One of the unknowns about taped seam building is no two are alike. They're shaped about the same, look the same, but the moment you take a tape measure and check stuff, each is slightly different. Unless building a class racer, where measurements will be taken and weight is critical, it doesn't matter how far off the bulkheads and other partitions might end up, once the goo cures. Concentrate on good fits and joints, with plenty of goo and/or fabric reinforcements (tape) and you'll be fine.
I had to replace my old compressor with a new one, a few years back. Have you priced these lately? I found a big 3 cylinder, two stage that had a bad motor and other bits and pieces (regulator, trap, etc.) and stole it at a fleamarket. At first I tried to use a gas engine to power it and the old 15 hp tractor engine did this fine, but drove me nuts with the constant din on the engine. I switched to an appropriate electric motor (38 amps @ full load on 240 VDC) and found I could squirt everything.
Painting changed from a chore to a joy, though with a learning curve using new equipment. I can media blast stuff, what a time saver. I can shoot epoxy from a gun in the time it takes most to mix a single pot of goo. Clean up is a whole different experience and time consuming, so what I save in application gets eaten by cleaning. I mention this because you can now get fairly cheap, homeowners grade spray outfits, that actually put down a pretty good finish. These systems can be about $100 bucks, though the better ones (the ones that last more than a few uses) are usually $300 or less. You can look like a pro, take half the time and no tipping off. With my big setup, I can epoxy coat a sheet of plywood in a few minutes. Most can't afford a system like this, but I do a lot of painting, so can justify the expense. I have a 23' and a 25' in the yard now, both with full exterior paint jobs scheduled. They want it to look like gelcoat, so . . . For a one time use paint job, even a Wagner can be considered. These "hand shakers" aren't very good, compaired to a real system, but to paint one boat, hell worth the $50 bucks they might cost.
Okay, I give up. Unless the stars align and I am very well caffeinated, I am not even going to try to get back on the water this year. I don't know anyone who can tell me the last day it didn't rain much less the last day it didn't rain and there was any wind at all. I have wasted enough time trying to go sailing, so now I am boat building.
Because of that I figured that I should do an update. I have the bunk assembled and glued down and am getting ready to paint. I built a framework under the bunk decking because the plan called for 3/8 inch ply as the decking and I was certain that it would collapse under my considerable bulk. The decking went in as two pieces joined down the centerline. To join those two pieces, I glued and screwed a 1X6 to the centerline of one of the pieces leaving half the board showing to act as a glue surface. This made the center of the bunk quite sturdy. The framework beneath the decking also firmed up the assembly so that it doesn't even flex when I stand on it. The under side of the decking is coated with thickened epoxy instead of paint so that all I had to do was scuff up the glue surfaces to set the decking in place permanently with epoxy. The forward compartment under the bunk Is now air tight. Because of that I mounted a deck plate on the center line to allow inspection and adjustment for air pressure. I also mounted a deck plate on bulkhead number one for the same reason. When it is all done there will be a pit for the anchor rode above this area that will be glassed and scuppered, so the forward compartment will be sealed also.
I have dry fitted the cockpit, so that now I am ready to start final assembly of it. I have boxed in the seats to reduce the flooded area in the cockpit and provide floatation high up along the sides. I will run scuppers out the foot well on both sides. The plan calls for the cockpit sole to be one big open area. Making it that way certainly would simplify construction, but I am afraid of getting pooped and have a couple thousand pounds of water sloshing around in there. The chambers beneath the seats will be separated into forward and aft chambers on both sides and vented separately. The aft chamber below the cockpit sole will also get a deck plate to vent it and provide access.
The final shape of the largest parts is now noticeable as well as usable to plan my next moves in the build. I expect to have everything that is fitted glued down soon. With winter moving in, I am going to make a concerted effort to finish up so that I can sail next year, if it stops raining for five minutes.
Al
Hey Al, I noticed on the CLC website, this called a “speculative design”. Does this mean you’re one of the first guys to actually build one?
