great examples of wooden boatbuilding.  Everything from a reed boat from, well, I don't recall where, to an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and very large Sparkman-Stephens sloop that you'd have a hard time telling wasn't made from fiberglass.  And lots and lots of small boats of every description.  Traditional and not so traditional. 

Most of the boats on display were owned by locals who sailed or putted over from all over Puget Sound for the weekend.  Even a number of folks from up Canadia way.  The boats in the marina were rafted several deep, while a couple of hundred more were anchored outside off Port Townsend's long waterfront. 

Linda and I walked along the dock, ogling the woodwork.  Boatowners kept calling to us to feel free to come aboard and have a look around.  The atmosphere was sort of Woodstock Goes Northwest without the substance abuse.  Friendly group, these Northwesterners.  I suppose the wall to wall blue sky, gentle breeze and temperatures in the mid 70s had a lot to do with it.  It reminded me of southern California without the crowds.  The summers in the Northwest are sort of a secret that the locals don't talk much about to outsiders.  I suppose it makes up for the rest of the year's notoriously wet weather. 

 The Northwest Maritime Center is the site of the festival, and has a well-equipped chandelry, classrooms and workshops.  All of it right on the water with a view that just won't quit.  Several boats were in various stages of completion at the school, and two Paul Bieker designed Port Townsend 15s that look murderously fast were displayed outside.

Around noon Linda and I took a break from the eye-candy to scarf down (that's a joke.  Scarf?  Wooden boatbuilding?  Get it?)  a wonderful lunch at an excellent Thai restaurant called the Banana Leaf  Thai Bistro.   Linda and I visit the Banana Leaf every time we're in town.  Port Townsend has a terminal for the ferry (are we still allowed to call them that?) to Whidbey Island.  When visiting friends in Oak Harbor, Linda and I have been known to grab our Thai lunch to-go and eat it on the ferry.  Thai food has a wonderful blend of sweet and savory and pungent that is very different from Chinese cooking.  I can't imagine anyone not loving it.  The Banana Leaf Bistro is one block off the main drag, about 2 blocks from the marina.  It's never crowded and worth the walk.  The ever-smiling Chien greeted Linda and me by name and showed us to a nice table in the patio outside.  I don't know how she remembered us; last time we were there was probably 6 months ago.

One boat in particular caught my eye.  Well, it caught both of them, in fact.  It was called an Aurai 17, a Penobscot 17 designed by Arch Davis, and made by Callisto Sailcraft in Wenatchee, WA.  I don't know that I've ever seen such a fine example of woodworking.  The boat was just about perfect.  Really too pretty to risk sailing.  But then again, too yar not to.

 Another shot of the gorgeous Aurai 17 by Callisto Sailcraft.

Another boat that caught my eye was the PT Skiff, by PT Watercraft.  It's an 18' outboard skiff that was designed by Bieker Boats in response to Wooden Boat and Professional Boatbuilder magazines' Design Challenge.  Paul Bieker is a local designer who has a reputation for designing fast sailing craft.  The PT skiff has an interesting water ballast tank that confers additional stability.  The example I saw on display was beautifully crafted.  A parts kit is available.

I caught myself thinking of future building projects . . .

Finally it was time to head home to Gig Harbor.  But first, Linda and I wanted to take a couple of photos of the waterfront and all the boats riding at anchor (see second photo from the top).  I turned around just in time to see a family of black-tailed deer crossing the street.  About a year ago, Linda and I stayed overnight at a B&B and saw deer ambling around the residential streets, not particularly alarmed at their proximity to people.  The doe and three fawns crossed the street in the crosswalk, casually leaped a 4' fence and disappeared into the brush.

Ok, Digression Mode [DESELECT].  Back to the task at hand.

