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.
Today I got up early and moved things around in the garage to facilitate laying a bunch of pieces on the floor for painting…rudder, seats, etc, etc. I also vacuumed all the dust everywhere so that my second coat of paint on the hull would have a better chance of coming out without many little bumps.
After that was done I lightly sanded off the hull, just enough to knock off the dust bumps. Then I started painting. Two hours later I was done.
I finished the second bunk outside…I had to cut off a piece…and didn’t want to get any sawdust in the garage. I also sanded the hatch covers, leeboard, rudder and rudder cheek outside.
I put another coat of varnish on the hatch covers and put the first coat of varnish on the tiller. I never got around to putting anymore epoxy on the rudder and leeboard parts.
I went around the boat when the second coat was pretty much dry to the touch and removed all the masking tape I had placed on the gunwales. Taking that green stuff off sure changes the look of the boat. It is nice to see what it will look like. I like the white and the mahogany gunwales.
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.
Over the last three days I have sanded and done a few other odds and ends getting the hull ready for primer. Today, September 16th, I left work early in order to be able to work while it is warm out and I got two coats of primer onto the hull.
I am using a two part epoxy primer called Ameron 383HS. It was suggested to me by the industrial coatings guy at General Paints. I think it is going to be tough but the fumes off of it are brutal. I don’t want to use it anymore and I ordered some System Three Yacht Primer which is two part water based and doesn’t require a respirator while you are putting it on. It also cleans up with water. I think I’ll take the remainder of the Ameron primer to general paints for disposal when I go see them to buy some marine enamel. That stuff is just rank!
The Ameron was kind of funny stuff. You can mix up enough to cover half the hull and it stays liquid in the paint tray but as soon as you roller or brush it on it starts to set up quickly enough that it is very near impossible to keep a wet edge. I was doing this in temperatures in the the low 20s C or low 70s F so it wasn’t very hot. I read somewhere that as soon as you lay this stuff down in a thin coat the solvents are released which permits the epoxy cure process to start. That’s how it stays liquid and gives you a long pot life I guess
The hull looks not too bad after two coats but I was hoping for something that would level out more…this stuff sets up too quickly for that. The hull will need some more…sanding…. before I put on the final coats of enamel. Hopefully the primer will sand done more easily than the epoxy I just finished sanding for what seemed like forever.
Here is a photo of the primed hull…..
Terry came over to have a look and asked me if I had decided what colour I am going to paint it. I told him I am vacillating between white, red and green and will probably decide while I am in the paint store. He said he’d come back on the weekend to see what I had chosen
Tomorrow I hope to get one coat of marine enamel on the outside.
The last three days have been busy as I finished coating the bottom and sides with two coats of epoxy. Hard to spread with a paintbrush, I finally started using a spreader when I was nearly 3/4 done and that was a lot faster.
Once the epoxy firmed up, I scraped the most egregious runs and blobs…doesn’t matter how hard I try to make it smooth it comes up needing a lot of work….and then started sanding with the random orbital sander.
Finally I am pretty much finished sanding the outside of the hull. All I have left right now is the underside of the gunwales and the stem which I am going to do so that I won’t mark the paint by sanding them after I paint the hull.
I also remembered to cut the holes in the anchor well and rear slop well. I used a small drill to locate the holes by drilling from inside. Then, I used a 1″ Forstner bit to cut the holes. The bits that I bought from Lee Valley did a great job. No tear-out at all, just nice sharp edges.
After drilling the holes I taped some wax paper on the inside of the boat (The boat is upside down) and then painted some unthickened epoxy onto the plywood edges of the holes. Then I added wood flour and cabosil to the remaining epoxy and poured that into the holes. The epoxy in the anchor well set up very quickly as it was sitting in the sun and the sun was very warm this afternoon. The other epoxy took quite a bit longer. Before they fully set up I used the 1″ bit to put a small hole in the centre of the hole by placing it on top of the hole and making sure that the edges all lined up with the hole edges.
By evening, they were both ready to be drilled out. I used a 3/4″ Forstner bit to drill out the center of the epoxy plugs, leaving a 1/8′ layer of epoxy attached to the plywood…nice and waterproof. The Forstner bit cut the epoxy very nicely and I have two holes that need no further attention with sandpaper.
On Thursday after work I went to Broadway Millwork to see about getting them to cut the tapers on my mast. The owner, Doug, a super nice guy, was most generous with his time talking about what had to be done and how he could accomplish it with the equipment he has in his shop. It doesn’t look like he will be able to do it But I came away with several ideas about jig building that I may be able to use with my router if need be. He also gave me the name of another fellow to call who may be able to help me out. The beat goes on…..
Tonight I finished the tiller. I clamped it to a sawhorse and used the jigsaw to cut most of the material away where the rudder cheek fits. Then, I used the router freehand and it turned out pretty good. A bit of cleanup with a rasp and it was good enough.
