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Plywood to boat!

you’re finished, something else pops up.

Today I picked up a few bolts to finish things off and came home and was well underway when the fellow building my trailer called and came over with the trailer. We mounted the bunks I made on the trailer and then I finished everything except one thing.

Later in the evening I got a couple of neighbours to help me lift the boat onto the trailer. We were talking about things and then I thought…I should make sure the mast fits in the partner properly before I take it out sailing tomorrow. So, we rolled the trailer out int the driveway and I tried to drop the mast in…I need to cut the partner back on an angle about 3/16 of an inch so that the mast will fit. Due to the angle the mast makes and the fact I made the partner opening very close to 3″ square the mast just won’t drop in so I will be a while longer before I get that taken care of and a few other trailering items that were identified this evening.

Today I mounted the pintles, gudgeons and other assorted hardware. I also put the seats back into the boat.

Here is a shot of something I did that I thought was pretty trick…I drilled out the bracket for the cheek pulley used for the rudder uphaul on the tiller so that the bolt that passes through the tiller and rudder cheek also passes through the end of the bracket of the pulley.

All I have left to do is:

– a couple more coats of varnish on the gunwales
– a coat of paint on the leeboard, rudder and rudder cheek
– 2 through bolts on the stop on the rudder cheek
– touchup paint on the seats
– 4 bolt holes and bolts to attach main sheet block to the tiller
– 2 bolts to mount a fairlead for the leeboard uphaul
– mount u-bolts to stem
– mount cleat to mast for halyard. I have been looking, unsuccessfully, for bolts so that I can through bolt this to the mast. I have decided to use the longest screws I have and see how that works. If the screws get pulled out I’ll have to keep looking for bolts. If not….nothing left to do.

Pretty short list!! Here are some other photos at the end of today’s work.

The last two days have been pretty good but also frustrating. I got the hatches hinged and latched and supported. It was trickier than I thought and I screwed up the first hatch and had to fill one set of holes I drilled in the top deck. But, they are hinged and have latches to lock them shut and spring supports from Duckworks that work so slick it’s not even funny. You lift the hatch until the spring straightens and then “bing” it straightens out and the hatch is supported. To close you just poke a finger into the middle of the spring and lower the hatch. Really simple and effective.

I repainted the leeboard guard, leeboard, rudder, cheek, seats and seat supports to the same colour as the interior. Possibly more boring but the red just wasn’t working with the mahogany.

I also spent time Friday and Saturday trying to find bolts for the various fittings I need to attach to complete the boat. Some have been impossible to find so I will have to keep looking or use inferior methods of mounting them which I don’t want to do.

Here are some photos…

The last two days have been busy and productive. The biggest milestone has been epoxying the front decking to the hull. This was a big job requiring lots of clamps and a little resourcefulness. I tried clamping it in place withthe clamps on hand and figured I needed about 4 more of the bar clamps that I like so I went to Canadian Tire and picked 4 up. When clamping the sides at the front the very front part above the anchor well bowed up and away from the first bulkhead. It took a lot of weight applied to it and I didn’t have enough toolboxes, etc to do the job.

So, I looked at how I could pull it down and came up with the idea of using rope to apply pressure to it. I was a bit nervous about the knot slipping or the rope stretching and I checked it a few times to make sure it was holding properly.

After that was done, I primed and painted and sanded. At the end of Sunday night I have one coat of paint in the cockpit, a coat of primer on everything except the front decking and anchor well, a coat of paint on the seats and one seat support and a coat of varnish on the mast.

With any luck I should have it all painted and varnished for next weekend. In the last photo you can see the colour for the seats…and maybe the decking as well. It’s a red called “Maple Leaf Red”. I think it goes very nicely with the “Thousand Islands” beige but am not so sure it will look good next to the varnished hatch covers. Well, if it doesn’t it’s only paint and nothing that hours of sanding and painting can’t fix

Well, today I steeled up my courage and went at the mast with the Makita 1902 planer I purchased a week or so ago. It went pretty well. In about 2 1/2 hours I was done with the planer. The rest will be sanding, maybe some hand plane to round over the edges and varnishing. I’m really sorry I didn’t get a picture taken of me working on this outside in the driveway. I filled 2 garbage bags with shavings and sawdust. I had a perfect day…warm and calm so the shavings and dust weren’t blowing everywhere. This is not something to do inside….way too messy.

This evening I epoxied one of the rear decks into place before calling it a day. I had expected to be able to do both sides of the back but the first required more clamps than I expected and I ran out of the nice non-marring ones so I will do the other side first thing in the morning.

Today I used up the rest of the Benjamin Moore white paint putting a second coat on the front compartment.

Next, I mixed up some epoxy and used it to seal the the lead into the rudder. Then I thickened the remainder and used it to fair the top of the sink weight.

Lastly, I epoxied the mast step into place.

