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Sounds like a great idea, once our boat gets done that is lol ..  Also,  There is another woodenboat show at lake union in seattle too.

Regards,

  Will

Weekly update for 4/20/2015 through 4/26/2015

Hours building:  16.75
Hours shopping:  2.5

Money spent:  $55.58
Hardware, trailer hitch (drawbar and ball), tools.

Work done:  Trailer assembly, sanding, filling, fileting, sealing, fiberglassing.


Sanded down the hull and gave it a coat of S-1 penetrating epoxy.  After letting the S-1 cure for most of the week to allow all the solvents to evaporate, I sanded again and started the fiberglass sheathing.  I'm using the method described in a Glen-L web letter.  You can view this method here:

Shop Talk: How to utilize sheathing fabrics
http://www.glen-l.com/weblettr/webletter...l#shoptalk
http://www.glen-l.com/weblettr/webletter...ptalk.html

I'm following diagram "C" for my boat.


I finally got the trailer done.  Well, almost.  I still have to attach the bunks and winch, but I'm waiting until I decide whether to build larger, custom bunks, and I'll position the winch to fit to the boat.




Fitting the fiberglass.  I'm doing the bottom first, then I'll overlap the edge with the side fiberglass after this sets.




First coat, the wet-out.  Not shown:  I later trimmed the excess glass on the sides, keel and transom.  Drips and runs will be scraped off with a cabinet scraper.  This is important because if I were to sand them off, the sander would also take off some of the adjacent material.  Using the scraper should result in a fairer finish.



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Weekly update for 4/27/2015 through 5/3/2015

Hours building:  14.25
Hours shopping:  3

Money Spent:  $471.39
(Marine paints & primers, epoxy, sailboat hardware and miscellaneous disposable supplies)

Amazing how much marine paints and primers cost.  Some as high as $55 per quart (and that's supposedly marked down 50% from the $110 list price!)

Work done:  Several iterations of scraping, sanding, and applying coats of epoxy.  Ready for final sanding and fairing prior to paint.

Coatings so far to hull exterior:
--S-1 penetrating epoxy, 1 coat.  Cure and evaporate solvents for most of a week.
--Fiberglass layup...epoxy coat then 6 oz. fiberglass cloth while this coat was still wet, immediately followed by another epoxy coat for wet-out, using roller, squeegee and foam brush.
--Allowed to cure 2 days, then scraping and sanding.
--Three more coats of epoxy, spaced 24 hours apart, no sanding in between.

Actually only the topsides got three additional coats, to help cover the cloth pattern.  The bottom was smooth enough after 2 coats.  And I decided not to glass the keel, so it only got two coats as well.

Here's what the hull looks like now:



Even though I did my best to apply the coats evenly, I still got a fair amount of runs and curtains, goops and blotches.  So it'll be a challenge to get it nice and fair without sanding off all the epoxy.  I MUST get the topsides at least nice and fair, otherwise the glossy paint will look terrible, showing every flaw.  The bottom won't matter quite as much since it will be hidden from view.

To ease fairing, instead of simply applying more unthickened goo to fill the weave, go ahead and just smear the whole hull with some fairing compound. You can make some or use a product like System Three's "Quick Fair", which save s the bother of mixing your own. A thin coat, just enough to fill the weave and low spots. You'll sand a large percentage of this off, once you drag out the "board 'o pain", but it beats chasing down drips, sags, runs and filling the weave all in one shot.

My finish work is my weakest point, so take this for what it is worth.  I am a huge fan of cut glass scrapers for touching up drips and sags in both paint and more importantly epoxy.  I get them made at my neighborhood hardware store out of the off cuts from them making window pane replacements.  Because I am using up their waste, they just give them to me.  If you use them on reasonably green epoxy, they will take down a drip in just a few passes without touching the surrounding finish.  They are exponentially faster than sanding and you don't have to protect yourself from dust.  They do go dull pretty quickly, but hey they were free and they have 8 cutting edges. 

I find myself getting kind of twitchy if I run out of them and have been known to make a trip into town just to refill my stack. 

Al

Thanks for your inputs.  I do have a cabinet scraper, which is effective for getting rid of the high-standing drips.  Before I spend more money (and add more weight to the boat) with fairing compound,  I think I'll give it a good sand down with my RO sander and see how it looks.  The weave is pretty well filled already.  I'm more concerned about the high spots from the runs and curtains at this point.  If knocking down the high spots with the RO sander doesn't get the hull close enough to fair (such that a sanding board could finish the job), I may follow your suggestion and try some System Three Quick Fair.  Sanding begins this afternoon.

During the downtime yesterday (waiting for the epoxy to cure enough for sanding), I was doing some research on kick-up rudders.  The design in the Skipjack plans strikes me as a monstrously bulky and clunky piece of gear, with that big rudder box and attachment block on the transom.  Besides, I'll be positioning the tiller over the rear deck, so I have to redesign it anyway.  I would like to find a more elegant and attractive solution.

