Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

[erikgreen]

Okay, since Oops! finally updated his hull extension thread, he has responded to my "I'll update if you will" challenge.

So, it's time to start talking about my new project. "New" in this case means "What I've been working on, one way or another, for five months". Not entirely on the boat, you understand.

Last winter I heated my double garage, which is detached from my house, was insulated as a shop by its builder, and is, for a number of reasons, too expensive to heat. Heating bills around $300 a month last winter convinced me I wasn't going to use the shop this winter.

Fortunately, I have an attached garage, too. It was a basic one car setup, with a bare concrete floor. It has the garage door at the front, 7 feet tall by 8 feet wide, a back door to the driveway area in front of the other garage, and one largish non-opening window.

I don't seem to have any "before" pics of the place.

The attached garage was outdoor temps in the winter. The walls were just shells... studs with sheathing and siding on the outside, and old paneling on the inside. No insulation in the ceiling. There was an interior wall between my house and this space, too. No wonder my heating bills were so high, even without the other garage.

So I decided that I'd remodel the attached garage into a shop space. This would give me space to build a boat in the winter, as well as helping keep the house warmer. It also would provide me a starting space to remodel again into a den or living room once I finished the boat build, and that would add to the value of my house, which is currently taking a beating due to the economy.

So... I started in October (actually earlier on and off) cleaning out the garage space. This included removal of a lot of the paneling, a shelf or two, removing items I stored in there, sweeping, and assessment of the structure and ceiling.

It turns out that the walls were only 2x4 studs, so I needed to make them thicker, to put in better insulation. I also needed a few new outlets wired up... the garage had a 220V circuit I could split and use provided I grounded back to the electrical box.

So I doubled the wall thickness by building another copy of the stud walls inside the old ones. I also removed a huge paper wasp nest, tons of spider webs, and a few old trash items like a 1960s soda can and misc nuts and bolts from the walls.

Then I installed R19 fiberglass insulation in the walls, and put in some outlet boxes and wiring to extend the existing circuit to a better spot, with GFCI protection (required by code since it's still a garage for the moment).

I also blew cellulose insulation into the ceiling (R49) after extending the light fixture (one bare bulb) to two other locations and wiring all three as switched outlets for fluorescent fixtures.

Then I painted the floor with a nonskid floor paint (light blue, it was cheap) after primering the walls. Washing the floor down for painting left a bit of a stain on the drywall, but I'm sure I'll have to rebuild part of it for a living room eventually anyway.

So, a few cosmetic bits later (outlet covers, etc) I still needed lighting and to insulate the doors and window. I covered the big garage door with a "wall" of 2 inch pink foam insulation. It helped some, but it wasn't perfect. I need to replace the door with an insulated one, or else remove it entirely once the boat is out of there.

I put up 6 slightly mismatched fluorescent fixtures, plugged into the switched outlets. I wired them with lamp cords, which is ugly, but easier than permanent wiring, and lets me move them if needed.

I re-caulked the window and the smaller door with 3m 5200 to ensure they were sealed against drafts... I figured why go half way on a seal Plus it was cheaper than another trip to the store. Then I "frosted" the window and the small windows in the garage door with some white paint and covered the window with more 2 inch pink foam. I sealed the edges of the window and the back door with some spray foam. Then I covered the door with plastic just in case.

Whew. So after all that was done, the space was quiet and held heat pretty well. I didn't have it tied to the house's HVAC, so I put a small propane heater with an outside tank in to warm it before I started working.. it's too small, but it got me through the cold.

Then I installed lots of shelves, a door desk for cutting glass rolls, some old kitchen cabinets for more storage, and pegboard for tools.

So after all this you'd think my boat workshop would look fantastic. Nah, it just looks ok. I need practice with drywall I think. But, it's a warm, well lit space to work. I'll put in an exhaust fan out the back door when I start generating lots of fumes, and I want to run a couple more power circuits whenever I can get my house's electricals redone (they suck).