Next is more painting inside the bulkheads, sanding of the gunwales, anchor wells and engine well followed by painting.

Today I stopped in at a tire shop and got a bunch of used tire weights. When I came home I went out to the shed and dug out the old Coleman stove we used when I was a kid. I lit it up once a few years ago to see if it worked and until today that was likely the only time it had been fired up in the last 40 years. I should also mention that I used a very new piece of technology to level the rudder…my iPod Touch with a bubble level program that I installed a few days beforehand. I checked it with a regular level and it was dead-on. Really old stuff and really new stuff

Filled it with gas, pumped it up and it started up just fine. I loaded a bunch of lead weights into an old cast iron frying pan, put it on the stove, opened all the doors to the garage and stood outside with a fire extinguisher and waited. It didn’t take too long for the lead to melt. I put on a cotton glove and two leather gloves, coveralls and heavy boots, Just in case I did something stupid I wanted a little protection.

When the lead was all melted I poured it into the hole previously routed in the rudder. I had also screwed a backing piece of 1/4″ plywood just in case the lead burned through the bottom of the rudder. The wood smoked and it scorched the plywood pretty good but didn’t burn through. I had also placed a big tin pizza sheet under the rudder to contain any lead that may have escaped. Here are some shots…

This was something I have been nervous about doing for a long time so it was good to get it done without mishap. You have to have a lot of respect for metal that hot!

After supper Terry came over to inspect the paint job and after giving his approval helped roll the boat over and put it into the bunks I built. I put some carpet on the bunks just before Terry arrived so our timing was perfect. Inspired by the compliments I started painting when he left and finished painting the underside of the decking pieces and also put a coat of paint into the bulkheads. I’ll see if they need another coat tomorrow. If not, I’ll epoxy the deck covers to the hull and start priming and painting the cockpit, anchor well and engine slop well.

I also bought a Makita 1902 planer today to use for tapering the mast.It will be slow going but I am sure it will get the job done.

The last few days have been spent mostly sanding and sanding and sanding. My only advice to anybody else starting a boat of their own….budget to pay somebody else to sand and paint it for you

But finally, at 2 this afternoon I started the first coat of paint on the hull. I was done at 4:30. Brushed it all on.

I wound up using Benjamin Moore alkyd paint called Metal and Wood Interior/Exterior 133 01 High Gloss enamel. I wound up using white…if I decide to change it I can just paint over it someday. The paint went on very nicely using a 4 inch brush. I just went out and checked and I have no runs … it smoothed out pretty good. You can see brush strokes … but it looks decent overall. There were a couple of places where I sanded through the primer down to the epoxy covered wood and those spots will benefit from having another coat put on tomorrow but otherwise the coverage is great. This paint was a distinct pleasure to use compared to the epoxy primer. It really doesn’t look much different as the primer was white. I took some pictures but they didn’t look very good as I had the doors closed to keep the wind from blowing dust onto the paint.

The last couple of days I have also built bunks to hold the boat for the trailer that is being put together for me next week.

Today I also cut up the 1/4″ x 4″ x 24″ piece of UHMW plastic that I bought to use as a slippery surface between the rudder cheek and rudder. I fitted it to the rudder cheek, trimmed it with the jigsaw and router, drilled holes and countersunk them a bit. I think it looks pretty good…

I wound up the day by epoxy coating the rudder, cheek and leeboard. I may put some fiberglass tape on the leeboard and rudder leading and trailing edges tomorrow….before or after I put the second coat of paint on the hull.

Today I took my mast to a local furniture shop to have the tapers cut but when I got there and told the owner what I wanted he didn’t want to do it. So, I had him joint it and get it square. It’s much lighter and it’s nice to have gotten rid of the marks from the clamps and the epoxy squeezeout but I still have a big obstacle in my way.

Today I took the tiller blank and the mast step over to Terry’s to get him to cut off the U-bolt in the step and drill the holes in the tiller for the bolts to go through to attach to the rudder cheek and the other one that is there to help prevent the rudder from splitting.

Came home and cut the tapers on the tiller with the jigsaw and then used the router to trim right to the line. Did some cleanup and shaping with the small hand plane…that thing is so handy I can’t believe it.

Still haven’t decided on the paint. Was looking at the System Three Yacht Primer and LPU paint…both of which are water based. The paint doesn’t even need a respirator…something quite incredible for Linked Polyurethane which usually has isocyanates and requires serious fresh air respirator/breathing apparatus. But baby is it expensive…$150/gallon for paint and $105/gallon for primer. I may just put another coat of epoxy on everything as I have enough to do that, put a coat of the two part epoxy primer I got from General paint on everything and then finish it off with General Paint marine enamel at $60/gallon. I sure like the System Three stuff and not even needing to wear a respirator according to their tech support people but for the cost I think the other stuff will last pretty well.

I’ll think about it overnight.