My epoxy and fiberglass tape arrived, so I decided I'd get going on the wing beams.  I cut the slots out of the side panels and carefully aligned and dry-fit the wing beams and made sure everything was in alignment.  Then I sanded the areas to be glued thoroughly and wiped the dust away.  I mixed up some thickened epoxy and glued the beams against the aft sides of the bulkheads.  I really had to resist securing the beams with bronze or stainless screws.  Intellectually, I know that epoxy has tremendous shear strength, but something in me really wants to see a metal screw holding the parts together just in case.

While the glue was still wet, I carefully aligned the wing beams by means of a piece of straight lumber.  I had toyed with the idea of angling the wings up about 10 degrees to help keep them out of the water when the boat heels under sail, but decided to stick with the plan. 

Once the glue dries I will place the intermediate beams and then tackle the funny 45 degree aft-most beam that has been bothering me so much.  I'm still considering doing something with bent laminated veneers there.

Stay tuned!

Wing Beams

I figured out the dimensions of the wing beams from the plans and from measuring the fit of the deck panels. It turns out the beams need to be about 30 cm long with a 27 degree bevel on one end. I cut some 62 cm lengths from the 3/4" poplar I had on hand, then glued them together to form a block 33 mm thick by 62 cm long. When the glue dried I cut the 62 cm laminate into two 31 cm blocks and beveled one end of each block on the table saw. Then I ripped 23 mm wide pieces out of the block. They will form the wing beams.

While I was laminating the poplar I ran out of WEST epoxy. I ordered 2 gallons of epoxy from U.S. Composites this morning. The cost is about half that of the WEST product, and I have heard from several sources that their epoxy is just as good as West. I have no complaints at all about the performance of WEST epoxy. It's just rather expensive.

Wondering About Wings

I've been thinking about the wings, and decided I wasn't yet ready to start cutting wood until I really felt I knew the dimensions of all the parts and how they fit together. So I spent an hour or so measuring the wing skins and made a drawing to get the dimensions I need for the wing beams.

And I'm still concerned about how the aft wing beam meets the transom. There just isn't much strength in that joint. At least not until everything is filleted and fiberglassed. However the cantilever at that point is about 1/3 (dotted line is the edge of the hull), so the hull skin will take most of the weight there.

Ok, it's time to glue up some wood for the wing beams!

Waterproofing Inside the Hull

Finally finished applying all the triangular gussets to the bulkheads and backbone. I ended up using a pneumatic pin-nailer set to nail shallow so the nails can be removed later. That worked well.

Then I began applying the first of two coats of expoxy to the entire interior surface of the hull to render it waterproof, should water find its way inside, which it will. So spending the time now will pay off later.

Need to order more resin. I've about run through my first gallon of WEST epoxy.

I'm taking my sweet time because, frankly, I'm a little conflicted as to how to proceed constructing the wings. I'm around 250 lbs, and I don't want a wing to crack under one of my Size 13s. The aft-most wing support exits the hull at a 45 degree joint, which makes for a weak point in the structure. It's really tough to join wood at a 45 degree angle and have any strength in the joint. Maybe I could cut a finger joint there? Or just laminate up plenty of fiberglass to reinforce the joint? Hmmm . . .

As Jim Phoenix noted, the building instructions don't say much about building the wings. I'm sort of tempted to depart from the plans at this point and make the frame for the wings out of a continuous length of laminated hardwood veneers. No joints, grain would run in an optimal direction, and it could really look slick with a clear finish, but I think that might be overkill. The load is only about 1/2 cantilevered, anyway. The sides of the hull will take the weight, and the bulkheads and cockpit sole will take the upward force from the ends of the floating wing supports. So maybe no huhu? I dunno.

The two intermediate wing supports bother me, since they're not tied to bulkheads, though they dead-end on the plywood cockpit sole right next to a fiberglassed 45 degree joint, which will be plenty strong. I grok that it should be strong enough, but I keep thinking maybe it could be stronger. I'm tempted to fiberglass plywood gussets to the inside of the hull just to provide more support for these intermediates, but then again, I don't doubt they will be plenty strong once everything is in place and I've applied fillets and fiberglass. So in the meantime, I'm, as I said, taking my sweet time.

