Art's Boat Build

Water Spots on the Coffee Table

2011-10-31T13:21:00.013-04:00

Some people call my boat "The Coffee Table" as it has a bit of a furniture quality look to it. One of these people is Lisa Lirones, the wife of Bruce Lirones, who inspired me to build a boat, and the mother of Brett Lirones, my daughter's boyfriend. Lisa is a professional photographer. The Lirone's came for a visit during the Woodward Dream Cruise, so we went out on the lake and Lisa took a few million photos so I'll post a few of them. She captured a few water spots in the making.

The only person not pictured is Lisa, since she took all the photos.

The only problem with referring to my boat as a coffee table is that my wife Vicky might start decorating it with paperweights, family photos and knick-knacks.

But maybe next year I'll get some coasters so the beer cans don't leave rings.

Something Wheely Nice

2011-09-08T15:17:00.002-04:00

My fellow boat builder, Ted, found a nice mahogany steering wheel at Speed and Custom Marine for his boat. It looks so good, I had had to get one too. Given the variation in mahogany coloration I did not know what I would get but it matches perfectly with my king plank and perimeter boards so it looks like I planned it that way. I had trouble getting the old black plastic wheel off the tapered steering shaft and ended up using some small C-clamps to clamp on a gear puller yoke. As I screwed down the center puller bolt it seemed like nothing was going to happen and then it finally popped free.

Name that Boat

2011-08-15T12:48:00.004-04:00

The name of the boat was going to be "Miss Vicky" or if the transom were bigger "Lil' Miss Vicky D" since my wife Vicky was so patient and supportive of this whole project. However, Vicky came up with "Work of Art" and lobbied with everyone for that name. I was reluctant as it might seem a bit braggy. But with the boat turning out pretty sweet and all, I caved and told the graphic guy to change it. He also agreed with Vicky, so that ended the debate. I had the boat model, "Squirt" put on the sides and a 1/4" red pinstripe added to tie the side paint scheme together.

The "spun" prop issue became a bit of a goose chase to find a place that could check the prop. With help from a fellow AOMCI member, I went to R. H. Smith Co. in Algonac and one of their experts checked the prop and determined the prop was fine as far as he could test, but a full test would remove the hub and he didn't have replacement rubber parts to rebuild it. Another lead took me K & D Marine where a sympathetic AOMCI member dug into his personal stash of old parts and I was able to buy a used prop that fit my motor. This 3 blade prop worked better, but I still had what now was pretty clear to be cavitation or ventilation due to the transom height being a tad too high. So I routered down the transom to 16" which is what the Mark 25 owner's manual recommends. Back on the lake and problem solved, although the boat seemed slow. Further investigation found this Michigan AMC 507 prop is designed for heavy loads such as pulling water skiers and not speed. I just recently put the original prop back on and it performs fine and the boat is faster as was expected due to its higher pitch.

For the seat upholstery after I had three ideas sketched up, then my daughter Katy sketched up a design that incorporated the side paint arcs into the seat back. This was the best design and the upholsterer said she could do it. Vicky and I worked with her to find good matches on the colors and the seats she made look terrific.

We're out on the water now and enjoying the boat and the compliments from those who see it.

Launch Day July 20, 2011

2011-07-21T13:16:00.004-04:00

The launch day and time were set for 7/20/11 at 5:00 pm at Ted's house. Ted arranged for the Oakland Press to come with video and do a story on our boat builds...so we were committed. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had a Board meeting to conduct on the night before and an un-completed boat. I got home about 10:00 pm and Vicky helped me finish up the cleat mountings, hatch installation, fuel tank tie-downs, fire extinquisher mounting and by 12:30 am, it was ready...I hoped.

Ted and friends helped with the launch as I have very little experience in trailer backing etc. So they put me in the cockpit and backed me in the water. It floats...drain plugs were checked more than once! I hadn't run the motor since last summer, so with a fresh tank of fuel, a choke and a few pulls it fired up. So that potential embassment was avoided.

I was idling and waiting for Ted to launch his Zip. After he was in the water and running, I had Vicky climb aboard and we were off for our first boat ride!

I went out in lake and opened her up. It seemed a little reluctant to come up on plane so by standing up and leaning forward it sped up and we were flying. The lake was a bit rough but the boat handled it better than Vicky, and I was smiling. We'll have to get some pictures of the boat in motion another time, especially since after a couple of laps around the lake, the forward motion slowed and the motor sped up....not a good sign. I limped in to Ted's dock and put it on a small hoist he had put in for me to use if needed. After we all had pizza, Ted and I took off the prop and confirmed that everything looks OK but another quick drive of the boat confirmed that I have a "spun" prop. As the boat started to come up on plane, the slip returned. Apparently the bronze splined bearing inside the prop slips under torque load and needs to be repaired. At least I got a lot of comments from people about how much they liked my boat and the classic motor! So Ted found a place that I can get it repaired while we head up north for a planned weekend and go look at other wooden boats.

Here is a picture of Ted and his wife Lynn in their Glen-L Zip which he completed and launched along with me. With a recent motor change at the end of his build, Ted has a very beautiful and nice running boat.

A "Squirt" is Born

2011-07-14T15:05:00.004-04:00

The arrangements were made to gather a bunch of dudes to get the boat out of the basement into the garage and on the trailer. When the prescribed time arrived our main dude, 6'6" Danny, former star member of the U of M rowing team, was still in transit from Ann Arbor. We decided to wait for his arrival. When "Big Danny" made the scene, we gathered in the birthing center in my basement and reviewed the plan to lift off the cradle, turn the baby on its side, then butt end it out of the room and over to the stairwell. Then it would bow first up the stairwell, go left around the cabinets at the top of the stairs then along side the kitchen island, back up to go around the island and then into the garage.

The paths had been cleared and the boat covered with bubble wrap and blue tape just in case there was a bump here or there. I had previously made a handle for the transom that mounted into the chrome handle locations. We needed something beefy for holding and lifting the boat while on its side and it worked perfectly.

We had Danny on the transom to the base of the stairs where the boat was rested for a moment and I put Danny on the bow. With only a bow eye and bow handle, grip places were precious on that end. We made the joggle at the top of the stairs with a few directions and rearrangements of bodies to get the boat angled right and out she squirted from the top of the stairs. Danny got pinned into the kitchen so we immediately shifted the transom end into the room and backed it up to get around the island. As we went through the door from the kitchen to the garage, bodies peeled away off the boat as only the boat would fit through. Then Big Danny yelled "I need some help - quick" as he was the lone person on the bow of the boat holding it in the air. Since I was free (I was mostly directing), I scurried out the back porch door and around into garage to give Danny a hand as he breathed a sigh of relief and the boat came into the garage and more bodies could get back onto the move. We rolled it back over and walked it over to the trailer and set her down. I personally delivered a beer to Danny and we all commented that it was definitely worth waiting a few minutes for his arrival. Beers and drinks were distributed, bubble wrap and tape removed and pictures taken. The new baby is a beauty.

Side Work

2011-07-08T16:33:00.005-04:00

After 6 coats of varnish, I was tired of that operation and needed to get the sides done. The plan was to do some paint graphics to hide some fiberglass reinforcement tape at the plywood butt joints on the sides and at the side to transom junction. The tape at the bow seemed to fade away sufficiently to ignor it. I tried to get a graphic designer to work on a design with me, but he must be busy as he was not returning my recent calls. So my wife, Vicky said "Let's grab some paper, colored pencils and work out our own design"....and so we did." I added a beer to the operation to loosen up the creative juices. Then we went to an art supply store to get some 1/4" wide artist tape to do the masking in the curved areas.

After the curved areas were done another pass of wider tape was put down and then some masking paper over all the varnish areas to protect from the roller and splatter. I used 3/4" wide tape to define the boot stripe and then masked above and below it and then removed it. The butt end of a x-acto knife was used to burnish the edge of the tape to prevent paint bleed. (This worked well but I would recommend that the burnishing be done twice as I had a few areas where I got some bleeding where I must not have gotten the tape edge down tight).

After putting down a coat of primer and sanding, a coat of white was painted on just using a foam roller. The bubbles did not pop as the paint can said it would, so after sanding, the second coat was applied with a roller and tipped off with a foam brush - much better. Then the blue portion was masked off and painted. I decided that the blue areas will probably be finshed off with a border of 1/4" wide white vinyl tape as masking off a consistent narrow band seemed impossible. The blue dried overnight and a second coat applied. Next day it was mask removal time to see what was under the mess of paint, paper and tape. Looks pretty cool I think.

Later when I talked with the graphics guy, he showed me how to mask out a border band so I could paint it so I would have a perfect color match. He showed me how to mask using 1/4" vinyl tape that he gave me that bends easily without puckering. A couple of hours later I had another white strip outlining the blue areas.

Final side work was a 1/4" red-orange stripe put on by the graphics guy and the word "Squirt" done in a 50's retro script lettering.

(Varnish - Sand) x ?

2011-06-17T13:54:00.006-04:00

After a 5 coats of clear epoxy it was time for varnish of the deck and sides. I have completed 4 coats of varnish and the amber tint has given a nice ivory color to the white stripes and toned them down a bit. Looks better I think. As stated on the varnish can (Epifanes), the first coat was thinned 50% with mineral spirits. I used a foam trim roller to put it on quickly and a wide foam brush to tip it off. The first couple of coats were sanded with 220, but I could see scratches, so I have now been using 320 and then 400 between coats. Thinning is about 25%. I have been rolling on half of the forward deck and then tipping off, then do the same on the other side. If there is any imperfection, I have learned to ignor it because there is no going back, it only makes an issue worse. I was hoping to be done after 4 coats, but there were a couple of dry/missed spots so I'm on for at least 5. I hope to be done before the boating season is over.

Cracks Filled - Filler Filed

2011-04-25T14:01:00.006-04:00

After three coats of epoxy to get the boat surfaces sealed and relatively smooth, it was time for filling the grooves.

Following in the footsteps of others, the method chosen to make the pretty stripes and fill the cracks between the planks was pigmented epoxy. A little tape masking, a little white pigment in the epoxy, some white silica thickener, some loading of blank caulking tubes, some epoxy pumped into the grooves, some going all over the tape, some squeegeeing of the mess back into the grooves, some overfilling, some underfilling and turning out the lights and coming back in three hours to remove the tape.....then repeating the next day or so until the whole boat is a mess. After practicing on my sample board, I figured that I would develop a technique that would make the application better as I went along, but it seemed to get worse. Apparently more silica was not the answer as it became impossible to smooth out and was not a smooth consistency, always more like a vanilla milkshake from hell.

Well actually, the boat looks great in pictures, but the white stripes are a bit lumpy and need some dental type work to smooth the surfaces. After some experimentation with scraping and filing, I think I have developed a method using various files that will make it all OK....I think. As usual, it takes more time than initially thought. I've got about 2/3 of the stripes smoothed. Then I'll probably sand the entire surface and apply one more coat of epoxy before final varnish coats are applied.

Note: All plans subject to change without notice.

As noted, my plans changed. Due to a few voids in spots and several low spots in the white stripes, I masked off the stripes again and mixed up some more white epoxy with just a bit of thickener and poured it onto the stripes and smoothed it down with a plastic stir stick. The tape was removed after a couple of hours as before and the stripes look pretty good now. I think one more sanding of the whole deck and a coat of clear epoxy should complete this stage....I hope.