Yeah, as far as I can find, Indigo is the very first one in line. The plan is a fifty dollar download, and because I am such a cheap bastard, it appealed to me even if I didn't cut a board. The plan has a couple pages dedicated to a suggested building sequence, but other than that, it is pretty open. That is one of the reasons why I am keeping such a complete record of what I am doing and what I run into. By contrast, the weekender plan/video is very explicit. I suppose that was intentional because the boat was designed with first time builders in mind. The more I hang around the boat building world, the more I think the plan/video was a work of genius. I think if more designers did likewise even if very pared down, more boats would get finished. When I built my Lutra canoe, the plan was a small part of a book about how to build lapstrake canoes. It would have been exponentially more difficult to build that boat without the accompanying text and photos.
I get a big kick out of telling my wife's friends that I am a multi-award winning boat builder. This is true only because I won my class at our little local boat show a couple times. I think it is funny, but I make her dust my trophies anyway. She is not a big fan of my boat building activities. Because I am so renowned, I am taking on a project that may or may not turn out. I will not go off the reservation as far as shape or balance because I am not qualified to do so. The changes I am making to my boat are mostly to satisfy my concern about safety. I did the same to my weekender. Boxing in the seats is probably the most noticeable change. I spent a couple days getting everything fitted and uniform, but it really wasn't a big deal.
I am already making plans for next summer. I actually plan to live aboard Indigo for a time, and oh my gosh, take the wife with me. Yeah, I am a dreamer. Now that I can't run sled dogs anymore, that makes the winter days much more pleasant.
Al
A “speculative design” simply means there was no commission to have the design drawn up and (typically) it was done in hopes of some interest or a cheap bastard, whichever came first . . .
Well, its been about a month now so I thought I would do an update. I have given up sailing for the year ( good thing too, we got five inches of snow last week) so I am full time boat building so to speak. Somehow I only manage to get in 3 or 4 hours in the shop a day. I have started to list and prioritize the chores I have to do in order to get to the next step, so now I can chart my progress and avoid dithering with useless things. I have a health issue that may keep me out of the shop for a while, so the next update could be slow in coming.
I have fitted and am painting the interiors of the boxed in seats as well as the forepeak. The scuppers are in place in the cockpit and the sole is doubled as well as supported along its length. I don't want any flexing on any of my horizontal surfaces in the cockpit. I am afraid that flexing will eventually lead to a breakdown of the finish and underlying fiberglass over time. I have located the access covers for the aft chamber and added lumber framing around the rough opening so that I can screw down the hatch into some meat instead of wimpy plywood. I also added two stiffeners to the underside of the forward chamber to prevent flexing where I will be sitting all the time. As with the underside of the bunk, I am coating the underside of the seat tops with epoxy instead of painting so that I can glue them down and be assured that they are coated completely.
A few weeks ago, I rolled on a coat of high build primer over the sides of the hull and let it sit until just recently. I then long boarded the primer down until the black coating underneath it started to show. Usually when I long board something, I go at it full bore. This time, I was more careful so that I didn't penetrate the underlying glass. I used medium grit paper and gently took it down until it both looked right and felt absolutely smooth. When the time comes, and with no further prep, I will roll on as many coats of Rustoleum topside paint as it takes to satisfy me that it is well coated and nice looking.
I also cut the hole for the boomkin in the starboard side and low and behold it actually fit and put the tip of the boomkin at the exact place it was meant to be. Yes, sometimes miracles do happen. I think I have a good plan for mounting the tiller that will allow me to take it out whenever I want, and strongly keep it in place otherwise. I will report on that if it works out. I have yet to figure out how I want the mizzen mast to mount though. I want it to be either on a tabernacle of some sort or be a breakdown that I can stow in the cabin for trailering. I can't wait around on that much longer or it will get in the way of other things.
The pics are pretty self explanatory.
Al
Neat. It's fun to watch this boat go together. You do good work. I hope you feel better soon. I look forward to your progress reports.