A Little Bit Here, A Little Bit There

When I get home in the afternoons, it's been too hot in the garage to do much work, so I've been doing little jobs that don't take too long in the heat. Ok, I live within 1/4 mile of the beach and can see the surf pounding on the sand, but when you work in an air-conditioned building all day, you forget how to sweat. I ground the knuckle in the forefoot to a 2" radius and glassed it up both sides of the stem. I know I keep saying it, but it's amazing how stiff this formerly flimsy hull is becoming.

Turned the boat over again and glued in the mainsheet cleat backing block and the mast step compression posts. The compression posts are intended to distribute the downward force that the mast exerts on the deck.

I bedded the bottom of each post in a pad of thickened epoxy. I wanted to make sure the bottom of the compression posts wasn't unduly loading the bottom of the boat, so the pad of goo helps to distribute the load. Additionally, if any water gets in the hull, I really don't want any rot to start in the compression posts.

Next, I ripped some pine into triangular gluing cleats and glued them to the backbone. These cleats stiffen the backbone laterally and provide gluing surface for the deck panels. I cut the triangular cleats with about a 3/32" flat on each side, just enough for spring clamps to grab. Gluing these suckers to the backbone was frustrating. Setting the clamps is like setting rat traps. It must be done very delicately, or you get a nasty surprise as clamps fly everywhere. Don't ask me how I know! I was really tempted to use Gorilla Glue here, but I resisted. The mainsheet cleat backing block can be seen in the lower left of the picture below.

Glassing the Chines and Center Seam

Today I went over all the seams that had earlier been filled with thickened epoxy and rounded them so the fiberglass wouldn't try to lift from an otherwise sharp corner. Considerable care is needed when working with power tools on these delicate chines. Areas of different grain sometimes allow an aggressive sander to remove more material that desired; perhaps the best tool for doing this is a 1/4 sheet oscillating sander with 80 or 120 grit paper.

I mixed up some epoxy and had at the seams with 2" fiberglass tape. I used a 1" disposable natural bristle brush to apply the epoxy to the chine, then laid the cloth in it and pressed the cloth into the epoxy with gloved fingers prior to painting more epoxy on the surface of the tape. I think the brush is the best way to go with fiberglass tape. With larger areas I'd use a squeegie.

Lots of people happen by just when I'm up to my elbows in fiberglass and epoxy. The last one asked what I'm making and I explained it was a 14' sailboat. The next question is inevitable: "So where's the motor going to go, back here?"

Filleting the Backbone

Forgot that I had to fillet the backbone, too. Filleted and fiberglassed the backbone to the bottom of the hull as I had done with the bulkheads. As I move the hull around, it's amazing how each fillet stiffens the structure.
When I got to the daggerboard trunk I mixed up some screened sawdust and thickened a batch of epoxy and placed a fillet around the perimeter. Then I laid a layer of fiberglass over the fillet, thereby tying the daggerboard trunk to the bottom. This is an area of high lateral loading and I wanted this area to be very strong. As light as this hull is, I shudder when I think of what would happen if one happened to run the daggerboard into a submerged object at speed. Maybe I'll lay some kevlar in this area later to distribute any such impact load.

Finished Filleting (Finally!)

Today I finished filleting and fiberglassing the last two bulkheads in place. It's best to fillet and glass in one session because if the fillet is allowed to cure first, it must be sanded to ensure a good bond with the next layer of fiberglass.

Next step is to glass tape the center seam on the outside of the hull. The hull is still plenty light. Easy to pickup by grabbing the backbone just aft of the daggerboard trunk, walk outside, turn boat around, or over, and replace it on the building stocks.

More Filleting

Got home from work and continued filleting. I mixed up some epoxy and West 405 filleting compound in a small zip-lock plastic bag, massaged the bag to mix the contents, then removed a corner with scissors. I was able to use the bag like a pastry bag to place the compound beneath bulkheads and stringers. Just lift a stringer with one hand and squeeze the compound underneath with the other. Pretty slick. Applied temporary screws to hold the stringers in place and I'm done! Then I faired the compound that squeezed out into a smooth radius with the fingertip of a gloved hand.