What's the Point?

2011-03-28T15:06:00.007-04:00

After getting the rub strips on the splash rails, I had some short pieces of rub strip that I could experiment with bending to fit the bow of the boat. I traced the bow of the boat onto a 2x6 and then made the curve a bit more acute and cut it out on the band-saw. I sawed a shallow groove into the middle of the edge to align the rub strip, screwed one side down and then bent it around the corner. It bent OK, but with the spring back, it didn't fit the boat at all.

So I went to newly concocted Plan B, which was using a 90 degree corner form with a radius to match the bow point. With this set up, the rub strip was bent a bit too much, but with a pipe clamp turned into a pusher, I pushed the sucker into place. Then marked the screw holes with an awl, drilled pilot holes and screwed it in place. Then rest of the side rub strips followed....albeit it slowly...one hole at a time. Each side was done with two 6' pieces as I was too cheap to pay the ridiculous shipping costs of 12' pieces. In the end, it all worked out as it would have been nearly impossible to handle 12' pieces and do the finesse work at the ends.

The end at the transom was finished with a formed end like the splash rails. I think I may add another screw hole about an inch from the aft end as there about 3" of rub strip past the last screw and it might be subject to getting caught up on something and bent. I couldn't be happier with the look of the rub strips. All my worry beads about the look at the bow, the joint fits, and end treatment have been taken care of.

All's Well That Ends Well

2011-03-28T11:09:00.017-04:00

For the stainless steel rub rail, I decided to use the 1/2" wide, half oval type since at the back of the boat, the edge is not wide enough for a wider strip. It also seemed like it would be a better look on a small boat. However, there doesn't seem to be any ready made end spears available, so I experimented with shaping and forming the end until I got what I wanted. So here's what I came up with:

1) Cut strip to length by clamping strip in some wood blocks and then in a vice. Cutting with a saws-all with a metal cutting blade.

2) Grinding the end to a rounded shape on the bench grinder.

3) Filing the back side flat to remove grinding burrs and flatten edges.

4) Laying strip on vice with end hanging off about 1/2" and forming (pounding away) with a ball peen hammer until underside was flat.

5) Polishing with Dremel tool using abrasive rubber polisher.

6) Final polish with fine grit abrasive pads (1800 to 4000 grit).

After the end was formed, an additional screw hole was drilled about an inch from the end using the drill press and press vice. A spring loaded center punch was used to mark the hole start and avoid wandering. A hole was drilled and then a countersink reamer until the screw head fit.

For the leading end of the splash rail, I made a form to bend the rub strip to fit. Clamping to the form and gently bending the strip by hand the yield point could be felt. With a few gentle bends and being careful not to bend it at the screw holes did the trick. The splash rails took a good part of a day to do, but the result is quite nice, I think.

No Longer Shiftless

2011-03-25T13:01:00.004-04:00

Previous to cutting in the hatches, I worked on making the cut in my deck for mounting the throttle/shift control. While I had originally planned to get a stainless steel metal bezel made, my fellow boat builder Ted suggested that I make a wood bezel....great idea! I decided that a two piece bezel would provide a tighter fit and cover up the "dogbone" look of the deck cut out.

Starting with a mock up "box" to mount the controller, I developed the cut out hole that would allow installing the controller levers up through the hole. This mock-up work provided lots of procrastination time from cutting into the real deck and was worth the trouble. After figuring out the cut-out hole size and shape, I used scraps from the deck planking to make the bezel. The deck edge was used to trace a gentle curve to the long edges as a rectangular bezel just didn't look right with all the curves of the boat.

After making the bezel it looked like it might interfere with where I might want to locate the windshield bracket, so I decided to move the controller outboard 3/4". So an auxiliary extender piece was made to add to the carling to shift the shifter and better reinforce the mounting holes. Finally, I put some blue tape on the deck, laid out the hole, "took a brave pill" and drilled a couple of big a*# holes in the deck. Using a hand saw I cut between the holes. Bla, bla, bla, ...look at the pictures.

The first photo shows the mock-up box, the second the deck cutout and the bezel split apart. The third has the bezel located around the shifter and the fourth the extender piece underneath that was added.

Time Hatch Come Today....

2011-03-23T10:54:00.009-04:00

Can't put it off another day.... to misquote the Chambers Bros. song. I ran out of other things to work on so I finally had to come to grips with whacking a big hole in the deck of my boat. First, the screws and shims that had held the hatch frames in place were removed. Then holes were drilled from underneath at the corners of the hatches to define the margins. Once underway, it seemed like no big deal. The first picture shows the hatch frames put in place before the subdeck and cover planks.

After finding the corners, I blue taped over the margin areas and drew the margin lines with the aid of a yard stick. With a sabre saw, I cut just the hinge margins, cut the hinges to length and mounted the hinges. Then the remaining fore and aft margins were cut to remove the hatch in one piece.

After cleaning up the edges on the hatch and hatch opening, support pieces were made to support the hatches when closed. These pieces were screwed in place on the boat. Then the hatch center margin was cut on the table saw and back to the boat to install the hinges again.

The center margin and underlying supports were trimmed with a bevel to provide swing clearance when opening.

Secondary latch catches were installed on the underneath side of one hatch and then the perimeter banding was cut and installed.

I still have the primary latch/handle that needs to be installed.

Update: The last picture shows primary latch installed. The latch plate will need to be extended since the latch location is too far away from the margin due to not wanting to interfere with perimeter banding.

In the Groove

2011-03-22T13:30:00.004-04:00

I filled the gaps on my sample board with white pigmented and thickened epoxy to see how it will look and to practice the application. After using blue tape to tape off the boards, I mixed a 5 pump batch of epoxy. A 1/2 tsp. of white pigment was mixed in and then a few spoonfuls of white silica to thicken. Then the batch was loaded into a blank caulking tube, the nozzle cut and I pumped the goo into the gaps.

The mixture was a little soupy and I ended up squeegeeing the excess off. After cure there were a couple of low spots that might be from a void underneath and the goo slumped into the void. Dunno, but overall it looks good. It definately was good to practice and have an idea what I'm going to do for real on the boat when the time comes for that step.

The pictures are of the sample board sitting on the bow of the boat.

Almost Finished

2011-03-07T14:47:00.003-05:00

With the first coat of epoxy on the deck it looks almost finished....but the final finishing as well as quite a few other things are left to do.

After brushing on a coat of epoxy quite a few air bubbles formed. I tried using a heat gun to lower the viscosity, but it brought out even more bubbles which didn't seem to help. So then I dragged a piece of foam roller over the surfaces and it took out a lot of bubbles. Then I left the room before I totally messed it all up. Overall, it looks pretty good and its exciting to see how the boat is going to look.

Before I invest any more time into finishing, the next items to get done are cutting out the hatch and getting the throttle/shift control mounted and trimmed. It will be mentally difficult to cut holes into what looks nice just the way it is. At some point the gaps between the planks will get caulked with white pigmented and thickened epoxy. I did a trial of that on one of my sample boards and it came out pretty good. More on that later.

Deck Staining

2011-03-04T10:35:00.004-05:00

When we put in a patio I thought I would never have to stain a deck again.... After hand sanding all the deck surfaces with 220 grit, some vacumming, wipe down and room clean-up it was time to mask and stain. A bit of blue tape, plastic and masking paper and I was ready to have at it.
After staining everything, there were some blothy spots around one of the perimeter planking joints and a couple of sanding scratches on that same side. After letting it sit overnight, I still was not satisfied with those areas. So I hand sanded again with 220 grit one whole side, cleaned it up and restained. Its good enough now to move on. Looks pretty cool even if I say so myself.

Working On the Edge

2011-02-23T09:50:00.005-05:00

After gluing on the molding around the cockpit and motorwell area, it was time for a bit of edging. I needed a roundover bit bigger than 1/8" and smaller than 1/4", so after returning from the Rockler store with both 5/32" and 3/16" roundover bits I was ready to proceed. I ended up with the 5/32" for rounding off the interior edges. For the outer edge of the boat planking, I used a 1/4" but since the deck slopes, the bearing guide rode off the edge so far as to do very little on the aft end of the boat past the dash. That ended up being manual file and sanding to put on the radius. The 1/2" wide stainless steel rubstrip will fit just under the radius on the planking edge and hide the edge of the plywood subdeck and protect the edge from bumps.

Then it seemed like it was time to put on the rear splash rails. I routered a 1/8" roundover on the outer edges of the splash rails on my router table, sanded the surfaces and put on two coats of epoxy. The boat was prepared for the epoxy mess by using duct tape above and below the bond line. The bonding surface was roughed up with 8o grit paper. The splash rails were also protected from excess epoxy by a liberal use of duct tape.

After the epoxy set, the duct tape was removed and a bit of clean up work remains.

I think the next task is final hand sanding of the deck before staining the perimeter planking and king (center) planks.

Faking It

2011-02-15T13:31:00.006-05:00

In order to determine my plan for the deck planking appearance, I made up some sample boards from the scrap cut offs. I did one set in natural colors on one board. On another longer piece of plywood, I made two sample sets, one with the perimeter and king plank dyed a dark brown and another with perimeter and king plank in a vintage cherry redish dye. I put on a couple coats of epoxy and after a review with my aesthetic advisor, we agreed that the reddish dye was more interesting and seemed to bring out the grain better than the dark brown. The all natural was too much the same. To get a preview of the look of the boat, I set the selected sample on the bow and propped up a mirror behind it to give the appearance of the front of the boat. With the choice made, it was back to getting the decking ready for staining (using a water based dye product).

The first thing to do was plugging the screws for the perimeter planking and king planks. The steel screws used during glue-up were removed, holes bored deeper, silicon bronze screws installed and then wood plugs epoxied in. Plugs were made from cutoffs from the boards used in each place. After setting the plugs were cut flush and sanded.

Then I worked on the outer perimeter, getting the plywood subdeck and planking layer flush to the sides with a vertical edge about 3/4" high. This edge will allow enough surface for a 1/4" radius on the top edge and then a 1/2" stainless steel rubstrip. I had to do some epoxy fill-in at the aft end of the boat where I had previously over cut the plywood due to the tumblehome of the rear sides of the boat. The edge lays over slightly as it approaches the transom so the rub strip will twist a bit towards the transom.

The next order of business was sanding. I took my small belt sander to the whole deck and sanded down any high spots along the king plank edges and over the whole boat to fix quite a few places where the grain was running upwards causing some surface tearout. Then it was a progression with the random orbital sander through 80, 100, 120 and 150 grit paper. A rather small paragraph to explain a whole day of tedious work.

I decided to make a thin molding about 3/16" thick and 3/4" wide to go around the inside of the cockpit and motor well areas to cap the planking boards ends and edges. While simple in concept, it is a bit more involved to fit tight and get around the radiused corners. I made a couple of glue-up jigs to create the molding in the corners. I traced the radius on a piece of plywood, cut it out on the bandsaw, and screwed it down to a scrap board. On the table saw from the planking scraps, I cut about 8" long strips about 0.060" thick, ran hot water over a piece and then formed it into the corner on the boat, taped it in place and let it dry. Then laminated a couple of pieces at a time in the jig using water proof Titebond glue. After a while I had 4 corner moldings that almost fit. The molding is in seven pieces around each opening. The picture shows the epoxy and clamping of the side pieces and a center piece. Then the corners and remaining pieces. Let's hope it all looks good in the end.