One end of the space:

The pink wall is a 2" cover over the existing garage door. It helped keep the worst of the cold out, although the walls on either side are uninsulated for that 8 inch space. Next winter I'm getting a new insulated door... especially since I probably have to take out the current one to get my boat out, once it's built.

Note the lovely outlet placement. I need to lower that last one when I redo the walls to take the door out.

That's a sheet of Arauco ply on the floor, nice stuff.

Here's a view the other way. It's a smallish space, only about 23 long by 14 wide, with the door end having about 3 feet less width due to a closet.

I've got the plans for my boat tacked up on the walls for reference at the moment. My drill press is in there for now, I was going to use it for stirring epoxy, but it's heading for the basement instead.

I took down my fiberglass cutting table to save space, also since I don't really need it... a roller knife makes cutting so easy.

That propane heater is gone now too, and I've re-opened the back door, which is also getting replaced soon.

Last priority item to build is the dust collector, since I want to keep dust out of the main house as much as I can.


Next post: The boat

 

[83mulligan]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

Hey, good to see you posting a thread. That sounds like a nice space to work in. My garage ceiling also has no insulation, something i'd like to change before next year. Looking forward to the boat post.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

Well, I haven't gotten the photos off my camera, apparently, so I'll have to do that tonight. That's a down side to having a camera that can store 500+ photos.

But, I thought I'd start talking about the boat I'm building since I have a little time during a work break to type.

I decided to build a boat from scratch for a number of reasons. First, my existing "best" boat was still a scratch and dent. I can correct that long term of course, but it's also much too heavy (21 footer at 4500 lbs) for me to handle easily alone, which is unfortunately how I do half my boating.

So I wanted something smaller, lighter, and without the cuddy cabin. I discovered that my current boat, meant as a compromise between a live aboard and a smaller boat, was too small to live aboard and too big for casual use.

So, I obviously need two boats One small for solo trips, and a larger liveaboard for expeditions to parts unknown. I decided to start on the small boat.

In these economic conditions it would be very unwise to get a loan for a boat, if it was even possible, and a new boat would depreciate horribly as soon as it hit the water. Plus production boats are also compromises in materials.. what's well made vs. cheap, and compromises in design since they're trying to build cookie cutter boats that will sell.

I wanted a boat that was built exactly the way I wanted it.. the same way a boat you've just rebuilt is just the way you like it. I also was tired of working on rotten wood and badly applied poly. I wanted to work with new wood and glass, no surprises, and no stupid design decisions (not made by me, at least).

So I searched around for boat building information. There are lots of ways to build a boat, obviously, from the traditional clinker-built wooden boats (framing covered with strips of wood overlapping like house siding) to modern fiberglass boats pulled from molds, to steel or aluminum hulls.

I wanted a planing boat, and I'm not that great at welding aluminum yet, plus aluminum is expensive, so I decided it would be a fiberglass boat. Making a mold for a fiberglass boat is silly for a one-off model, and I was limited on space too. So I had narrowed things at this point to one-off fiberglass construction techniques that didn't use molds. Basically this meant a composite hull... panels of a core material covered with glass and either gelcoated or painted.

Oops' example notwithstanding, it's hard to get gelcoat smooth and shiny without a mold, so I decided on paint. Painting also means I can easily use epoxy for resin, which means I get a very strong hull, and I can get my epoxy for not much more than poly resin if I buy a certain quantity.

Also, most of the plans you can buy for boats rely on epoxy being used for the composite panels... poly is too hard for amateur builders to use as a glue like that and have things come out well and safe, I guess.

So I searched for a set of plans. I had picked 19 feet as my length since that would let me build in my new workshop and have a couple of feet to spare on each end. Beam wasn't as important, but I did end up picking a model 8 feet wide.