The hull has stiffened up immensely, and the few bumps and hollows between bulkheads that concerned me earlier disappeared. The hull now consists of continuous fair smooth curves.

Filleting and Taping

After taking a break to consume vast quantities of barbecue and watch fireworks with some friends, it was back to filleting and taping joints this afternoon. I've tried Cabosil, screened sawdust and the wood flour based #405 filler by West and found all work about the same. I suppose I like the sawdust best because it's the cheapest, but it leaves a pretty rough surface. However, so does the West product which I used on the joint in the picture below.

I first applied a fillet of the material using a 1/4" radius tool to finish the fillet. The finger of a gloved hand also works well, but then it gets sticky epoxy on everything you touch. While the fillet was still "green," i.e. uncured, I went back over all the fillets and painted on catalyzed epoxy with a 1" paintbrush. Then I pressed into the wet epoxy a length of 2" fiberglass tape. The pic below shows a fiberglassed fillet between a frame and hull side panel.

Once I got the chines filleted and taped all around I then started on the bulkheads, working from the bow aft. I managed to pull the bottom into contact with Station 2 and I immediately filleted and fiberglassed it in place. The side panels weren't making good contact with some of the bulkheads so I attached some spring clamps and laced a piece of line between them, pulling all the panels against their respective bulkheads. I then filleted and fiberglassed both sides of each bulkhead to the side and bottom panels.

Happy July 4th!

Ok, so I'm filleting and taping seams today. I'll put some pics up when I get a minute. I mixed screened sawdust with catalyzed epoxy and used it to make filets to smooth all the sharp inside corners to rounded ones. Then, before the resin had a chance to harden, I came back around and painted on a layer of catalyzed resin and placed a legth of 2" fiberglass tape on top of the fillet and saturated it with more resin. Result was a good fillet reinforced with fiberglass. This is an application where the slow hardener is helpful. You don't want your resin gelling before you've had a chance to use it.

Hull-Turning Day

It was a frustrating day at work today. I snuck out of a 3 1/2 hour meeting that was scheduled to address complaints that we are having too many meetings. I keep thinking of the irony in the sarcastic old saw, "The meetings will continue until morale improves."

Got home from work and took a good look at what I have done so far and decided it was time to flip the hull. With most boats the day you turn the hull over to begin working on the interior and deck is a special day, an occasion worthy of celebrating with friends, coworkers, neighbors, and even people who happen to wander by to lend a hand helping to turn the hull over. It's sort of like moving or pouring concrete. You can't have enough hands to help.

But for this boat, it was no huhu. I just picked it up, turned it over and set it down on its bottom. The hull probably weighs only about 40 lbs at this point.It's looking more like a boat every day. The panels lie very fair in the flat after sections.

Filleting and fiberglassing the chines and frames is next. It's a shame this wood will be covered by the deck. Some of the veneers in this plywood are really nice.


Oh-oh. (Below) I was wondering what that "BANG" was that I heard last night when I was tightening the screws holding the bottom skin to the stringers. I looked around but couldn't find what was wrong. I expected it was probably a glue joint somewhere pulling apart. At this point, with no filleting and no fiberglass to hold joints together, it's asking a lot of your glue system to hold everything together perfectly.

With the hull upright, I quickly saw what happened. A stringer came out of its notch in one of the forward frames. The bottom panels are concave in the forward sections, which sets up quite a lot of stress in the plywood skins. Dried epoxy will have to be removed tomorrow with a die grinder and a burr before I reglue that frame and stringer. I'm really hoping I don't end up with any hollows in the bottom panels now. Time to start filleting and fiberglassing, I think.