All Hands on Deck

2011-01-18T15:17:00.007-05:00

The next task in the deck planking was to fit and epoxy down all the longitudinal planks. Beginning at the center king plank, I worked my way outward fitting and "clamping" each board in place using 3/16" fender washers with #8 round head sheet metal screws 3/4" long. I used the grid lines already on the subdeck to establish hold downs every 4" along each plank. A pilot hole was drilled prior to putting in a screw. Where the leading edge of a plank mated to the perimeter cover boards, a rough angle cut was made on the chop saw or band saw. Then holding the plank in place, a final line was marked using a spacer. I sanded to the line on my 1" stationary belt sander. (Actual work took a lot longer than writing about it.)

A box of 100 washers allowed me to get two or three rows done on each side of the boat at a time. I used pieces of luan plywood as spacers which happen to measure 3/16" thick. Once I had a batch ready to go, all screws were removed and the unthickened epoxy spread on the subdeck areas to be glued and the underneath side of each plank. Then thickened epoxy was spread on each plank and the plank put in place. The washer/screws were hand started and then beginning at the forward end, spacers put in place and the screws tightened to lock the plank in place.

After a set of planks were fit and screws tightened, the spacers were removed so they wouldn't get bonded in place. I put in some 3/16" tile spacers just to make sure nothing moved, but they were not necessary. After the epoxy set overnight, the screws and washers were removed. Any washer that stuck to the wood was unstuck with a chisel. I put the rounded edge of the spacer towards the wood to reduce the chance of marking the wood and helping with removal if stuck.

The process was tedious and my shoulder hurt at times from holding the cordless screwdriver, but seeing the deck transform from boring to way cool was worth all the fuss. It took four days of work but I'm ready to move on to the next step if I can figure out what that is. On the last day of epoxy work I made some sample boards with planking scraps so I can experiment with staining, finishing, and gap filling.

However, I have a few more screws to remove first.

Stacking the Deck

2011-01-04T13:33:00.005-05:00

The first step in the deck planking process was laying out the lines on the subdeck plywood so I could figure out what wood I needed to do the job. I drew in a 2" grid pattern on the sub-deck to ensure that the center planking would be symetrical. Using a batten, I drew in the perimeter cover board lines to follow the carlings aft of the dash and stay a "constant distance off the shear line" forward of the dash. I made the first line drawn on the forward deck (that I liked) the "master" and copied it to the other side. There is a slight difference in distance to the shear line from one side to the other, but not enough to worry about.

Then a trip to Armstong millworks to buy some African Mohoghany for the deck planking and then learn how to re-saw. The guys at Armstrong suggested that starting with 4/4 stock planed to as thick as possible (about .90") would be the best approach.

I started with laying out the boards along one side of the boat to determine joint locations to get a 12' long 10" wide board to cover the width and length. Due to the limitations of my shop, the board was cut into the pieces and angles necessary to go around the boat on one side, then each piece re-sawn to create the piece for the opposite side. With a riser kit previously installed on my bandsaw, a new 1/2" wide skip tooth blade, new Olsen "cool blocks" and a 6" tall fence, I started bandsawing the wood for the outer perimeter planking. The piece at the back of the boat was 9 3/4" wide and the re-saw went very, very, slowly, but it worked. Then a few trips through the thickness planer (new blades installed) yielded planks about .34" thick. Using countersunk screws, the first piece was located, beginning at the aft end of the boat and working forward, a joint line established, chop cut on the mitre saw, reinstalled and the next piece cut to fit up against the previous piece.

After the joints were established, the inside line location was transferred from the sub-deck to the underside of the cover boards. In the cockpit and motor opening area, tracing on the underside was straightforward. In other areas the grid pattern was used to re-create the line by tracing the inside edge of the boards onto the grid pattern and measuring to the line intersection at each grid line. Tedious, but it worked. Line was cut on the bandsaw about 1/32" proud and then sanded to the line with a small 1" stationary belt sander. Outer lines were traced, cut, and sanded in a similar manner.

The kingplank down the middle of the boat took a bit of trial and error to find a width that looked "right". I started at 6 1/2" wide, about an inch wider than the perimeter boards in the fore deck area and it seemed too dominant. At 5 1/2" it still seemed too wide, so eventually my aesthetic director concurred with a 4" wide being the "right" width.

The grid pattern helped with cyphering out the width of the longitudinal planks. Eventually settling on 1 7/8" width, and a 3/16" gap. In order to fully utilize the boards I had purchased and not have to go buy more wood, I needed to squeeze four planks from a board width of just under 7 3/4" inch. (Maybe the king plank should have been a bit wider!) This created an opportunity to buy a new tool for the shop - a micro-kerf table saw blade which only cuts a 1/16" wide kerf. After creating a new table saw zero-clearance insert with a splitter, I was all set to cut the planks. The new blade cut like butter and I got all the pieces needed to cover the deck.

The plan at the moment is to stain the perimeter and king planks a darker color to provide greater contrast. Then finish all the planks to seal all the grain and complete the deck using a white pigmented epoxy to fill the gaps.

Now Playing with a Full Deck

2010-12-08T12:40:00.005-05:00

Installing the decking started with locating one of the forward pieces and tracing the support structure onto the underneath side. I decided to use silicon bronze nails to secure the decking as I had purchased the fastening kit from Glen-L which was all nails, but then decided to use screws for the hull. So I had 4 boxes of nails that might as well be put to use. Besides they look cool....like brass rivets. I laid out the holes every 2" per the fastening schedule. Then I applied two coats of epoxy to the underneath side. After cure, I predrilled all the holes in the decking using a 1/8" drill. All bonding surfaces were sanded and epoxy applied to decking and boat, then locating screws secured. Then I drilled 3/32" pilot holes and pounded in nails three at a time, working from the center outward. I used a small sledge as a backer where I could reach as the battens were a bit bouncy in the center of spans.

Second verse same as the first for the other front decking piece. The rear pieces were located and the butt joint cut to fit. An 8" long backer piece had been previously made to fit between the carling and shear to back up the butt joint. It was screwed and epoxied in place to the front piece of decking prior to installing the rear section.

I had a bit of a delay for installing the first rear section since I inadvertantly epoxied the top side rather than putting the second coat to the underneath side. Oops. After installing the front pieces with a few clamps along the outer edges, later I discovered the outer edges were not always tight to the shear and clamps were needed the whole distance to ensure that the plywood was in firm contact. So I rigged up a way to provide clamp pressure and put on clamps after all nailing was completed. At the back of the boat due to the slope of the deck, I used a couple of "third hand" pusher poles working from the ceiling down.

After all pieces were installed, I trimmed the outside edges with handsaw, plane and file to get them close to the sides. Trimming the inside edges will be another day. Top sides were sanded and a coat of epoxy applied to help reduce splintering when the inside edges get trimmed.

I was on the fence between appearance and weight. The lowest weight option is a plywood deck with a paint scheme to hide joints and mimic planking strips, but the best looking option is to plank over the plywood with solid wood about 1/4" thick and make it look like a big boy wood boat. The solid wood option I estimate to add about 20-25 lbs. After putting on a coat of epoxy I see that the rear half of the Okoume plywood decking is considerably darker in color than the front. The color difference was not apparent before finish, but with a coat of epoxy, the difference in color is quite noticeable on one side. So it looks like this decking will be the sub-deck and it will be time to go pick out some more african mohogany for the top side. BTW, my aesthetic director agrees that the solid wood deck is the way to go and if the boat's too heavy, she said I can lose 20 pounds.

Escape from the Basement - The Sequel

2010-11-29T14:22:00.011-05:00

Here's the moving crew: my son Bill, fellow boatbuilder Ted, me, friend Rick (who stopped in for a visit from out of town and got roped into this) and my daughter's boyfriend Brett.

After numerous inquiries about whether I was sure this boat would be able to be taken out of the basement, I was no longer sure. After some discussions with my friend Ted, the only sure way to know was to take the boat out of the basement. Since I didn't want to move it to the garage yet and lose my garage for the winter, the plan was to bring it up and take it back down. At this stage of the build, the boat does not have decking and is easier to handle and at least 30 pounds lighter than it will be finished. The back of the boat weighs in at 120 lb. and the front 82 lb. for a total of 202 lbs. at this point. The problem area is at the top of the stairs where the kitchen starts about 4' from the door opening. You can see this angled cupboard that is protected by a movers blanket. My mock-up done before I started the boat construction made it out OK, so now it was time for the real thing.

Since I have a buddy in the tape business, I was able to procure a roll of tape used to protect painted surfaces. I covered the sides of the boat with the tape which afforded some protection without any bulk.

It was time to move the boat to the base of the stairwell. This went fairly easily, but it does take a bit of muscle power to get the boat on its side and ready for the launch up the stairwell.

Then it was up into the stairway keeping the transom low to avoid hitting the ceiling as the boat started the journey up.

The boat emerged out of the top of the stairs and made it into the kitchen! Just like I planned it....never a doubt.

Then just for more enjoyment, the moving crew reversed the process and put the boat back into the basement so it can be made heavier and more awkward for the final trip.

Now when someone asks "Will it make it out of the basement?" I can honestly state that it already did.

BTW, this trial also proved that I cannot build a larger boat in my basement - it is rather close to NOT making it out.

Inside Job

2010-11-29T13:58:00.003-05:00

I finally got around to putting a clear finish on the inside of the boat to protect the epoxy from UV sunlight degradation. I sanded all the surfaces that would be exposed to sunlight and got them smooth. I used Top Secret Coatings Revolution 1000 in clear. They recommended a hardner and a different thinner than what was used for the paint. I mixed up a pint of the clear with about .7 oz. of hardner and and about 1.5 oz. of thinner. I applied the coating with foam brushes. I used 3 of them to get the first coat on since they turned to mush after awhile. (The white material seen in the top photo is a protective tape used to protect painted surfaces. I put it on after about a week of drying time so I could step into the boat without marring the surface.)

I covered the batch of finish and waited 2 hours for the first coat to dry to touch and then applied a second coat. The second coat went on heavier than the first probably due to some evaporation of the thinner. If I had to do it over again, I would add some more thinner for the second coat. I think the finish is acceptable for an inside job, but there are a few sags and some small rough surface "pips" which might be solvent pops or possibly from some residual sanding dust.

Shall I Cut the Deck?

2010-09-13T13:21:00.006-04:00

My plan is to get the boat out of the basement before putting on the deck plywood so it will be somewhat easier to handle and slightly lighter. But, there isn't any reason not to go ahead with doing the rough cutting and fitting. After a bit of sketching of how to cut the pieces, it seemed the only way to get the front deck pieces out of one sheet of plywood was to use the factory edge down the centerline of the boat starting about 18" in from the end. The opposite side piece would use the other side of the sheet but the sheet would be flipped over to fit the mirror image piece. I plan on having a natural wood finish on the deck using just the plywood but with a paint graphic band down the center to hind the seam. Luckily, the plywood has veneer that looks very similar in grain and color on both sides of the sheet. The first sheet of deck plywood is not supposed to stop at the dash or any frame, but continue as far as possible along the carling and sheer as not to create a weak spot. After positioning the full sheet down the centerline of the boat and clamping it in place, a line was traced on the underneath side to show where to cut it. A 1/4" thick scrap piece was used to offset the pencil mark to allow at least a 1/4" overhang at all edges. Then the sheet was taken off the boat and set up in my shop for cutting with a jig saw. I quit for the day at that point to sleep on it before cutting.