When doing "blocking" on primer or topcoats, I find it best to work at a single angle, say 30 - 45 degrees to the panel you're doing. Work from one end down the length of the panel to the other at this angle, making a single set of parallel line scratches on the angle chosen. Then go back down the same panel on the reciprocal angle, which makes a crosshatch pattern of scratches. This is done lightly, with medium grit (100 - 120) paper. Just enough to see the scratches and very lightly to expose the color below, but not enough to truly flatten the surface. The resulting pattern will show high and low spots easily, so you can add more primer or possibly filler and continue knocking down the high spots. Once you learn this technique, you'll make three passes with the long board; the first to find the highs and lows, the second to fill or knock down identified spots and the last to flatten and smooth the whole panel. In many cases a high build primer will fill most of the lows, though around seams, fastener heads and joints, you might need some additional filler.
The same process is done on top coats, if you want a really nice, "flat" finish. The paper choices get finer, say 180 - 220 and I usually do these wet. A show paint job will want even finer grits, up to about 400 grit. After this, you can move onto buffing and polishing. 220 grit is fine enough that any paint will easily fill the scratches, but if it's buffed, you might see spots of scratches. For the backyard builder, 220 is more than fine enough, especially if the last one was wet sanded. In this regard, 100 grit is more than enough, for any primer to fill the scratches. In other words, don't go too fine, unless you'll be spraying the topcoats and buffing to a high luster, where very fine scratches can be noticed. I've never seen a home built boat that needed finer primer grits than 120 and topcoat grits more than 220, even under varnish, assuming the sanding was with the grain (clear coats).
Rustoleum is a real alkyd paint and can be buffed nicely, but it has to be dry, which can take up to a month, depending on environmental condisions. I usually do a test piece making it slightly thicker (film thickness) than the rest of the project. A piece of plywood, maybe 24" square is all it is and this is used, as the "how dry is it" test piece. If I can buff on this, the rest of the project, which has a thinner coating can also be buffed. Most don't bother with all of this buffing and polishing stuff, but you can make a mediocre paint job look top notch with a few hours and some polish. I did a boat at the end of the summer that the owner had just painted with Brightsides, but it was all rolled on and no tipping. It was bright red and looked good from about 25 feet, but once you got close you could see the texture from the "stipple" the roller left and a few "roller tracks". I very lightly wet sanded with 400, then with 600 grit, knocking down the stipple. Next I hit it with 800 grit 3M buffing pads (wet) and a "cutting compound". I moved up in pad grit to about 1,500 grit, just by switching pads and the boat looked real good, so I busted out the polish (Perfect it) and made two passes, the first a rough "cutter" the next a fine polish. I could just about shave in the reflection. He paid for this, but the home builder can do the same thing and the labor is free, well at least until your elbows start charging a toll, for additional efforts on your part. I mention this because mine are killing me today . . .
Paul,
What you describe is exactly what I did sanding this primer. I learned how to do this from you on this forum a few years ago. It has served me well, thank you. The way I handled the finish on Duckie was to roll on 4 or 5 coats before splashing her, then sailing her for a few years. When I got the time and inclination to freshen her up I long boarded, then two coats of high build primer and four coats of Rustoleum. I put the Rustoleum on with a super fine foam roller and didn't let the paint build up so much that it would leave a line from the tip of the roller. Once I got an even coat on I cranked up the shop heater and let the paint flow. I found out the Rustoleum topside paint has extra flatteners added to it so it flows out real nice. When I got done with the refinish, I wasn't just satisfied, I was happy. With this boat, I did a much better job of glassing so I don't have to hide so many imperfections. I don't doubt that in a few years I will want to clean her up, and I will probably do the same as I did on the Weekender. I won't even think about painting until I have finished assembling the boat. Except for the interior. I will finish that completely before I box it in.
Al
See, some one is paying attention. That's how my first long board pass usually looks, Al. I generally finish the paint work, rather than wait. Once it's painted, I cover it with paper, taped to the rail, so I don't splash goo or something on it. I do this because the top coats are much harder than primer, so it can take more abuse, while the build continues.