20:20 hindsight being what it is, I really wish now that I had screwed down the stringers prior to hanging the side panels on the hull. I noticed Jim Phoenix did that. It might have caused problems getting the side panels on, but I think it would have been easier to get the bottom panels to lie fair against the frames and stringers without having the side panels twisting the chines this way and that.

Lying Down on the Job

After work today I tidied up the boat. Cut and removed all the zip ties and wires. The zip ties were probably easier to remove than were the wires, however the epoxy didn't seem to stick to either, so removing them was not difficult, just time-consuming. Once the ties were all off, I sanded the chines and bottom seam smooth and filled in the gaps with epoxy thickened with Cabosil.

Next step was to secure the bottom skin to the stringers. The bottom was as much as 1/2" off the stringers in the forward sections of the boat. Trouble was, how to spread thickened epoxy on the stringer prior to screwing the bottom skin down onto it. The goop tended to slide off a putty knife, and I didn't have a syringe with a long enough snout to apply it. I thought a bit, and came up with an easy disposable applicator. Zip-lock snack bags. These are smaller versions of the zip lock sandwich bags that are available in food markets. I squirted the epoxy components into the bag and closed it and massaged the contents to thoroughly mix the components. Then I spooned in some Cabosil, closed the bag again and continued massaging the mixture, distributing the silica throughout the epoxy. Once the contents became creamy, I snipped off a corner of the bag and got under the boat.

Lying on my back on the mechanic's creeper, with one hand I was able to easily pull a stringer away from the bottom skin. With the other hand, I squeezed the bag and applied a continuous bead of thickened epoxy along the stringer. Just like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. I did that to the stringers on both sides, then pulled the skin down onto the stringers by using 1/2" screws with washers beneath the heads. The directions say the holes for the stringers can be located on the surfaces of the bottom skins by measuring 1/2 way between the chine and the centerline. I had no problem doing so and every screw hole was drilled on target.

After the screws were tight, I got under the boat again. Using the finger of a gloved hand, I removed all the thickened epoxy that had squeezed out on both sides of the stringer. It left a neat, small radius fillet on each side of the stringer.

Finished Stitching

Today I finished tying the side panels on. This was easier than stitching on the bottom panels, for the most part. I alternated using wire and zip ties depending on how much strength was needed to pull the edges together. I was careful to align the side with the bottom panels so there would be little or none of the wavy chine that can cause fairing nightmares.

I filled in the chine joints with thickened epoxy and glued the bottom panels to the transom and let the glue set for a couple of days.

Scarfing is.

Scarfing the panels together to make the sides. Doing each side independently this time instead of sandwiching the joint between two pieces of fiberglass at the same time. I don't grok that saved me any time last time.

Skinning the Bottom

Today I skinned the bottom with the scarfed sheets prepared earlier. It's important to make sure the frame is tied down securely to the building stocks, and that everything is square, because any twists in the frame will affect the symmetry of the finished hull.


I supported the bottom skins temporarily with clamps to keep them approximately in place. I then began clamping and tying either small zip ties or bailing wire to hold the panels in place, working from the bow aft. As it turned out, the bailing wire worked far better. Much stronger and easier to handle. I started by skipping every other tie, but found that it was easier to keep things straight by just applying each tie, checking the straightness of the backbone, tweaking where necessary, then tightening the wire and moving on.

The panels are supposed to lie against the backbone from the bow to Station 2. At that point they begin to cross over the backbone until they meet together over the inverted backbone. In order to control the crossover point, I tied a small piece of wood across the joined panels (below) to provide some downward force while the glue sets.


It sort of looks (below) like what they did to my uncle's chest during that bypass operation. I had to get under the boat and lie on my back on the floor to maneuver the wires into the holes. A mechanic's creeper might help. A second person tightening the wires from above would definitely speed this part of the job. The constant getting up and down is probably good preparation, since I suspect I'm gong to be doing a lot of hiking on on this boat in the future. However I'm going to feel this tomorrow, I think.