Some blue tape was put beside the cut line which minimized any tear out of the veneer and helped visualize the line to be cut. The firse piece went well as did the second. Putting them both on the boat confirmed that the color and grain look very similar between the two halves.

The next task was the back halves. The first one was marked and was left overnight just in case there was something I was overlooking. Nope, cut it and it fit. Tried it on the other side and it fit there too. So I used it as a pattern for the other side. I left overlaps between the front and back pieces to give me some adjustment when finally glued and attached.

Head Scratched - Protection Added

2010-09-01T12:23:00.012-04:00

After some discussions with my fellow boat builder Ted, it would appear that the side wood strips at the rear of several boats like ours have been added not necessarily as splash rails but as protection against bumps. The shape of the side of our boats at the rear makes bottom edge of the boat prominent and susceptible to getting bumped and marred. A rubstrip along the shearline would be ineffective at the rear. However, since the boat side twists, getting something to fit takes a bit of head scratching.

I decided to build some stationary assists for fitting these bumper strips. I used the 2x6's from the forms and cut vertical pieces at the planned front and rear height and connected with a stringer at floor level. I then split them in half on the table saw so I could make one for each side of the boat. They were attached to the ping-pong table and then belt clamped underneath the boat to bring the verticals tight to the boat.

A 2" wide board was cut to rough length and placed up to the side of the boat. It was placed so it gapped about 3/8" at the front and a like amount at the rear. Then using a scrap piece of wood about 1/4" thick and 1 1/2" square, I sanded a chisel edge so it would ride up against the boat along the board. I drilled a small hole 3/8" in from the edge to allow a pencil point to project through. I laid this piece flat on the board and pushed it up against the boat side and traced a line on top of the board, and then repeated this on the underneath side.

I then took the board to the band saw and cut a line in from the edge every four inches and rotate it as needed to cut to the marked lines top and bottom. Then I set the band saw table to the initial angle needed and cut off four inches at a time and readjusted the table angle as I went along. This cut a spiral shaped surface along a curved line of sorts. Then a trial fit and some filing - some more filing - sanding - filing - and it got close to fitting - sort of.

Then duct tape was put on the side of the boat so epoxy would not adhere. Some scraps were put underneath with more duct tape to catch any epoxy drips. A batch of well thickened epoxy using the brown fairing filler was put on the board and clamped to the boat and allowed to cure. It took some mallet hits to get the board lose after cure but it appears to now have a surface that matches the boat. Filing of top and bottom sides of the board should clean up the excess epoxy.

This last picture shows the epoxied surface, which is now a curved line with a spiral twist - you can kind of see that in the photo.

I'll do the other side and then determine the final shape or line to cut the outside of the board. It will probably end up being a straight taper - narrow at the front and gradually getting wider toward the rear of the boat. I decided to reinforce the sides at each screw attachment point with another piece of 1/4" plywood. To keep it simple and light, a flycutter was used to cut some 1.5" diameter "washers" from 1/4" plywood. These were epoxied in place on the inside of the boat and held in place with a screw and a temporary duct taped block on the outside of the boat. I am not going to permanently attach these rails until the boat is out of the basement. Hate to add any unaccounted for width.

After a bit a trying different lines, a straight line did not work as it made the forward foot or so look like it bulged out due to the shape of the boat side. So I used a strip of plywood to create a curved line and cut it on the band saw and sanded out the bumps and saw lines it until I had a smooth surface.

I plan on putting a 1/2" or 2/4" wide stainless steel rubstrip along the outer edge.

I'm Floored.

2010-08-31T11:31:00.004-04:00

After a bit of consulting with my aesthetic director, she decided the best looking flooring option was additional battens added between the existing ones. A piece of plywood added over the battens was not attractive and not adding battens made it unclear to anyone that would get in the boat whether to step on a batten or on the hull plywood.

The 6 additional battens were cut and edges routered on the top side. Then with some pencil mark-ups on fitting to the floor, a stationary belt sander made quick work of getting them to fit to the floor. The creative use of clamps as spreaders and some other contraptions allowed the battens to be pushed tight to the floor while the thickened epoxy cured. I could only do 2 or 3 at a time due to limited number of clamps that could be made into spreaders. The floor looks a bit like flattened organ foot pedals without the black keys.

Throttle/Shift Controller Arrives - Finally!

2010-08-28T18:00:00.004-04:00

Back in early July after advertising on the Antique Outboard Motor Club website that I needed a controller, I got a response from a guy in New Jersey that he had a Green Quicksilver manual two lever controller with cables that would be the right length for a Squirt and the appropriate vintage for my motor. He actually had it on a Squirt some years back. We agreed on a price, I sent a check and started waiting for the package to arrive. I made some follow-up calls to him and he said he was trying to track down the package with the post office. After several weeks and a few interim calls, I called ready to ask for a refund and he said the post office never did find it in their system but over the weekend a soggy box with all the addresses blurred arrived back at his shop. It was my wayward controller. He repackaged it and sent it UPS this time and gave me the tracking number. I tracked it on the UPS website right to my door and it only took 3 days.

It's all there and the cables hook up to the engine as it's supposed to. After playing around with various potential locations, it seems that the best location is between the carling and the shear just aft of the dash. If mounted low on the side it has to be on the floor for the levers to clear and it's not a comfortable place while seated in the boat. Inboard of the carling, the cables are exposed and its right where my knee wants to be. This means the decking will need a cutout for the levers to protrude through. Other Squirt builders have mounted it there and now I see why.

The cables have the necessary connectors for hook-up to the motor and are about 9' long. They may be a bit long but it all seems to work. He included an extra set of cables that are about 11' long just in case.

Hang on a Minute - I Gotta' Drain It

2010-08-23T10:18:00.006-04:00

There comes a time when the pressure builds and you just gotta' do something that you have put off too long....like putting drain plugs in a boat. The thought of drilling big holes in the transom scared the heck out of me, but I couldn't put it off any longer. After contemplating and procrastinating, I reviewed the cross-section of the transom to determine the lowest point in the transom I could drill a perpendicular hole and not breach the plywood bottom planking. I also looked at photo's on this blog to see where I had located screws to hold on the bottom planking near the keel as I did not want to drill into one.

I then decided to bore a guide hole in a 2x6 and clamp it to the inside of the transom and another scrap board to the outside to prevent break-out when I drilled through. The first hole when well, and then I moved to the other side of the keel and located the hole and drilled another pilot hole in the 2x6 in the right location. The pictures show the second hole about to be drilled.

I tried to insert the drain sleeve into the hole from the outside, but it was too snug. I used a rotary drum sander to open it up slightly until the sleeve would ease in. Then I marked the sleeve with a Sharpie to leave it about 1/8" long. I removed the sleeve and a tubing cutter was used to cut it off. The sleeves were filed slightly around the outside to provide some fine scratches to ensure a good bite. Epoxy was mixed and coated the inside of the holes. Then some high density #404 filler added to thicken it up and smeared into the holes. The sleeves were inserted fully from the outside and I rigged up a bolt with large washers in each one to make sure they were held firmly in the hole while the epoxy cured.

The next day, I used a small ball peen hammer and slowly peened the brass sleeve over to provide a flange on the inside of the boat. The drain plugs fit in nicely and it's all good.

Hatching a Plan

2010-08-18T12:31:00.006-04:00

At a car and boat show in Franklin, MI there was a "Curley Craft" wood boat with the type of hatch I am building on my boat. Incidently, "Curley Craft" boats were produced at Northwestern Boat Co. on 10 Mile at Evergreen. The place is still there selling boats, outboards etc. and providing marine services, but they no longer build boats.

A three sided frame was built and added into the space to create the hatch surround. The rear beam was doubled up to provide enough surface for the plywood decking.

Then I traced the curvature of the rear beam and made a single hatch assembly that will later be cut into two hatches after the decking plywood is installed.

The hatch is mounted into position using some shims, duct tape on top to prevent drips of epoxy from gluing them in) to equally space it in the hole. The plan is that once the decking is in place, holes will be drilled up from the bottom at the corners to define the margins and then sawcut out the hatch. The side margins will be cut first and the hinges installed (while its perfectly aligned) and then the remainder cut out. Then the hinges can be removed and the hatch cut into two pieces and finished out. Stainless steel banding will cover all the margins.

Decking Structure

2010-07-20T15:00:00.007-04:00

After flipping the boat, it was time to figure out what to do next. The carlings had to go in as they provide the structure for between the main deck beam and the transom. After planing some honduras mohogany down to 5/8" thick, it did not want to bend into position so I got out the soaking pipe and rigged it into the stairwell again and soaked the wood for a day. I rigged up some extensions so the carlings could be pulled into the proper curve above the boat, let dry, and then marked and trimmed to fit. It required some creeping up on compound angle cuts until the angles and length were slowly tuned in.

A mid-front deck beam was added per the plans and then I decided to create an auxiliary dash beam to support the deck strongback (longitudinal middle support) and deck battens so the dash could be made removable while designing and fitting in place. The dash is at a 20 degree angle and I'm using Teleflex steering "The Rack" mounted upside down so the cable routes inward and loops under the deck following Squirt builders Bill & Linda Whitney in Glen-L's WebLetter 65.

I did a lot of playing around with mocked up seat boards after getting the steering wheel in place to determine seat fore-aft location. Then after a lot of circular thinking and planning, eventually built the seat bottom and put in a couple of holes for holding drinks or whatever. With the seat bottom in place I can finalize the seat back angle and mid deck beam.

In order to use a scrap piece of 1/4" plywood for the seat, I rabbeted the seat bottom frames and deck beam to utilize an 8' long strip of plywood only 12 1/2" wide. I used a forstner bit to bore some half round drain holes at the junction of the seat bottom and seat back to allow any water that gets on the seat to drain through. I plan on having upholstered seat cushions at some point, but wanted a functional and structural seat in place without the cushions.

With the motor mounted I figured out where to place the rear most beam while allowing a 6 gallon gas tank to be loaded in between the beam and transom and slid into the corner. It's a bit tricky due to the transom knee, but can be done. I'm planning to build a two door hatch in the deck that opens from the center and hinges to each side. The thought is to allow the center of the boat to open up without the hatch lids being in the way and permit easier access to the outboard since it is a manual start. I also am planning the hatch to allow loading a 6 gallon tank as once all the remote connections to the outboard are mounted, I'm not sure if the back will still be easily accessed. I added the corner radius reinforcements to the opening and added short beam extensions to tie the rear beam and carling to the shear. With these bits in place, the improvement in rigidity of the structure is amazing. I'm working on the corner radius pieces at the dash and then it will be time to tackle the hatches.

Flip It...Flip it Good

2010-06-08T10:19:00.008-04:00

The time for the flip finally arrived! To have some music to flip by, listen to Devo "Whip It" and think "Flip It". Here are the lyrics I put together for it:

Crack that flip

Give your boat a slip

Step on a tack

Break your flippin' back

When your project comes along

You must flip it

Before the dream sits out to long

You must flip it

With someone very strong

You must flip it

Now flip it
Into shape

Top side up

Get straight

Go forward

Move ahead

Try to protect it
Its not too late
To flip it

Flip it good

When the right time comes around

You must flip it
You will never live it down

Unless you flip it

No one gets away

Until they flip it

I say flip it

Flip it good

I say flip it

Flip it good

(Repeat from beginning)

The boat was readied for flipping by drilling 1" holes in the box that bow sat on and inserting a pipe clamp with a turnbuckle inserted around the pipe to provide a pivot point. I then rigged that up to a come-along to lift the bow. The plan was to rotate the boat like on a spit. The rear of the boat was place on a salvaged oak bannister rail and jack stands. A rope was also suspended from the ceiling joists as support during the flip.