There are several construction techniques for one-off fiberglass. You can use a basket mold, basically a set of negative cross-sections of the hull that you place core material in while the cross sections force the core to shape. Then you glass the inside, flip the hull, and glass the outside.

Or you can do plug type construction... you form the shape of the upside down hull using frames or molds, then attach core material to that, glass over it, and pull the hull off the mold to flip and glass the inside.

For both of these you follow up the flip and glass with installation of the frames, bulkheads, and interior, and your finishing work.

There's also a popular technique for home boat building called "stitch and glue" that's easy. It relies on the hull itself to form to the right shape when the edges of the panels are put together.... it's a mold-less construction technique for small boats. You just cut the panels to size, drill evenly spaced holes along the edges, and then stitch the panels together with copper wire or (more common) zip ties.

When you attach panels that have to be bent to meet the edges of the other panels, the curve thus formed is the hull shape.

Obviously this works best for hulls without a lot of compound curves, and you need to use core material that comes in sheets and is flexible enough to form the curves... usually this is thin plywood. The strength of the sheets isn't a big deal if you're thinking that a 1/4 inch or thinner panel wouldn't make a strong hull. The plywood is just a core.. it gives shape to the glass over it, plus it adds stiffness.

Looking around, I really wanted to use stitch and glue because this is my first (well, not really, but close enough) scratch build, and it looked easier than the other methods. But it was hard to find plans for a 19 foot stitch and glue boat. Also, most architects were pretty expensive, with the level of support builders receive being proportional to the price paid.

But then I found one that had reasonably priced plans, stitch and glue construction, a forum with a great user support community (kinda like this one) and with the boat design I wanted. The supplier was e-boat.net, marine architect Jacques Mertens, and the boat was a C-19.

http://www.bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=C19

The C-19 is a standard deep V motorboat hull, 19 feet long, weighing about 1200 pounds finished minus engines and fuel. It's light due to the composite construction, and as strong or stronger than a production boat's hull due to the thickness of the panels. The plans don't allow for dual outboards, which is something I wanted, but I could modify them into place with some care and reinforcement.

One of the things I like about all the designs at Bateau is that they are designed using pro structure and materials, yet set up to be built by amateurs. Mr. Mertens used to work designing epoxy boats for (I think) Cigarette and Fountain, and he knows what he's doing.

That means they like having gaps between parts for epoxy glue, and getting dimensions exactly right isn't necessary, you just have to be "close", ideally less than 1/4" per part off. Symmetry is more important than dimensions. In fact most parts are joined with a forced 1/8" gap in order to ensure adequate edge gluing.

Even cut to slightly off sizes, the boat still comes out fair and even... due to the stitch and glue method. As long as the dimensions on the hull panels are the same on each side, the panels themselves will form a symmetrical hull. Cutting them the same size is easy... after drawing the parts on one sheet of ply, you clamp the other piece to the back of the first and cut both at once.

The only downsides I've found to this company are that the folks on the forums there are typically pretty resistant to design changes to the boats (including Mr. Mertens) and like this board they have certain individuals with strongly held opinions who are reluctant to change them. Since I'm planning on building this boat with slightly off spec materials (I'm not using marine ply) and I'm going to modify the design a lot, I'm posting my build thread here instead of there.

On the upside, the same web site that sells the plans sells fiberglass tape and cloth at good prices, along with some useful tools and fillers, and epoxy, paint, etc. I don't buy epoxy from them since US Composites sells it cheaper (much cheaper) but I did get glass and fillers there.

So, having picked my boat I asked a few questions about it and construction on their forum, then paid for the plans. I received a set of about 12 pages of plans, two stapled booklets on how to build, plus plans for a single or dual console setup, a bill of materials, and some build notes. So far, so good.

The plans call for cutting of a large number of plywood sheets to shape using measurements. Rather than enlarging the plans to full size (only one full size plan is supplied for a mold part) you use the measurements on the plans to plot the points at the corners of the parts, and connect them using straight lines or a batten (flexible straightedge) to draw the curves.