I'm a little worried that the bottom sheet is hanging over the transom by about 1/4" or so. I've thought about why that might be and the only thing I can come up with is that perhaps I didn't quite get the daggerboard trunk dimensions right. No matter. It'll all trim out. I suppose it's better that those panels are 1/4" long, rather than 1/4" short.

Some Details

Spent the past couple of days attending to details. The forward end of the backbone has to be waterproofed before the bottom and side panels go on. They will be inaccessible because of tight quarters otherwise, so now is the time to take care of that. Dudley recommends painting on three coats of resin. I covered the forward half of the backbone and the two bottom panels. Two coats so far, one to go and maybe I can stitch the bottom panels on this weekend.

I finally broke down and bought a dust collection bag for my Delta tablesaw. I've been sweeping up the piles of sawdust the saw leaves beneath its open steel base, all for lack of a cheaply made canvas bag available for the princely sum of $5.99 from Harbor Freight Tools. Hope this will keep the groj cleaner.

I cleaned up the scarf joints with a 4.5" angle grinder with a flap sanding wheel which works great for fairing small areas. Then beveled the daggerboard trunk as described in Dudley's instructions so that the bottom panels would lie fair against it. A 9" angle sander and belt sander did that job. I started off with a hand plane but the structure is too wiggly at this point to use hand tools.

Then I cut two more 1/2" stringers and glued them into the notches on the upper sides of the frames. The stringers will support the deck.

With the stringers in place the boat is beginning to look more boat-like. Time to start rounding up supplies for stitching the panels together. I read on the i550 forum that one builder there was lamenting the fact that while he was stitching his hull together he had been unable to keep the side and bottom panels meeting together correctly, which resulted in a wavy chine. Don't need that kind of problem. I think I'll try cutting some polyethylene tubing into short lengths and lay a piece of that in the corners before stitching. I remember seeing a roll of that stuff around here somewheres . . .

Gluing Stringers and Daggerboard Trunk

Today I ripped the scarfed into 12 mm x 12 mm strips. Each strip had a portion of the scarf joint I made yesterday, but you had to look for them because the color of the Gorilla Glue matched the color of the pine so closely. It took a couple of fine tuning passes through my tablesaw until the strips were a snug fit in the frame cutouts. Once I had the thickness of the strips so they were just flush with the surface of the frames I trimmed them to length and glued them in place using epoxy. I made sure there was exactly 800 mm between frames and double checked the squareness of each frame with the backbone. I held some of the stringers in place using spring clamps just to make sure they didn't twist as I proceeded forward. Once the glue sets, I don't want any surprises.


I also glued the daggerboard trunk in place (below) since the trunk and the stringers impart a lot of rigidity to the frame.

Finally, I trimmed the end of the stringers (below) so they would die against the stem and glued them in place with 5-minute epoxy and plenty of clamps. Although the fast-setting epoxy should be hard within an hour or so, I'm going to leave the clamps in place for 24 hours to make sure the considerable torque on the stringers doesn't cause the newly set epoxy to creep. This would actually be a good place for a thin plywood gusset. Hmmmm . . .

I've had several neighbors drop by to see what's going on in the groj. All have been impressed by the lines of the PJ 14.

Scarfing and Joining Panels

I spent a couple of hours today making big pieces out of smaller ones, sort of the opposite of what I usually do. When you're building a 14' boat out of lumber products no more than 8' long, you have do do some gluing.

I joined the fore and aft plywood panels which form each side of the PJ 14's v-bottom. I just caught myself automatically using the term "scarf," but that's not technically correct. The plywood panels on this boat are joined by sanding a slight depression into the edges of adjoining panels, the ends of which are butted tightly together and held that way by a layer of epoxy/fiberglass laid in the depression. In a real scarf (see below), the edges of adjoining pieces are beveled, and fitted together with glue between them. Same thing, only different.