The forms were removed from underneath the boat, the cradle put in place and with Ted and Roger doing the heavy lifting, we began the flip.

The oak support was removed and the rope and cradle used to provide a rest at half flip.

The boat now rests on the cradle and a new phase of construction is about to begin!

Mark 25 Remote Shift Linkage

2010-05-28T13:30:00.003-04:00

I was reviewing my blog yesterday and noticed that I had a comment posted back in April from a reader wanting more detail on my Mark 25 shift linkage as his was purchased in pieces. Here are a couple of pictures and I hope it helps. I put some carpet foam that happened to be nearby under the linkage so the details would not be obscured by background stuff. There is a anchor bracket that is held by the nut holding on the steering bail and the pivot bracket is as shown. I do not yet have a remote shift/throttle control and cables yet, so I'm in the hunt for that stuff. I took a quick look at my pre-1965 Mercury service manual and it shows pictures and instructions for cable hook-up when I get to that point. I found the parts manual on line at the Western New York chapter of the AOMCI website. http://pub9.bravenet.com/photocenter/album.php?usernum=737212788&album=49514#bn-photocenter-1-1-737212788/49514/1/116515/

Outboard Lake Testing

2010-05-25T13:36:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day and time to give the outboard some time on the water. My son Bill and daughter Katy joined me for some time on the lake. We loaded up the motor and went over to my friend Ted's house and after a bit of switch-er-roo, put my motor on his aluminum fishing boat. Unfortunately, the transom center motorboards were about 1/8" too thick to mount my outboard. So we put it to the side of center where there was a trolling motor mount.

The one issue with the motor is the recoil starter pawls aren't flipping out and engaging the flywheel reliably. This often results is half the rope pulling out before anything happens. So the first start was a bit difficult. Hopefully removal of the recoil unit and a bit of lubrication will fix it. Luckily, Bill is young and strong so he kept pulling and I tweaked the choke until it fired up and ran.

We had a nice couple of hours on the lake. Bill's GPS said our max speed was 21.7 mph! I'm sure with the motor in the center of the transom, some tilt adjustments, height adjustments, and tossing a child overboard, we could have gone faster!

Painting the Bottom

2010-05-17T09:40:00.010-04:00

The day of painting the bottom finally arrived! The night before, I masked off the sides and transom with 12" paper mask and 2" blue tape about an inch below where I wanted the paint line. Then I used 2" wide green FROG tape and masked the line I wanted for the paint line and overlapped the blue tape.

Sunday morning, I stirred up the Top Secret Coatings primer and poured out about 20 ounces into a quart mixing cup and added a couple of oz. of thinner and stirred some more. Then I poured half of it into a roller pan reusing one of the the same plastic liners I had used for epoxy. Using an ultra smooth foam roller, I rolled on the primer.

Then I stuck the roller in a plastic bag and wrapped it up tight.

After 2 hours, I poured the remainder of the thinned primer into another roller pan liner and put on another coat of primer. After another 2 hours, there were some thin spots, so I mixed another 12 oz. of primer and put on a third coat. By this time the whole house smelled pretty bad even though I had all the vent windows open in the basement and windows opened on the first floor as well. The paint is an oil based paint so it has a strong smell of paint thinner. So I spent some time outside putting down mulch.

I came back after another 2 hours and hand sanded the primer with 220 grit paper. It sanded very easily and the vacuum had to be used simultaneously to keep the dust from accumulating. The sanding flattened any orange peel or bumps. A thorough vacuuming and wipe down and it was color coat time.

I stirred the Tom Secret Coatings paint, Surf City Blue (#475), and poured out about 12 oz. and thinned with 2 oz. of thinner. Then I rolled away. Note the selection of old blue painting shirt to minimize the appearance of paint on the shirt! All went well with the painting. It seemed to go on best with a fairly slow roll to minimize the creation of bubbles on the surface. After fiddling with a few thin areas it seemed to be time to leave before I messed it up. I came back after about an hour and removed the FROG tape before things were dry to ensure it would remove cleanly. It may not be the best choice of tape as it was beginning to raise in spots after primer so I had to rub it back down. When removed, it left the adhesive on the epoxy surface, but not on the blue tape surface. The next morning, I was able to roll up the adhesive off of the epoxy surface, but its a rather slow process. Paint brings out imperfections, so I was pleased to see that the surfaces and lines of the boat still look good. Some of the radii along the chine are inconsistent, but overall, not bad for a first timer, if I say so myself.

After three coats of paint and a week of cure time, I sanded the bottom with an orbital sander using 220 grit. After cleaning, I rolled on another coat of paint and used a section of foam roller (see picture) to "tip it" off like I did on the epoxy and help level out the orange peel texture. This tip-off provided a smoother looking finish than just leaving the rolled on paint. After a day of cure, one more coat, but this time I rolled half the boat, did the tip-off with the roller section and then did the other half so the paint was wetter. The next day I declared it done. It is not glass smooth as there are "brush marks" and some orange peel look in areas where the tip-off was too light, but no sags. But most of it will never be seen anyway. The pictures here are after the first three coats. Later pictures in the Flip It blog are final finish.

Tip off tool.

Epoxy, Sand, Clean - Repeat

2010-04-28T12:28:00.008-04:00

After the fiberglass cloth is on the boat, the process of building up the level of epoxy begins. It took about 3 coats to get the thickness up out of the cloth in all areas and begin to smooth out. The first couple of applications tend to take on the texture of denim. It then must be sanded smooth before the next coat is applied. Washing the boat between coats was done with a bit of dish detergent and some vinegar in warm water. After that a couple of rinses with wet toweling and a bucket of water to keep it rinsed out.

I decided to put a wood skeg fin down the center of the bottom to provide directional stability. Reading on the Glen-L website there were builders that added them later due to getting stuck in wake troughs and having bad things happen. The alternative is a small metal fin in the center of the boat that is about 8" long and 4-5" deep, but these are prone to damage if a boat is beached or in shallow water. Since a wood skeg fin is also somewhat prone to damage, I read that white oak is a preferred material for it hardness and rot resistance.

I called up my friend Kevin, who is a timber framer and asked if he had a bit of white oak. Since he wanted to see my boat, he offered the board as admission price. We thicknessed planed it and it was more than enough for the job. The skeg is about 5 ft long and tapers from 2" tall at the back to 1/2" at the front. It is held on with 5 - #10 x 2" long screws countersunk and plugged with white oak plugs. I tapered the trailing end to hopefully eliminate any water disturbance that might cause prop cavitation.

The other finesse job needed was squaring up the bottom to transom corner to eliminate potential porpoising. I duct taped a board and clamped it to the transom to provide a dam for the epoxy. A batch of epoxy with microglass fibers was mixed up and squeegeed along the edge. After cure, it was sanded down to match with the bottom and transom surfaces leaving a very crisp corner.

Another coating of epoxy was needed and before the last couple of coats I actually read the bag that the foam rollers came in and they showed cutting rollers in half and then into three crescent shaped sections and using them as a touch off "brush" to smooth and take out surface air bubbles. It worked great and made the epoxy much smoother with fewer valleys, sags, ridges,

or surface bubbles.

After several cycles of sanding, cleaning, and epoxying the boat does not look much different in pictures, but the smoothness and depth of the finish has improved.

I made a cradle for the boat to sit on once it is

flipped over. It can be seen leaning against the wall in the photo. Its all from 2x6 lumber, scribed to somewhat match the contours and will sit level. I drilled holes in the corners to accept some large casters that I bought about 30 years ago at an industrial resale shop. Thought they might come in handy someday. Hope this is that "someday"! On garbage night I found a nice clean carpet remnant that I can "recycle" to cover the cradle to protect the boat bottom that hopefully will get painted soon.

The last photo shows a different view to see the skeg and the finish before I began sanding with 120 grit to flatten and get ready for painting.

After a complete sanding with 120 grit paper, it appeared that I may have sanded down to the fiberglass cloth in three spots. Since I won't have time to begin the painting for at least another week, I cleaned and put another coat of epoxy on the whole boat. Hopefully, the last one. The epoxy needs to fully cure for a week before painting, so it should be ready when I am.

Fiberglassing

2010-04-05T12:20:00.008-04:00

Once the boat looked all nice and shiny with perfect wood grain showing through the epoxy finish, it was time to mess it up...big time. So I fiberglass taped and epoxied the joints. I started with the keel joint and used 6" wide tape.

This tape was taped into place with some blue tape to hold it straight and overlapped the transom about an inch. The boat was already prepped for another coat of epoxy, so the fiberglass tape was epoxied and the whole boat got another coat of epoxy. After watching the Glen-L video on how to epoxy a boat, I followed their best practices of taping all joints before using the fiberglass cloth to cover all surfaces. The chine joints were taped and then the transom to bottom and sides were taped. Foam rollers were used to saturate the tape with epoxy. I found a 3" roller worked the best as quite a bit of rolling pressure is needed.

After trying some different epoxy filler to fair in the tape edges and finding sanding difficult, I went and bought some West Systems 407 fairing filler. Since the bottom will be painted, I got over the need to keep the wood pretty and figured I may as well use the right stuff for the application at hand. This filler is supposed to be mohoghany color, but it reminds me of chocolate milk. I slapped it in the areas needed to smooth out the tape transitions and sqeegeed it into a somewhat smooth surface. After curing, sanding with an orbital sander and 80 grit paper worked well and edges could be feathered and surfaces smoothed quite readily. At some point in this process, my wife came down and said "What the Hell?". I quickly explained "It all gets painted later". So it all looked like hell, but was smoother. I kept with just clear epoxy on the sides so I can keep the natural finish, but unthickened epoxy runs and sags like crazy (after you leave the room - just to be sneaky) so its a bit of work to scrape and sand them out.

Then I fiberglassed the transom as suggested in the video to get some practice and confidence. The cloth was cut and taped in place to overlap the bottom by 1-2" and trimmed to fit over the sides a like amount. Corners were smoothed into shape without cutting. Epoxy was rollered in and it all went smoothly. After cure, the edges were sanded down to feather in.

I then laid out the bottom fiberglass cloth on the bottom and trimmed to fit about an inch inside the chine line. My friend Ted said he kept all the cloth overlaps on the bottom of his boat and it simplified the feathering process, so I did mine the same way. I precut the cloth for the sides by splitting lengthwise some 38" wide cloth and rolled it up on shop vac pipes. My daughter's boyfriend, Brett was here for an Easter weekend visit, and since he has fiberglassed a boat before, he was drafted into service. We mixed epoxy, rolled it on the bottom and smoothed out any wrinkles and bumps. Brett mixed more epoxy batches, I rolled, and it progressed quickly. We then pre-coated a side and rolled out and positioned the cloth to overlap the bottom 2-3" and trimmed the ends as needed. We rolled on some more epoxy and worked it into the cloth and then did the final side. My daughter Katy joined in and we had three rollers going. It took about 1 1/2 hours to complete the job. After curing for a few hours, the fiberglass hanging over the edges was trimmed with a utility knife. It felt good to have this major step behind me. Thanks Brett!