The first parts to draw are the molds.. even though this is a stitch and glue boat, you still need to use a mold (plug type) to make sure you get your rear hull section flat... this is a planing boat. But it's not as much work or space as a full mold would be.

You build a strongback, basically a rigid wooden frame for building the hull on. It needs to not move once it's built, but it doesn't really need to be level or even. It's easier if it is, but it doesnt' need to be (I worried about this a bit).

So the plan to start with for me was to get the plywood, at least enough to start with, and measure and cut molds and hull panels to size. Once I had the hull panels cut and butt joined (more below on that) and the molds cut I could build the strongback, mound the molds, stitch the hull together, glass, and fair it.

I started by looking for plywood. Marine ply is nice, and what the designer prefers, but he also builds prototypes out of exterior grade. Marine is way too expensive for me.. $55 or more for a 1/4" sheet delivered. Living in the center of the US means not many places carry marine ply locally, and those that do typically carry 3/4" for working on pontoon or dock decks. So I'd have to pay delivery charges.

The best argument I've seen on the bateau forums against using non marine plywood is that if you're building a boat with $6000 of materials, it won't save that much to not buy marine, and why skimp there if that's the case?

I'm hoping this boat will be much, much cheaper. For example, Bateau lists the price of an epoxy and fiberglass kit for this boat at about $1800 I can probably shave about $300 to $400 off that buying epoxy elsewhere and using glass I already have for some things (not structural things though). Their plywood kit is $4200, and it's pre-cut... they CNC cut the parts, which saves all the measuring and cutting, and attendent errors. But using my alternate plywoods (below) and elbow grease and time, I'm getting the same parts cut for about $650 in materials plus a lot of measuring and drawing work. My parts aren't Lloyd's certified wood and won't fit as well, but I can afford to build my boat and I can't afford to build the $6000 one.

I looked at what makes marine plywood marine, and found out it's several things. First, it's the wood. It's made from typically exotic hardwood species like meranti or okoume, or in some cases teak or more expensive wood. The wood is in a large number of plies, more than twice as many as regular ply. The plies are all even thickness, so you don't have the outer layer being paper thick and lacking the structure to permit solid gluing to it.

Marine ply is not, as is commonly believed, more rot resistant than exterior.. mostly that's just the wood types used. It is glued with waterproof glue and typically finished both sides to a high degree, plus (and this is critical for boats) it has no voids.

A void is an airspace in plywood, created when a ply (which is a thin veneer of wood peeled from a log) has a hole or crack. When this is enclosed in two other plies, it forms a small box or round shape that weakens that spot in the board. It also provides a place for water to collect in a boat if water seeps into the wood. If the water gets cold, ice can form, and will expand and split (delaminate) the ply. So, voids in a boat are bad.

Marine ply is nice, but I found with some searching that I could get high quality exterior grade ply that has many of the same features for half the price or less.

What I found was a product called Plyfloor, which is a 1/4" baltic birch plywood meant for use underneath flooring in houses. It's flexible, almost completely void free, waterproof, sanded both sides, and has five equal plies in the 1/4" size. So that was good for the 1/4" ply specified, and I paid $27 a sheet at Menards for 4x8 pieces.

The 3/8" ply for the bulkheads and transom was harder. Every time I found some 3/8" exterior grade, it was junk. But I did find some nice 1/2" wood.