However, I DID scarf two 8' pieces of almost clear pine together out of which I will later cut the 1/2" stringers that will help support the bottom and side panels when they are placed on the frames. The scarf joint requires that the pieces of wood to be joined be cut at no steeper than a 1:6 angle. I used Gorilla Glue, a very tenacious waterproof polyurethane glue, to join the pieces because it has superior gap-filling properties to epoxy. If I had used epoxy, by the time the runny glue had "kicked," it likely would have dribbled out of the joint, making for a weak bond. Polyurethane glues, on the other hand, form bubbles of gas that force the glue into all the nooks and crannies. It's great for use anywhere you need a gap-filling glue.

Back to gluing up the panels: I laid down a sheet of waxed paper, then cut a strip of biaxial fiberglass cloth and saturated it with catalyzed epoxy. Then I painted the bevels of two adjoining panels with epoxy and laid them on the strip of cloth. I then painted the bevel on the top side of the panel, laid another strip of cloth in the bevel, bridging the two panels, saturated the cloth, and covered the joint with another sheet of waxed paper. I squeegeed (is that a word?) out all the air from the joint and laid a flat 1"x4" board across the joint and weighted it down with a bucket of sand. No, I don't know why I have a bucket of sand, either.


I painted the inside surfaces of the daggerboard trunk halves with the remaining epoxy and set them aside to dry. That's two coats now. One more to go.

Daggerboard Trunk

I cut 3/4" square pieces of pine for the daggerboard trunk upper and lower flanges, beveled the ends to the proper angle and epoxied them to the plywood. I clamped the pieces with spring clamps and let them set up overnight. I squeegied the excess epoxy onto the sides of the daggerboard trunk. Daggerboard trunks are at best inelegantly constructed, and are focal points for high concentrations of lateral stress. In order for the daggerboard trunk to be waterproof, the plans recommend painting it with three coats of epoxy.

Getting Started

I received my kit of precut parts from Sam at ThirdCoastComposites in Houston, TX. The designer, Dudley Dix, envisioned the boat as a trainer for more high performance skiffs. As such, it has three rigs that can be mounted on it, ranging from Laser-like to 29er-like.



I thought it looked like it would be a lot of fun to build, and it should be cartoppable, so I decided to give it a go.

After a false start last fall, during which I received a kit of broken parts courtesy of some forklift driver ripping the bundle of plywood apart, Sam supplied me with replacement parts, no problem at all. However life intervened** and I was unable to get started on the project until 6 months later.




I cleared out some room in my garage, swept the floor clean, and set up a couple of sawhorses. Bought some straight 2x4s from Home Depot, then tied them together with wooden blocks between them and set them aside for a week to fully dry out. Getting straight lumber for building a strongback to hold your build straight isn't as easy these days as it was in days of yore. After a week, the lumber had dried sufficiently to use. So I cut the 2x4s to the lengths described in the plans and got started.

In the picture above, you can see the 2x4 building stocks set on a couple of 24" sawhorses. The stocks don't have to be screwed down to the sawhorses at this stage, but they do have to be straight and parallel to the floor. I departed from the building plans by nailing a couple of 2x4 spreaders between the 2x4 stocks to keep them spread the required distance apart. The spreaders also hold the stocks square and rigid.

While working on the daggerboard trunk, I unexpectedly found that the pre-cut plywood parallelograms that form the sides of the trunk fit only one way, which is not apparent from the plans or from looking at the parts. So you have to fool around with them flipping them this way and that, until you get them oriented correctly. I then marked the forward and UP sides with pencil on the parts (upper right in photo below) so they will go together easily when it comes time to glue them. For the purposes of aligning the forward and aft daggerboard ends with the frame, I temporarily clamped the parts together using spring clamps. They're $1.00/each at Home Depot when on sale! :^)

At this point, the parts fit is loosey-goosey, but one of the great things about "stitch-n-glue" boatbuilding is that the parts ultimately go together one way. So long as you don't paint yourself into a corner by applying glue to the parts in the wrong sequence, you'll end up with a straight and fair boat.

** Married TOTGA25YA (The One That Got Away 25 Years Ago), honeymooned cruising the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound and, well, you know, LIFE!