It'll Float

2010-03-24T15:07:00.005-04:00

The bottom plywood has been trimmed, planed, filed and sanded. So the planking is now completed. Screw holes have been filled, sanded, filled, sanded, filled...you get the idea. A coat of clear epoxy has been applied to seal the plywood and get ready for fiberglassing the hull. One of the sheets of plywood used for most of the bottom is significantly lighter in color than the others, but since the bottom will get painted, it will not matter.

Now the beauty of the Okoume wood is evident and it looks like a boat! (capsized). I suppose it would float if pressed into service now, but there is a lot more work to do before I can play.

Some Tips and Things Leaned along the way

2010-03-19T10:35:00.005-04:00

Raising the bar: So far I've been happy that I raised the form that the boat frames mount to. The plan says 24" off the floor, but I raised it to 32". With this small boat, I have not found it to be too high. The working level for the sides was good as I could sit on a stool for much of the work and it kept me off my knees. It is easy to get underneath the boat for various checks and bottom installation.

Recycled Ping-Pong Table: This has been a could base for mounting the forms while covering the carpet. Surrounded by 1/4" plywood, it does not move around and is a stable platform. If I had it to do over, I would add a 2x4 reinforcement from side to side directly underneath the form feet. It rocks slightly when pushed from the side as I only have a 2x4 reinforcement down the middle of the tables underneath where the 2x6 mounts down the middle. With the carpet and padding underneath the protective plywood, it flexes a bit underneath my feet and is very comfortable to stand on, unlike cement floors.

Gum Containers: I looked at an empty Eclipse gum container and being a pack rat it looked too good to throw out. So I asked myself, "Self, What could you use this for?" And the self answered, "Screws". They are terrific. The top unscrews for loading, the clear top allows seeing what's inside, it opens as a shaker spout for or the clear top pops open. Way cool. I'm chewing alot of gum now trying to get enough containers for all the different screw sizes. Maybe they should advertise that!

Screw Lube: Sometimes screwing goes better with a little lube...get your mind back on track, we're talking boats here. After breaking a couple of the silicon-brass screws, I started putting a small amount of "Screw-lube" on the tip and the problem went away.

Dry Wall Screws: I used these screws for the temporary screw blocks and while they may be cheap and drive home easily, but they also sometimes break when removed. I didn't learn my lesson and kept using them, and had another three break off when removing the screw blocks on the second front bottom piece.

Broken Screw Removal: When the cheap drywall screws are broken off at the surface with nothing to put a vice grip on, what do you do? They have to come out or they would rust later. After digging through my shop, I found a roll pin with an I.D. about the screw shaft diameter. I filed a short spiral so it would cut the wood around the screw shaft when rotated counter-clockwise. I chucked it up and started pushing and boring around the screw shaft. It would smoke and act like it wasn't going to work until with a bit more brute force it would grab the screw and out it would come. Drilling clockwise into scrap wood would remove the screw shaft so I could reuse it. I used it more than I would have liked.

Beginning at the Bottom

2010-03-15T12:13:00.009-04:00

The first step was bending the forward end of the long battens into position by sawing a horizontal kerf back almost to the frame and then installing screw eyes and turnbuckles to pull them down into position. The kerf was sawn on the table saw before they were epoxied in place.

The fitting of the first bottom piece involved making some measurements to determine if I could start with a half sheet of plywood. The answer was "Yes, but not a perfect rectangle". I needed about 24 1/2" from center line of the keel to the widest part of the side. So I split the 4'x8' sheet with a slight angular cut, 25" wide on one end and 23" on the other using my circular saw and 8' guide board. I positioned the sheet onto the bottom using the factory 90 degree corner straight edge along the centerline of the keel with enough length forward to make it to the tip of the stem. Three positioning screws were put in along the straight portion of the keel. Then screw blocks were started about midway down the side and put in every 3" to pull the bottom down into place. After several blocks were installed, a line could be traced underneath by bumping the panel down into position and marking the underneath side, however the most forward part could only be guessed at because the panel was too stiff to bend into position. Then it was removed, rough cut to shape, and reinstalled.

Then the forward part where it needed to be fit perfectly into a butt joint was marked for another rough cut. The marking was done by putting a heavy coat of purple crayola along the previously fit side edge and then bumping the bottom piece down into the crayola to leave a line marked on the underneath side of the bottom. The panel was removed again and trimmed with the circular saw to within about 1/16" of the crayola line. Back on the boat and the slow process of fitting the forward butt joint was done - inch by inch. My 1" rabbet plane was great for getting the fit pretty close. Files and a paint scraper were also used. As a part of the joint was fit (sitting on the panel would push it into place), another screw block was put in place to bring it home. As the fit progressed, screw blocks were also placed along the stem to bring this side of the panel along. The panel began to overlap the stem as it twisted into position and excess material was cut alway with a handsaw. Every bit of extra panel removed made the bending easier. After about 4 hours of trimming, sitting and fitting, it was in place.

Then all remaining screw hole placements were marked along the chine and keel, the panel removed and screw holes placements were marked for the battens. Countersunk screw holes were then drilled for the remaining chine and keel holes that would not be using screw blocks. Straight holes were drilled for the battens as machine screws would be used for these during glue up. This panel was then temporarily clamped in place upside down on the other side of the boat to make sure it would be a good starting point for the other side. It was. It was traced onto the other half of the plywood.

A coat of epoxy was spread on the underneath side of the panel and all mating surfaces on the framework were coated with epoxy. Then a batch of thickened epoxy was spread on the framework. The forward part of the long batten was un-turnbuckled, the kerf coated with thickened epoxy and then re-turnbuckled into submission. The panel was then placed on the boat, the locating screws put in place and all screw blocks reinstalled. After putting in a couple along the chine in the middle of the boat, I moved forward to the transition joint and ensured that it was all coming togther in the same location, secured a screw block and then filled in the rest moving forward towards the bow. Then remaining holes got silicon-brass screws along the keel and chine. Machine screws #6, 3/4" long were used to secure the battens. A 24" reversible squeeze clamp was converted to a pusher and used from underneath to push the battens up tight to the bottom prior to screwing.

The next day, screw blocks were removed, countersunk holes drilled and 7/8" silicon-brass screws installed. The butt joint looked good with the largest gap being about 1/32". Excess epoxy was cleaned up and the forward part of the panel trimmed along the keel back to centerline or in the most forward part, cut and filed flush with the stem.

Back to the other panel with the traced line from the first panel. A bevel was hand planed on the panel edge where it would butt along the certerline of the keel to the previously installed panel. The bevel would provide a tight fit. Then it was rough cut, put on the boat and the whole fitting process began again. I thought it would be faster, but the keel centerline where the stem begins to curve also had to be precisely fit, and I think I was getting tired. It took forever, just like the first one. No clamps could be used on this one, so I had to make a few more screw blocks. It all came together nicely...epoxing in place would be another day.

The next evening, my friend Rick was recruited again and he dismantled the second bottom piece from the boat while I cleaned off my working table so we could put in screw holes and epoxy away. Rick is now a fully trained professional grade epoxy applicator guy so I've got him ready for helping with fiberglassing the hull. This second bottom piece went in place nicely and a couple of beers were consumed in celebration.

The next part was the last two pieces to finish the bottom. The first step was to make the reinforcing butt pieces for the joint. Pieces of 1/4" plywood were ripped the approximate width to fit between the battens. Each piece is about 9" long. They were then fit, epoxied, clamped and screwed with about 4 each of #8 3/4" screws. Then the bottom piece was cut, fit, epoxied, screwed and clamped. Pretty simple compared to the rest of the bottom and side pieces.

Second Verse same as the First

2010-03-08T10:33:00.006-05:00

When I got ready for putting on the second side, I enlisted some help. With the first side, after juggling the long panel and then clamping, drilling, screwing, kneeling down, standing up, unclamping, reclamping, etc. about 100 times, I figured I needed to share the fun with someone else who has an interest in boat building. I called my friend Rick Meese and he eagerly volunteered to help. It definately went a lot smoother with two sets of hands. After mixing and applying the wet out coat of epoxy and then a thickened coat to the frames, Rick held the end of the panel while I put in the alignment screws and made sure the bow end of the panel mated up to the stem at the right spot. I put on enough clamps so the panel was self supporting and then Rick drilled a set of three holes while I sunk the screws in place. Then I would move clamps and we would do another group of three screws. At the front and the back with the severe wrap areas, Rick judged epoxy squeeze out while I clamped, belt clamped and brought out the arsenal of clamping power until the side was where it needed to be. This side went much faster with less sweat than the first. Thanks Rick!

The last photo shows both sides trimmed and faired along the upper side member (chine) and the battens in place being faired for fitting of the bottom plywood.

Outboard Motor purchased

2010-03-03T13:24:00.007-05:00

Since the boat I'm building has a retro look, I wanted to get a classic outboard for it. After doing a lot of research on older outboard motors and joining the national Antique Outboard Motor Club (AOMCI), I attended a swap meet of our local Great Lakes Chapter of the AOMCI. I was focused on mid-fifties Mercurys and Johnsons in the 15-20 hp range and my preference was for a Mercury Mark 25 (18-20 hp depending on year). I had previously looked at a 1954 Mark 20, but the owner had a different idea about its worth than I did so I walked away on that one. I had another lead on a 1956 Mark 25 that was for sale by the brother of the guy that fixed our computer. He had a picture of the motor sent to my Blackberry and it appeared to be what I had in mind. At the swap meet, I did not find anyone selling a Mark 25, but did learn they were generally good motors and the 1956 Mark 25 had several improvements over the earlier Mark 20 and Mark 25 models. I was also advised to find a motor that already had the set-up for remote steering, shift and throttle control as these items would be hard to find separately. Having gained some good advice and a good contact for working out any issues I might have once I found something to work on, I pressed on.

The next day, my wife and I went and looked at the Mark 25. It had the remote control set-up, but needed a bit of TLC. Unfortunately his father was supposed to meet us there with the fuel tank for it but he could not find it and may have been lost in a recent move. I was told this motor had a new waterpump put on it two years ago and had been running fairly recently. The compression seemed good by pulling the starter rope. The motor colors are Sarasota Blue/Sand Tan. My wife thought the color combo was retro and would look cool. So knowing an old motor is a bit of a gamble, we reached an agreement on price, loaded it up and took it home.

It seems to me at this time that Sarasota Blue/Sand/Tan may be a relatively rare color combination. I've seen pictures of Mercury Green/Sand Tan, Sunset Orange/Sand Tan and Marlin Blue/Gulf Blue on other Mark 25's in pictures on the web of various antique motor club meets or in the Antique Outboarder magazine. I haven't seen this color combo yet. It reminds me of a 1956 two tone Chevy Belaire. Guess I'll find out as I learn more. I ordered and
received a service manual and fuel connector from East Coast Marine and hope to purchase a fuel tank, hose etc. soon and get this baby in a garbage can full of water and see if it fires up. Here's hoping I have an outboard and not just a pretty boat anchor.