After that, I cleaned off the hull with an alcohol soaked rag and paper towels prior to putting on a final coat of epoxy before I put on the epoxy primer. I thought I might get the whole boat done but I quit after doing half. The epoxy was very viscous due to the cool temperature and it was a ton of work spreading it out with a paintbrush. I even got a blister on the ring finger on my right hand. I’ll put a final coat on the other half early tomorrow morning before I go to work or when I come home after work. It is supposed to be warmer so if I leave it until later it should go pretty easily.
I still haven’t figured out how I am going to cut the tapers on the mast. That is the only major fabrication job that is left. The mast, epoxying the mast step to the floor in the cockpit and pouring lead into the rudder…that’s it! The rest is sanding, fairing and painting before attaching all the rigging pieces.
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.
Since last weekend I have sanded the entire hull so that it looks fairly good to my untrained eye. I am agonizing over how to paint it, what to paint it with, etc, etc. The choices are endless it seems. The different points of view vastly different. It is hard to figure out what to do. I have been reading Sam Devlin’s excellent book, Devlin’s Boat Building, and he follows about a 15 step process on his boats…but his boats are likely to be in the water far longer than my boat ever will, he is a commercial builder and his clients expect a professional finish…and I am an amateur whose boat will not be in the water for more than a few days at a time…if that. I am building this boat for my boys to enjoy and have fun in…and that won’t involve worrying too much about running into rocks. As my friend Terry Dopson said yesterday when I explained my predicament to him….”It’s not a Ferrari.” But, I still would like to do a job that looks at least half decent. So, I vacillate back and forth on what to do. I search on the internet for information….and winter draws ever closer.
Today I did a couple of small things just to get them out of the way while I stew about painting. I mounted the piece to hold the lower gudgeon for the rudder cheek, routed out a hole in the rudder for the lead sinkweight, cut out the rudder cheek where the tiller will rest, rounded off the cheek to follow the radius of the tiller’s movement up and down and mounted a u-bolt in the mast step for the downhaul on the yard. I’ll need to pay Terry a visit to cut down the U-bolt but I think what I have decided to do will work quite well. I’ve been reading David Nichols’ book called “The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails”, trying to educate myself as to how to set up the rigging for the balance lug sail I am using. It’s a good thing I did as setting up the U-bolt the way I did will make it very strong…better than using a cleat screwed into the mast step with a couple of screws.
I really like the rudder work as I set the router to leave about 1/8″ of plywood…the plan being that this way I don’t have to clamp metal on the bottom to keep the lead in when I pour the molten stuff in to make the sinkweight. The screws are there to keep the lead from falling out.
Maybe tomorrow I will have decided how to proceed with my paint job.
In the last four days I have finished glassing the bottom, covered everything with Quik-Fair to fill the weave and smooth things out, attached the keel strip, stem and transom and sanded half the boat to nearly be ready for a coat of primer!!!!!!
Glassing the second side was more work than the first. Because the cloth wasn’t wide enough to cover the bottom from seam to seam I cut it in half and did just one side first to be sure I would be able to keep up mixing epoxy, etc.
I glassed down the largest piece, let it get just tacky and then I covered the remaining gap with two pieces cut roughly to shape.
The next morning, I put a coat of epoxy down the middle where the keel strip is going and then put Quik-Fair on the rest. In retrospect, I think using Quik-fair for this was a mistake and I think that using some thickened epoxy would have done a good job of filling the weave, dried smoother and been MUCH harder. Oh well, too late now.
My next project was to install the keel strip. I decided to install the stem first so that I would be able to trim the ends of the keel strip layers to butt up against the stem before installing them. The stem went on pretty easily using EZ-Fillet after a coat of epoxy.
Then it was time for the keel strip. I used EZ-Fillet to join the two surfaces. I had Patty help me by pushing down on the strip as I drove screws into it from inside the boat. I was only using 3/4″ screws but they were enough to grab it and pull it against the hull.
After letting that set up I got the second layer ready. I laid it on top of the first layer, trimmed the angle against the stem by running a Japanese saw blade down the end as I held it against the stem. Then I predrilled and countersunk several holes. After that, I mixed up some thickened epoxy, put it into a baggie and squeezed it onto the two surfaces. Spread that around with a piece of wood and then put the strip on by myself. Cleaned up the squeezeout and let it harden.
Next up I attached the transom with lots of thickened epoxy. Nothing special to report there…I shoved the bolts through and then wiped their threads clean with an acetone soaked paper towel before attaching the nuts and tightening them. Used 7 clamps and left it overnight.
Yesterday and today I trimmed off the excess stem and keel strip, scraped excess epoxy away and sanded. My neighbour, Dan – who knows an awful lot about refinishing cars…among other things – loaned me a long sanding block used by body shops and showed me how to use it. I have been using that and the random orbital sander to smooth things out. One side of the hull is looking pretty good after several hours of sanding to day. If I can get the other side ready tomorrow I’ll be ready for a coat of primer on Tuesday!