The wood is called Arauco plywood, and it's made in Chile by a company called (surprise) Arauco. They grow Monterey pine trees on plantations and make plywood from them. Monterey pines grow very very fast, especially in the tropics, and are a nice ecologically sound wood source. Because the trees are plantation grown, they produce high quality veneers with few knots. Arauco also cuts the veneers in such a way that they're void free or close to it, and the core of the plywood is a composite, which I think is chopped wood mixed with glue. So it's solid stuff, waterproof, AC sanded, and pretty looking, plus it costs about $22 a sheet (Menards) in 1/2". The only problem was the thickness, and I could compensate for that by cutting the slots where boards cross each other a bit wider, and adjusting the dimensions in other ways. Remember that these boat plans allow for up to 1/4" deviation from plan size

So I bought enough Arauco and plyfloor to cut bottom panels and the transom. For molds I went with some cheap ply for now... I'd have to cut them later in Arauco, but until I knew how my modified design would work I didn't want to use the $22 a sheet stuff.. I got some 1/2" exterior grade at $11 a sheet. It was rough, but usable for molds since they weren't a final part of the boat.

I measured the molds out and cut them... I found a neat tool from Clarke power products called a "Crocodile"... it's a 3 1/2" circular saw that's AC powered, and can cut wood, fiberglass, metal, or whatever using the right blade. I think it's 4,500 rpm. It has a few design problems though.

Here's a pic.. I've gotten more use out of this tool than any other recently, except maybe my ruler:

I stacked the molds to one side and started on the stringers. Stringers for the C19 are made from plywood, which is cut in two halves. The center joints are staggered on each half so there's no butt joint in the center. The boat is 19 feet, so the stringers are about 16 and 13 feet (four total).

Once the stringers were cut (but not laminated) I stacked them off to the side (16 pieces for four stringers of four parts each.. a lot of measuring and cutting).

Then came the hull panels. Thinner, lighter ply to work with, but still a ton of measuring and marking. The hull panels are 19 feet to 21 1/2 feet long, and are made of sections of three 4x8 sheets each. The panels are cut by measurement then butt jointed together with a piece of 12 oz. biaxial fabric, which holds them well enough to permit them to be placed on the mold and stitched, and they curve properly to form the hull.

I can't lay them out for a picture, and in fact I have a hard time moving them at all alone. The longest one is 21 feet and they're rather flexible. I've got a task this week to turn them around 180 degrees so they match the orientation of my strongback. There's not enough room inside to swap ends.

The last thing I did before the strongback was the transom. The plans call for two layers of 3/8" ply plus a clamping board of 1 inch hardwood transom wide. This was ok, but I wanted more strength for a ton of reasons related to the abuse this boat was going to get and the dual motors. For a few boats Jacques M. mentioned you could do a full height transom with some adjustments to the stringer ends, so I decided that would be good. Plus I read the ABYC standard for boats with 250 horse outboards and thickened the plan design from 1 3/4" to 2 1/2" using five layers of 1/2 inch plywood covered with fiberglass. Heavy, but if there's one boat part you want strong, it's the transom.

I'm not thrilled about having a wood core, but compared to foam or nidacore it's way, way cheaper. I'll have to make sure to glass on or otherwise attach a sacrificial panel for screwing on transducers etc. Bateau supplies complete instructions for drilling any hole in the hull oversize and filling with epoxy glue before redrilling, to keep water out of the core.

So with all that done I had my parts ready, and I had some friends over to create the strongback and put the molds on it. This we did, discovering problems related to the straightness of the strongback lumber (20 foot 2x8 wood) and the level of my garage floor (not even close).

But we got three sections of the mold up. Then we discovered that A) The fourth section was not symmetrical, I'd measured one side wrong, and B) The molds already in place were asymmetrical by as much as a quarter inch... still within spec, but visible if you looked for it.

So I decided to be picky at this point in the build and re-do the molds. I'll finish cutting them tonight hopefully, and then I'll be able to lay them perfectly on the strongback and stitch the hull panels.

Edit: I finished this over the weekend, measuring each mold twice and then some using the Arauco ply instead of the cheap stuff. Assuming I don't make any cutting mistakes I should be able to start assembling molds on the strongback this evening.

After the panels are stitched they get "welded" together.. basically between the stitches you use some epoxy glue in the gap. Once it hardens you can remove the stitches and fill the rest of the gap. Then you grind/sand it to a radius and tape all the seams with epoxy and 6 inch wide biaxial glass tape.