March 6, 2010 Update:
I put together a 3 gallon plastic fuel tank with quick disconnect to tank fittings, hose, primer bulb and the connector to the motor. I did a 50:1 ratio mix by putting 2 1/2 oz. of two cycle oil and a gallon of gasoline in the tank....shaken, not stirred. Since it was a 50 degree sunny day, this was my chance to see if it would start. Using the bottom from a defunct shop vac, I put it under the outboard and filled it with water which was about 3-4" over the top of the cavitation plate. I hooked up the fuel line, opened the tank vent, squeezed the primer bulb about 10 times until fuel could be felt in the bulb and I could smell it. Then I set the choke and gave the starter rope a pull...nothing except water sloshing all over. I enlisted my daughter to hold the back of the motor to stabilize it while I gave another pull...nothing. Another pull...nothing. Took off the choke, squeezed the primer bulb again and gave another pull and hot damn...it started running! (Big smile on face). I saw a stream of water coming out the hole at the top of the lower unit indicating the water pump was doing what it should, and then I slowed the motor down to shift speed and shifted into forward. Water started leaving the barrel as the prop churned it up. Tried reverse and saw that it worked and then back to neutral. I revved it up a bit, then slowed it down and ran it for a while so some pictures could be taken. I disconnected the fuel line and it ran for a couple of minutes until the fuel in the carb ran out. Hurray....it all works!

Side Plywood Installation

2010-03-03T10:06:00.010-05:00

Prefitting the side involved getting a 8' x 18" piece of plywood in place from the front of the boat back to where it ended just forward of the middle frame. Once it was bent in place and rough fit, a countersunk screw hole was put midway along the chine and one midway along the shear. These screws provided a repeatable location so the panel could be removed for trimming and re-fit in the same location. Once this piece was fit, then it was removed and put on the other side to determine if the fit was close enough to use as a template. The picture is of this trial fit on the other side of the boat. It was a decent fit, so it was traced onto another piece of plywood and cut.

Going back to the first side, towards the rear of the boat, 4' x 18" piece was fit and aligned to match up to the 8' long piece. An angular cut was made to establish a butt joint between the two pieces of plywood. Lines were traced onto the back side to show it locations along the chines, shears, transom and stem. Then the pieces were removed and laid out on a long make-shift table. Screw hole locations were determined for placing screws every 3" along the chine and shear. Location holes were drilled from the backside (which had the traced lines) every 18" or so. Then the pieces were flipped over and the final holes were marked on the face side and all holes drilled with a countersinking bit.

Butt joint bonding: A piece of plastic was put on the table and then a piece of painters tape adhered along the underneath side of the joint to prevent epoxy from flowing everywhere. One side of the board was screwed to the table using the predrilled holes, the second piece was butted tight and also screwed in place. A liberal application of clear epoxy was applied and a 4" wide strip of fiberglass tape was laid into the joint. After sqeegeeing the epoxy, a piece of plastic sheet was laid over the whole mess, a plywood piece of wood laid on top and clamped down.

The next day, after removing the clamps, the area over the fiberglass tape was fairly smooth but other areas had too much epoxy needing sanding. The second picture is my second panel for the other side of the boat and it did not come out as nice as my first one. It took quite alot of hand sanding to get this one smoothed down, but eventually it started to look better. Then I flipped it over and applied epoxy and fiberglass tape, but kept the tape shorter so it would not interfere with the fit to the chines and shear. A little more squeegee action and tighter clamping helped smooth it out. The whole surface of the plywood was epoxied as it will be on the inside of the boat and this is the easiest way to get it coated. This inside surface is the one shown in the prior picture showing the butt-joint clamping.

Securing to the boat: It was a marathon session gluing and screwing the plywood to the side of the boat. After mixing up a batch of epoxy, the frame surfaces and bonding area on the plywood was rolled and brushed with epoxy. Then a colloidal silica filler was added to the epoxy and this thickened goo was brushed onto frame members back to the middle frame. The panel was located to the frames with the previously mentioned locator screws. I rigged up a chain from the ceiling to support the rear of the long panel while I began clamping and screwing the front portion.

After clamping forward to the stem to ensure proper location, then clamps were placed adjacent to each screw hole and redrilled to put a pilot hole into the frame member and a #8 7/8" long silicon bronze screw was screwed into the hole. Progress was from the front of the boat rearward, removing clamps from previously screwed areas and re-clamping and drilling and securing three screws at a time. When I got to the middle of the boat, another batch of thickened epoxy was made and applied to the frames from that area rearward. In the forward and rear portions of the boat where the wrap is severe and a screw head may have pulled through, small blocks of wood were used with 1 5/8" drywall screws to secure the plywood in place until the epoxy cured. After 100 screws and almost two hours of non-stop action it was done. I worked up a good sweat and needed a beer.

The next day, the screw blocks were removed and replaced with a silicon bronze screw one at a time. Everything held in place. The overhanging plywood was trimmed off with a hand saw and planed and filed smooth with the chine, stem and transom. The portion along the bottom of the pictures will not get trimmed until the boat is flipped over. The last picture is at the transom after trimming off the excess side panel and sanding smooth with the surface of the transom. The way the side of this boat twists and rolls into the transom ("tumblehome" as its known in the auto and boat design community) is really cool. Since the boat is upside down, this roll is towards the bottom of the picture.

Fairing the Frames and Longitudinals

2010-02-23T13:56:00.006-05:00

The process of beveling and smoothing all the surfaces that the plywood "skin" mates to is called fairing. It is inherently a bit confusing to the new boat builder as its hard to know where to start, what tools to use, and how much material to remove.

The picture shows the tools I ended up using from top to bottom in the picture: 1) power 3 1/4" hand planer, 2) small belt sander Porter-Cable 2 1/2"X 14", 3) 1" Stanley hand plane, 4) 8" Jack plane, 5) Rasp, 6) Disston Abrader, 7) Long sander (made from 1/4" scrap wood to fit a 3x21 belt from a belt sander).

After filing some notches at the frames to set the angle of the longitudinal pieces, the major wood removal starts to blend the shapes from one spot to the next along the longitudinal pieces. I found the power planer a bit aggressive and hard to see what was happening until after a pass was made. The hand planes turned out to be quite effective at removing material quickly on the curved surfaces. They were a pleasure to use since they are quiet and they allow the surface to be seen as you work which is reassuring . The small Porter-Cable power sander was a great tool as the vacuum pick-up removed the dust effectively and it was fairly easy to see what was being removed. It was great for putting the contour on the frames.

The bottom piece on the right side of this picture is called the shear. It has not been faired yet and is still a square section. The idea is to angle it so the outer surface points towards the member above it (the chine). The trick is that the angle is constantly changing and it turned out that my chine surface was not sufficiently angled to have a prayer of getting a piece of plywood to lay on it and the shear at the same time. So the chine had a couple more laminations of material added to get the bottom angled out enough to "point" towards the shear below it.

In this picture, the bottom piece (shear) is faired so that its surface points toward the chine above. This area of the boat probably took the most time as quite a bit of wood needed to be removed. You can see a lot of plane shavings and dust on the floor.

I think I'm done with fairing, but it seems to be a task that could be done to infinity because with every new look it appears that a surface could be sweetened a little more. I think its good enough to move on and I'll fix something if I see the need as I prepare the plywood planking pieces.

Chines Part II

2010-02-12T15:33:00.006-05:00

After completing the shears, I went back to the chines. Since I had ripped my original 3/4" thick material into two layers, the total thickness was only about 5/8". So I decided to make a mahogany sandwich and add in a 1/8" layer in the middle. So I cut an 8' board to the width of the chine (1 3/4") and then resawed into 1/8" thick pieces on the tablesaw. Since the rough chine length is about 12', I used 8' length towards the front of the boat, put a 45 degree mitre on the end and mated it to another piece long enough to complete the whole length. The middle layer was thin enough to bend to whatever shape needed. The pieces were all epoxied together on the frames using just about every clamp I could find in my shop. The grand total was 90 clamps for each chine lamination. Since I did not have 180 clamps, I could only do one at a time.

After completing the lamination on both chines, the epoxy squeeze out was planed off with a hand plane. I found this easiest to do in my shop with the chine in a vice and moved it along in the vice as I progressed. Then the chines were fit to the boat, epoxied and screwed into place. After all the consternation about the fit to the stem, the chine ended up looking too straight in the forward area and without enough twist so it did not angle nicely toward the shear. I ended up making a long tapered section piece about 3/8" thick at the bottom and 1/8" at the top and laminated it onto the chine from stem to about 8" forward of the frame. Using the small belt sander, it was blended into the chine.

Bending the Shears

2010-02-12T14:20:00.007-05:00

The first step to the shears was getting the length down to about 18" longer than what I measured to be required. Since the fit of the shear to the breasthook is a set angle, I cut some scrap material on my mitre saw until I got it right and then cut an angle on the front of each piece to mate with the breasthook. The four shear pieces (two layers each) were then soaked in the stairwell soaking tube for a couple of days.

I worked on the one side of the boat where I had the most room between the boat and the wall. To support the shear while bending into place, I clamped long boards to the form or the frames over to the wall, just below the level where the shears would meet the frames. This provided a resting place for the shear while bending into place. I then wrapped a bath towel around the shear along the area of the stem and another in the area between the front and middle frame. I then poured hot tap water over the towels (buckets underneath).

To start the bend into the breasthook, a 24" Bessy bar clamp was clamped to the shear to provide leverage and the leading end was bent while the remaining length of the shear pushed up against the wall about 3' away from the boat. After shoving it into place and the breasthook clamp board squezzed tight, the rest of the bending took place at the rear end of the boat. A pipe clamp was put on the shear near the transom and used to gradually bring the shear towards the boat. After pouring another pitcher of hot tap water on the towels, the shears were gradually moved into place up against the frames and clamped in place. Towels were removed and the shear left to dry. After a day of drying, the first shear was removed and moved to the other side of the boat where I did not have as much room to work. I repeated the process for the next two shear pieces. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures during this process.

While pulling the third shear piece into place, I heard a loud crack and looked up to see a distinct sharp angle forming inside the towel, just aft of the breasthook. Another crack or two later and several expletives, the break was complete. I backed off on the bending process because this shear was toast. I removed the towels, the clamps, and put the shear aside for later analysis. I grabbed the last shear piece out of the soaking tube and bent it into place without incident. Analysis of the broken shear showed a severe grain run-out in the area. I thought I selected all pieces to put the staightest grain towards the front of the boat, but I got this piece backwards. I decided to make a scarf cut in the broken area and mend this piece back together putting the scarf joint at the back of the boat. After the piece dried, I made a jig for my chop saw and made about a 5" long scarf joint in the shear and epoxied that sucker back together. After curing, joint clean-up, soaking and bending, I was back on track with all four shears bent.

Prior to gluing the first layer of shears to the frames, I made a mid bow area temporary "spreader board" to ensure the contour was similar on both sides. One side measured wider from centerline and the curve did not look as smooth as the other. The way my stem support was made, I had a level surface to center and mount this board. The first layer of shears was glued to the breasthook and frames using clamps to the temporary spreader to force the curve in place on the one side. Then the second layer was epoxied to the first layer and clamped into place. Screws were only used in the breasthook.

Chines - Part I

2010-02-04T15:18:00.004-05:00

After learning of Ted's broken chine when attempting the bend, I decided to laminate the chines to make for easy bending. So I cut my chine material to rough length, about 12', and then ripped them to 3/8" thick. The cutoff pieces were about 1/4+" thick. I then soaked all four pieces in the 4" soaking pipe, stem end first, for a couple of days to noodle them up a bit.

