Looking like a boat! What kind of wood is that? It has an unusual grain oattern but that might be the picture.
I already have some suggestions for you!
1: water is going to collect on your deck when it rains and hopefully when you are sailing. The upper rub-rail will funnel it back and into the cockpit seats when you change tacks. Also, the rain will collect in there and turn the cockpit into the world's best rainwater collector.
I put little drains in the deck that pipe water overboard. I'll try to find a picture.
2: The way the ply hull sides are sandwiched between the upper rub-rail and the inner molding to form a toe-rail leaves the inner end-grain of the ply exposed to weather. No matter how much varnish you put on, water will enter the ply here.
I placed a cap-strip over top of this joint so water only meets solid wood, not the end grain if the ply.
I can't attach pictures right now but when I get home I'll post some oictures of what I mean.
Thanks - look forward to the pics. As far as ply - it is cheaper BCX ply from Lowe's. Sometimes the sanded side looks funny. But also as I've put epoxy on and sanded that, it masks the grain in a funny way.
I see, you've put epoxy on it. You will be fibreglassing it though won't you? Just brushing epoxy onto it won't protect it as well. If you cover it with 6-oz glass cloth and epoxy, I don't think it really matters what plywood you use. My weekender was made with G1s ply and it's 16 years old.
Working on some pictures. The website says the6're too big so I'm going to shrink them and try again.
Yeah, I'm 100 percent behind that one. Fabric everything except the interior. just keep water out of there for that. By the time you get done with glassing the boat, you will probably be pretty good at it. I glassed my boat which is eight years old and still looks like new. I have built all kinds of outdoor plywood projects and can attest for CDX's strength and weaknesses. I have some CDX on Duckie. Any of the grades above that should be better, but you can't always count on that. Anyway, glass forgives all sins, mostly. Anyway do a thorough and sturdy job on the finish, and you are golden for as long as you are willing to keep up the maintenence.
A hint from my build. I left things like the portlights the handrails, and the main hatch, or anything just for show until I had sailed her a few times because summer was burning away by the time I got her done.
Al
Al
Thanks guys! Yeah I'll be glassing her when I get to that. Haven't done that before (like everything on this build) so should be fun to learn. Then I'll "finish" rig and sail - definitely getting closer. . .
Keith - I know the website has been down, but I'd love it if you could still load those pics you had planned to share.
Cool! That should give you some extra room. Trying to squirm around inside my regular-sized cabin is sometimes a bit of a chore.
I tried to post some pictures, but they are all too big and the website won't handle them. When I have a day to spare coming up, I'll fire up my old computer and use it to reduce the file size of some of the pictures.
Mike,
After looking at your pics, I have one little concern. I walk on the roof of my weekender every time I use the boat. I stand up there to hoist the mast when I set up, so there is a bit of load on the forward beam supporting the roof. I noticed that you have a joint right in the middle of the beam which makes me worry. If the beam is already glued in place it might be a good to add a plywood cripple to the forward face of it for a bit of added strength. You could make it match the whole beam so that no one would notice it. I do things like that all the time.
Al
OOPS!
I just looked at the pics again and saw that it was a pencil line on the beam.
Al my eyes are going bad