Here's a nifty piece of hardware from Glen-L Marine, described as a kick-up rudder fitting.  It replaces all the mounting hardware and allows for the pivoting of a one-piece rudder.  Supposedly it has sufficient strength for boats up to sixteen feet.



http://www.boatdesigns.com/Kick-Up-Rudde...fo/13-051/

At about 60 bucks it might be a contender, and I can use a wooden rudder, in keeping with the fact that I'm building a wooden boat.

Another possible and very cool solution, albeit probably a very expensive one, is the Dotan rudder assembly.  I don't have pricing yet but it's probably several hundred dollars.

http://www.dotan.com/



I might even start with a simple one piece non-kick-up rudder and upgrade later.  But I don't think I'm going to install that unsightly attachment block on the transom.  I'd rather install a backing plate inside the lazarette.

A DA or orbital will not fair the hull. This is a "surfacing" tool and will just knock down localized areas, typically the diameter of the disk. It's designed to smooth things, if used with care. To fair the hull, you can't avoid the long board.

You can ID high spots with some caulk and a straight edge (24" - 36" metal ruler). Apply chalk to the hull and bending the ruler to the hull curves, drag it across it. The high spots will get wiped, while the low spots will still have chalk in them. I use sandable primer for this job, instead of chalk. The long board also does this and more accurately. The basic routine is to apply primer all over, in a light dusting, not going for good coverage, just adding something the sand paper can scratch. Make a diagonal pass with the long board, from one end of the hull to the other, always at the same angle. Next come back and do it again, at the reciprocal angle. The idea is simply to scratch the primer, not remove any material. Once you've done this, the hull will have across hatch pattern of scratches all over, if it's fair. If not, the high spots will be scratched, but the lows haven't any and this is where you mark the hull for some filler. Generally, you fill the lows and knock down the highs, eventually getting the hull to a uniform height.

There's lots of different kickup setups. I have two styles I use in my designs, both have worked reliability for years, so I don't fool with them much. On small craft, I use a simple centered pivot arrangement, which places enough cheek "meat" down low, so the blade has something the bear against. On larger boats, starting about a Vacationer size, I'll start putting metal into the assembly, because wood gets too bulky. Because the blade also tends to use more metal, I use an "over center" pivot arrangement, which helps ease the strain on the pivot bolt and blade a bit. A buddy (Mik Storer) uses the "cassette" style of setup. You see this more on multihulls, but it's about as simple as it gets. You might want to look up his site and check out this style of kickup arrangement. In any case, think simple, robust and as few moving parts as possible, because these are what fail most of the time. The Glen-L devise requires a straight up pull, which in a dinghy is pretty easy, but if you have an aft deck, the pull is going to be at an angle, which might cause issues.

Weekly update for 5/4/2015 through 5/10/2015:

Hours building:  6.25
Hours shopping:  0.25

Money Spent:  $20.75
Wheelbarrow handle for bowsprit made of ash.
Broom handle for club foot.

Work done:  Sanding and cleaning hull.


Had to wait for epoxy to cure enough for sanding, now I'm waiting for it to cure enough for painting.  I figure two weeks should be enough.  So painting the hull is planned for next weekend.

I only used my RO sander.  It actually turned out pretty fair just using that, except near the starboard bow where there are faint ripples.  I'll hit that section with the sander again sometime this week to see if I can improve it there.

Here's a photo that shows three stages.  Sanded, partially sanded and unsanded.  As you can see from the partially sanded section in the middle, the high spots are quite obvious.  I just swept the sander back and forth, up and down as evenly as possible and eventually the high spots disappeared.  I took that as a sign that it was pretty fair.  Cleaning it with a sponge and water confirmed this...when it was wet it was shiny and any flaws should have been visible then.  I attached the shop vaccuum to the sander...I don't think I would have been able to see the high spots as well without doing this.  Cleanup was easier too.



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Looks great you're moving fast ! I didn't bother with the club foot , couldn't see the use for it. I find my for sail is super easy to handle without it
Keep the updates coming

To add to what Paul said, another advantage of using a long board on the hull is that it removes a ton of material very quickly without tossing a lot of dust in the air.  When I use mine, I find that the dust tends to lay comfortably on the surface that I am sanding until I brush it off.  Over this last winter I took down and refinished my entire weekender because the first time around I was too  anxious to go sailing to put a nice finish on her.  I found that I took down one side in something under an hour to the point that I was ready to apply high build primer.  Another advantage that I found was that because it was hand work, I didn't make any mistakes by over doing a spot. 

Now I keep three long boards in the shop at the ready because I have found other uses for them that I never could have imagined.  Like the glass scrapers and my pocket plane they are must haves in my boat shop.


Al