At this point you'll have your basic hull shape upside down on the mold, and it will look like a boat.

Then follows the glassing of the hull, which includes a pre-coat of epoxy, in overlapping layers of 12 ounce by 50 inch wide biaxial glass. That gets covered with fairing compound, and lots of sanding is done to make the hull level. The priming with a high build primer, more sanding, and painting. It's possible to get a mirror finish, which is what I'm hoping for, with a high quality boat paint.

Then I'll be ready to flip the hull and trim the mold wood to produce the frames and bulkheads, which I will glass in place after glassing the inside surface of the hull. Then it's on to the deck and gunwale sections, the motor well, etc.

I'm going to make some serious modifications to this design... not because I think I can design a better hull than Mr. Mertens, but because I want certain things as far as performance (NOT speed.. other performance). That's where the "hot dog" idea I told Oops about comes in... sadly I've redesigned since I mentioned that, so the boat will remind you less of hot dogs, but I still won't explain it until the build is far along.

Edit: Rest assured this will be an unusual boat.. I don't think it'll be quite like anything mass produced today. Either that or I'll be so embarrassed at how it comes out that I won't want to post pics.

You'll see deviations from the C19 if you follow along.. both in the hull and in the above deck structure.

One thing I will mention now is that I'm putting in a davit crane on one side near the stern (possibly the same structure on both sides) since I will use this boat to tow various things like a side scan sonar. I have to figure out how to tie the mount for that to the hull structure.

At this point other than the mods I'm planning this will be a 19 foot motorboat with twin 75 horse engines and a center console.. I may adjust the console position fore/aft depending on balance.

Erik

PS: I'll try to shorten my posts, if I can. I seem to like typing a lot in the morning.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

Also, for those who have no idea what I'm talking about with regards to molds, panels, stitching, etc. you can check out this side... it's the build log for another person who has built this boat.

http://www.outbackpics.com/Boat/Building the Bateau C19.htm

Mine won't be quite the same due to my design changes (and skill level) but his site should at least let you see the whole build process.

Erik

 

[zach103]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

come on erik wher are the pics.. i read all about the garage.. but give me like an hour to read about the boat lol

 

[oops!]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

wah hoo......here we go...!....but i gotta run out to the shop.....ill read this when i get home.......

atta go erik !

let the boat building games begin!

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

I edited my first couple of posts with a few pics. Nothing spectacular, but at least it's something to break up the text a bit

This last weekend I spent way too much time trying to fix my air compressor and working on my yard. I did get all the molds laid out full size again on good ply, so I'll cut those tonight or this week and start placing them on the strongback. Pics of that are coming.

I've been working on this thing part time for about three months now and I haven't gotten a lot done.. I really need to kick it in gear. Hopefully once the hull is on the mold I'll be more motivated, since it'll look like a boat finally.

Erik

 

[NSBCraig]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

Looks cool!

I built a 18' sailboat w/ my brother years ago using a back and then a lap hull.

Can't tell you how many days I spent looking at projects like your doing in the back of wooden boat mag wanting to do one.

CAn't wait to see more pics.

 

[92excel]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

you should mount a camera on a tripod in the corner and take atleast one pic per day that you work on the boat.. Then every photo will be from the same angle and proportion and you would have yourself a time lapse of events.. you can stitch them all together to make a movie when you are all done...

just an idea..

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

I've thought about that since the shop is wired for internet.

With my luck though I'd manage to catch a pic of myself scratching my rear every other day or something

 

[zach103]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

I've thought about that since the shop is wired for internet.