I borrowed the soaking pipe from Ted. By hanging it in the stairwell, it can be loaded with long pieces of wood, filled with water and not get in anybody's way. Also, it's a lot easier to keep the water in it if it's not horizontal.

After soaking, the chine material was put on the boat and bent into place. The two layers of thin material bent easily into position on the frames and up against the stem. They were left to dry for a couple of days while I did other things like work for a living.

When it came time to figure out how to fit the chines at the stem, I decided that without having the shears in place, it was hard to judge how much twist to put into them. I decided that procrastination was a good approach to the question, and bending and installing the shears first might answer the question or provide enough time to figure it out.

The picture shows the chines held in place and the one layer of the shears bent and clamped in place. On the left is a previously bent shear just resting in place waiting for the glue-up to take place.

Battens Cut and Fit

2009-12-09T15:26:00.004-05:00

My battens have now been ripped and fit to the frames. I had to deepen the pre-cut notches to get the battens to lay flush with the frame contours. Per the "Boatbuilding with Plywood" book, battens should be installed after side planking, so I used some steel screws for temporary dry fit so they can be removed if in the way for subsequent work. They helped secure the frames in position so I'll leave them in place if possible.

The sides of the middle frame were unsupported and could easily be pushed out of plumb so I added a temporary cross beam and some angle braces from it to the form to stablize them. Now they can be worked on without moving around.

The next step is fitting the chines. You can see in the photo that I'm experimenting with a piece of pine to judge whether my notches are right. I'm letting my buddy Ted forge ahead with his Zip and of course he just tried steaming his chines and installing and broke one. I'm taking a vacation so the boat will be on hold for awhile. Maybe when I get back, Ted will tell me how to install a chine without making expensive mohogany firewood.

Aligning Frames and Laying the Keel

2009-12-06T16:37:00.007-05:00

After the confirmation that this boat will make it out of the basement, I secured my frame pieces to the leveled form rails. After checking a hundred times if things were square to each other, I aligned the stem using a string and plumb bob method. I tried a laser but it was better at confirming the set-up than actually doing it.

I used steel carriage bolts for the dry run set up of the keel and transom knee. When I was satisfied with alignments I took the keel and transom knee apart and did the glue-up. When all was, glued, bolted and screwed in place I called it a day. The next day I sighted down the keel and saw hump between frame #1 (middle frame and frame #2 (front frame), which wasn't a real issue, but there was a dip between the transom and frame #1 which was a problem. The picture is sighting down the keel from the front and the flash didn't illuminate the keel after the middle frame. After sleeping on it, I decided to try and realign the transom a bit to straighten the keel forward of the transom.

I decided to shim frame #1 rearward about 1/16" and this gave me some room between the transom and form to re-align it. I pulled a 1/16" shim out to lower the transom, added one at the top of the form angle to the transom and this allowed clamping of the transom near the bottom of the form and I could dial out the dip in the keel with a twist of the clamps. So with the keel flat from transom forward to frame #1, I could move on.

Building Forms

2009-12-04T15:30:00.005-05:00

The basement exercise room became the room of choice for building the boat....never got any use as an exercise room anyway. I didn't want to tear out the carpet, so the old ping-pong table that needed to disappear became the foundation for my form. I reinforced the underneath side of the ping-pong table with 2x4's and by rotating each half 90 degrees I got a platform 4.5'x10'. I surrounded it with 1/4" scrap plywood used for floor protection in a former life and I was ready to go. We won't talk about what it took to clear the room out of all the accumulated stuff.

I decided to add 8" to the height of the form going to 32" rather than the 24" called out on the plan. I thought my knees would appreciate it. To support the stem and breasthook, I got a little creative with an extention off the platform to get the height and length needed. With the old stereo speakers now mounted up on the walls and out of the way, I'm a-building and a-dancing.

You Sure it Will Make it out of the Basement?

2009-12-04T14:53:00.005-05:00

Before totally committing to building a boat in the basement, one needs some kind of proof its not going to be Noah's ark waiting for the basement to flood to get some use. While the tape measure said it would make it out...I wasn't sure that I wasn't another idiot building a big project that was stuck in the basement. I have to make a slight turn at the top of the stairs to clear the kitchen cabinets, so its not a straight shot out of the top of the stairwell.

My first plan was to temporarily set up the frames, transom, stem and keel and then fashion some temporary plywood sheers and take the clamped together skeleton on a trial run. But my son Bill said maybe a tricked up 4x8 sheet of plywood would suffice. Not wanting to remove frames from my set-up form it sounded like a good idea. So some temporary plywood strips were used to simulate the shape of the shears, traced onto scrap plywood and cut to shape. These were screwed to the stem and breasthook assembly which was screwed/clamped to a 4x8. The stem and various bar clamps were used to simulate full beam width of the boat and depth of the boat. The trial run into the stairwell and out at the top went with no issues. I took some clearance measurements at the tight spots and I have some room for more length, beam, and depth....but not enough to change plans to a bigger boat and start all over!

The kitchen in the background was a major project of a few years back. My son and I built all the cabinets, doors, drawers, etc. Maybe it will be another blog someday.

Transom Build

2009-12-04T14:14:00.005-05:00

The transom is built from 3/4" Okoume plywood. The layout lines were transferred to the plywood with carbon paper to show outer contours and added inside frame locations. For some of the curved areas, the added frames allowed using them as a template for final cut of the transom plywood with a router and trimming bit. I angled the motorboard just because I thought it looked better. I also raised the height of the transom at the motorboard to 16.5" from the plan's 15". The "Mustang" boat plans show different dimensions up to 17" depending on make of old outboards and I'm told that performance can be enhanced by tuning the height upwards and the transom can always be cut down if too high. Since I don't have a motor yet, I moved it up, but 17" didn't look good, so I settled on 16.5". The Okoume 3/4" plywood is very dense and heavy and after bending a couple of silicon bronze nails when trying to glue and nail the transom knee together, I increased the diameter of the pre-drilled holes. Bent nails were broke off and another hole drilled adjacent for another nail. Close inspection shows a couple of curious bronze spots in the transom knee....

The bottom of the transom has a shallow "V" cut at a 12 degree bevel. I used the method in the "Boatbuilding with Plywood" book by Glen L. Witt. I added an auxilliary fence suspended about 1/8" higher than the transom thickness off the table saw surface, and then screwed down a straight board to the transom along the line to be cut (one side of the "V" at a time). With the blade angled 12 degrees and the outside of the blade set just below the edge of the aux fence, the cut turned out super. I think the above mentioned book is a "must read" for a new boat builder like me as it answered many questions that I had and hopefully prevented me from making poor choices for materials, assembly and building techniques. I also enjoyed learning about something I knew little about and gave me the confidence to begin and avoid many mistakes that would have happened otherwise.

The frames are built

2009-12-03T14:49:00.004-05:00

During early November 2009, frame construction took place. Frame pictures show surfaces that have been encapsulated with clear epoxy and sanded to receive subsequent coats or gluing. While plans call for nailing of gussets, I used a couple of drywall screws at each gusset to prelocate parts so glue up would repeat the dry fit. One side was done at a time and let set over night. Then the frames were flipped, and reset into blocks and the second set of gussets were located and screwed, then disassembled, glued, screwed, and nailed. The flipping of the parts indicated the accuracy of the initial tracing of frame halves. In some cases, in minor tweaks of the assembly blocks were required. At final glue-up, silicone-bronze screws were used to replace any drywall screws used for pre-fit. Pre-drilling was required on the nails as the Okoume plywood is very dense and the mohogany frame pieces showed a slight split on the first gusset installation if nailed near an edge without pre-drilling.

Building the templates for the frames

2009-12-03T14:27:00.007-05:00

I decided to make templates from the plans for most of the parts in the frames. Using the carbon paper, lines were traced onto material to make the templates. The actual frame pieces were then rough cut, stacked together with double backed tape, the templates double-back taped to the pieces and a trimming router bit with guide bearing used to cut multiple pieces at the same time. In the corners where 1/4" plywood gussets were used, 4 indenticle parts were made at the same time.

With African Mohogany purchased from Armstrong Millworks in Highland Michigan and Okoume plywood purchased at Public Lumber in Detroit, the frame build got started. The same layout board was used as an assembly jig. Blocks were screwed down to locate frame members so that epoxy gluing, screwing and or nailing could be done while maintaining alignments.

Plans Change

2009-12-02T15:15:00.007-05:00

After talking with my co-worker, Ted Gauthier about building a boat, he said I should check out Glen-L Marine's plans. He also decided to build a boat and settled on the 14' Zip from Glen-L. He said he found the boat for me, the Glen-L Squirt a 10' runabout. I wanted to stick with a small boat since my plan was to build in my basement and the 11'6" Mustang would make it out of the stairwell based on my measurements. I thought 10' was too small, but it could be stretched 10% to 11'. The Squirt looked way cool, so I changed my mind and ordered plans on September 28, 2009 from Glen-L.
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The image shown is a Glen-L Squirt stretched to 11' and built by Jeff Cobb of Baton Rouge, LA. He did a suberb job finishing out his boat and its inspirational to see such a fantastic looking boat.

The first step is transferring the lines from the drawing to a layout and assembly board. With a few yardsticks, flexible curves, french curves, circle templates, and large carbon paper purchased from Glen-L, I got the lines down on a 3/4" plywood board.

Boat Building Inspiration

2009-12-01T13:55:00.007-05:00

Here's a picture of the homemade boat that inspired me to build my own. The plan for this boat is called "Mustang" from Science and Mechanics magazine from the early 1950's. To the left is another boat called the "Bluestreak" from the same magazine. I was given the opportunity to take these boats for a spin and had a blast taking these boats around the lake. They both have 15 hp OMC outboards and scoot along quite well.

My other inspiration for building a boat was having this Chrysler 9.9 that was my dad's. It is a 1969 and he bought it new back in the day. He put it on a 14' Sea Nymph aluminum boat which was purchased from Northwestern Boat Co. He loved the motor as it started easily and replaced a 7.5hp Scott on a 12' Clyde wooden boat. The Scott never started easily and he was in no mood to fish after working himself into a lather trying to start the thing. He sold the aluminum boat in his retirement years but did not want to part with the motor. Now as you can imagine, having an outboard motor with no boat is not very useful. So it seemed buiding a small boat would be a perfect match for this baby. So I got started with the boat build. However, so far it appears that a remote hook-up for throttle, shift and steering may not have been offered for this motor and might be difficult be to cobble up.

The next photo is from around 1961 during a vacation. I'm in the middle of the boat, my mom and sister Sue on the dock. My dad is at the tiller of his first outboard motor, a 5hp Johnson. I believe now from my recollection of this silver colored motor and comparing it to pictures of old Johnson's, that it is a 1942 or thereabouts. I recall that we rented the boat during our stay. There was a steep set of stairs leading down to the lake with a motorized platform that traveled up and down to bring people and luggage etc. up and down. Our cabin was half way down the hill. One of the pictures in the group had Ludington Lake written on the back, but I can't find it on a map. My dad later rued the day he sold the old Johnson. It always started easily, unlike the Low-profile Scott he bought to replace it.

This picture of a wooden runabout is from the same vacation. We got a ride on it and I remember loving the sound of the V8 exhaust burbling in the water and what a cool boat it was. It was used to deliver the mail to people living on the lake. After posting this picture, I clicked on it and could see that the flag on the front of the boat says "US Mail"....so my memory is correct.