With my luck though I'd manage to catch a pic of myself scratching my rear every other day or something

Should be a chance your willing to take lol... or a little webcam

 

[oops!]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

mannnnnn that is a lot of cutting bud.....are you keeping the sawdust for filler?

and what .....less of a hot dog?....lol....

i like the look of the boat......and 8 feet of beam on 19 feet is very stable if the hull is v"ed enough that its not flat bottom tippy.

what about hardware for the boat....(i know thats a long way off ) but are they giving you suppliers?...im just about to the hardware stage and im finding it can be pretty costly.....(i dont use e-bay that much due to customs)

any how......as you know.....i look forward to every post of this one.....so use multy camera angles .....that way we wont see the dreaded......."backside scratch"........HAAAA ...or for that fact the centerfeild itch!....lol

cheers
oops

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

I've been saving the sawdust, but it's far too coarse (and has too much water content) to make good filler. I'll use it for soaking up spills I think.

I decided to update my design, which removed most of the "hot dog" looking part, but the new design is much, much better for a lot of reasons. Sorry to remove the guessing game I'll explain it when I build that part.

On hardware, I've started collecting some small parts, like a light and I have my eye on some oversized cleats, 10 inch stainless ones. I have some inspection plates left over from my other boat, plus some salvaged stainless steel rail I'll use.

Given the cost of most boat hardware I'll probably just look for good deals and find them when I can. I will also salvage when I can.

But I won't compromise on certain parts... the hatches must be very strong, I'm thinking even aluminum. The steering gear will be a cable NFB type, sized for twin outboards. Controls will depend on the outboards I get. I'll have misc. stuff like grab bars I'll make myself, I'll probably buy generic cup holders, and I'm going to use a car stereo for sound.. not much room for that anyway I think.

Most of the critical hardware will be what most folks would consider oversize for a lake boat.. a lot of boats you buy now new have small bow eyes, if they have cleats at all they're light or small, etc. I'm going to have full size or larger bow, aft, and midships cleats, plus fender hangers, plus aluminum backing plates for all of them. I'll have an oversize bow eye and tow eyes.


On another subject, here's some info on what I did last night.

I triple-checked my measurements for the frames, and drew out slots for the stringers in them. I cut them out partway, mostly getting the outline and the slots cut, so I can use them for molding the hull panels. For those who didn't read my long messages above, I use the five molds upside down with the stringers on a strongback to align and help stitch the hull panels together. Then I glass the panels, fair, paint, and remove the hull from the mold and flip it. At that point I'll finish cutting the hull panel shapes out, so once I finish glassing the inside of the hull I can glass the stringers and frames in place.

Here's a pic of the frames once cut. I like this plywood, it's nice stuff.

I had to clear out some space in my basement to do the cutting. Not much room left in my garage, even with the table I took out gone. This is a pic of the strongback. It provides a fixed reference jig for building the hull.. it's not level, just straighter than the floor, and the sides don't match.

I tried to fit the whole thing in the pic, but it's too big. 20 foot long 2x8s on the sides, 2x8s crossing with 2x4 diagonals. It's shimmed up at the low end near the door.

Once I bolt/nail/clamp the frames in their places they'll stay put, which is what it's for. Until the hull is glassed and flipped, it'll make sure nothing moves, so I don't get a hook or twist in the hull.


I'm also going to do some off-plan changes to the design once the hull panels are on the molds and stitched together. Should be interesting. And hard.


Erik

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

Just a quick update for now... I can tell I haven't updated enough if the thread falls back onto page three.

I've been working on getting all the parts of the hull structure in place and on the strongback. So all five molds plus the transom and four stringers, all notched and fitted together upside down, at the right height, level, and the transom at the correct angle.

Once this is done and I'm sure everything is at the right height and is square, I can place hull panels on it and start stitching everything together. I'll post some pics of the whole thing before I start.

It's a big boat... I had to clean more stuff out of my work space just to have enough room to walk around it.

With luck I should have the hull shape done sometime this weekend, followed by glassing of the seams, which will give me the basic hull shape. After that I have to wait for biaxial glass to come in, about 20 yards of it, so I can glass the outside of the hull. Hopefully I'll get that order done and timed right so I don't have to wait long. I suppose if I do wait I'll work some on the trailer.

Pics soon!

Erik

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

One more thing, Oops... I'm shopping for some hardware at Greatlakesskipper... they have some great deals on OEM surplus stuff, which if I design for it will look factory on my boat.

Check it out and see if there's anything good for your project to use

 

[silveraire]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

eric, I just checked out the the link to the other build, what a great hull. I would get rid of the pulpit that he put on, but other than that, very nice.

GL on the build. As far as pics go, think of a good number of pics to post that will be very informative, then multiply that times about 10. That should keep us happy for a little while.

You will have a stunner when done.

chad

 

[bear_69cuda]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

Hey Eric,

I also just checked out the finished boat link.

What a great project! This is gonna be so cool to watch!

What motor are you thinking? The 115 looked like it was perfect for the other build...

The force is with you Jedi!

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

I'm actually modifying my build for twin outboards. I want the maneuverability you get with two screws. Plus the redundancy is nice.

So I'm modifying the transom and motorwell for double-wide so far, and my transom is unusually thick.. instead of the two layers of 3/8" ply plus a 1 inch clamp board the plans call for I've done a full height transom that's 2.5" thick all over. That's the thickness ABYC standards want for use of a 250 horse motor, which should be plenty strong for the abuse I'll give it with two 70s or so hanging on it.

Erik

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

Here's a quick update on the weekend's work. I have a couple pics here because I did spend a lot of time on this, but it's not all that impressive to look at.

I got my newly cut frames installed on the strongback and secured in position, each with a pair of 2x4 sections holding them up. They won't move much, if at all, when I'm putting the hull together on top of them.

For each one, I had to measure and cut the frame from the plan. Then I centered it on a string line on the strongback which was set up the appropriate distance from one side of the strongback by careful measurement.

Once centered the frame had legs attached so it would be centered again as soon as it was raised into position, and I measured the eventual height of the frame against the baseline side of the strongback. Then I put it roughly in place and clamped it.

Using a plumb bob against the pencil drawn centerline from when I cut the frames, I leveled the two supporting legs so the whole frame was level at the correct height, then I used a bubble level to make it straight up forward to aft.

Each frame should be at the right height, level in two directions, and spaced along the strongback just right now. Total time for all the frames was about six hours.

I started with the transom and middle frame, frame C.

That done, I filled in the aft section first... probably the most critical to get right because it has to be flat and symmetrical for planing.

It looks pretty good here:

Then I filled in the rest of the frames to the bow. These look a bit more off for some reason, possibly because I have to sand the "top" point a little bit to make the measured center line location match the pointy bit.

Finally I fitted the last frame in place, the one that is at the bow and forms part of the chain locker, along with the bow mold... basically a piece of wood that provides an attachment point to stitch hull panels to at the point of the mold, and keeps the very tip of the bow pointing a bit up and out, for that "ready for the waves" look.

So now I'm going to do some cross-checking with string lines and lasers to make sure it's all symmetrical, the frames are about the right height, and the back section is flat. Then I finish cutting the frame slots, and custom cut the stringers into their places, which may involve further frame adjustment... the stringer slots force the frames into alignment so the hull is straight.

After that I start stitching the hull panels.

Erik

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Winter..er, Spring build... boat from scratch

I couldn't find my camera memory card last night, and it was late, so I just went to bed.

I checked alignment and positioning again last night, making a few last checks before I call it perfect. I corrected a half inch position discrepancy in one frame and a sixteenth inch tilt on another. Not much, but I figure if I can see it, why not correct it.

I cut out the rest of the stringer slots and test fit the stringers, looks good so far except for depth of slots in one frame. I'll fix that tonight probably, then slot the stringers themselves. Once they're slotted and in place on the frames, I'm ready to start placing hull panels. I may have something that resembles a hull together by the weekend.

Erik