Day 58/59: Sanding and Varnish

Outside hull is sanded to 320grit.

Gunwale blocks and handrails have coat #3 of varnish. (The first two being thinned and the third unthinned.)

Flipped the boat rightside up and finished glassing the gutters of the bow and stern hatch.

Day 57: Sanding, Hatch Paint and Varnish

Chose Sherwin Williams Auto 2stage.  They were friendly and had good prices.  I'm itching to get started.

The boat will be orange/red with a blue stripe under the gunwale.

The hatches got some paint while the boat was upside down.  The tough to reach places were done while the floors and walls were left for when the boat is rightside up.

Ammo cans for the repair kit were sanded.

Gunwale blocks got their first coat of varnish.
Schooner Gold + Laquer thinner.

Handrails got a first coat too.

Day 55/56: Touch ups and Sanding

Okay, I take back what I said about system 3 quick fair... its not so quick.  It takes at least twice as long to sand and it smells toxic.  Will still be sanding tomorrow.

Inside the hatches have been touched up and sanded. The drill holes for the hatch hinges, hand rails and bow/stern eyes have gotten two coats of epoxy.

Been having fun putting colors together for the hull.  I think I'm going to go with something close to this.

Maybe a simplified version of this on the transom.

Day 53/54: Sanding and Fairing

Day 53 was a long day of sanding.  The new fillets and the outside hull were done.

Day 54 was a short day of fairing.  The outside hull received round 2.  The last 1/4 of the job was done with system 3 quick fair.  That stuff went on so smooth!  I wish I had used that for everything.  After talking with Raka on the phone this morning it should be compatible... fingers crossed.

Also went back into the hatches to fill scratches and dings with epoxy.

Uncle Tom, Aunt Lyla & Diane stopped by to check out the boat.  I can't wait to take them for a ride.

Day 52: Upside Down Fillets

My Dad and I rolled the boat over with the help of quite a few pulleys.  Its resting on 2 saw horses and continues to be supported by the rigging. I'll have to carefully rearrange the lines for sanding.

All of the interior fillets are done...whew! That was not my favorite stage of boat building.  It took 12 hours working by myself.  It was a bit grueling but I'm very excited as now the boat is fully water tight.  This is the first time that I've felt like the boat will eventually be finished.

Day 50 and 51: Hatch Lids and Hand Rails

My Dad Tom showed up with some Gems. -The ash handrails and more importantly... the wine rack!

To all future clients... port side hatch is where its at :)

I feel a river trip coming on...

Speaking of river trips -yes, we're ready.  We have oars!

Where's the beef? -right here.

10'6" with the handle end left octagonal raw.
This boat is gonna look too good, we've got to leave something to make it look homemade!

Tom was working hard while I was doing all that sanding.

Idea to reality.

The hardware has arrived... I can't wait until its time to go heavy metal!

Tom creates space for the hatch lid hinges.

Router + Jig = perfect fit.

Its all in the details.

Recess for the hinge.

It got epoxy then a second coat of epoxy+wood powder for wood protection.

All the holes for the hinge bolts were also drilled.

Cut out for the hatch lid latches.

The hatches and their latch cutouts.
All the exposed ply got 2 layers of epoxy/ epoxy+wood powder.

Hanger bolts installed on the hand rails. We also drilled the holes for install into the thwarts.

I drew out the constellation "Bootes" on the transom to start bringing in the Arcturus energy.

Day 48 and 49: Sanding

2 days of sanding and the decks are looking good.

Lonnie of Sundog Expeditions has been helping me out a lot with the info.  Details of the oars and now how the heck to paint this thing.  Thanks to him, I've got a plan now... just need to execute.

One of the reasons it took 2 days to finish the sanding was this detail...

In this pic: the top 2 inches of the inside hull are faired with wood powder instead of the microballoons.  I was worried the microballoons were not ideal for glueing on the gunwale so I used the wood powder which is more work to sand but hopefully better bonding capacity.

A little shout out to KEXP for keeping the energy high for these long sanding days.  Especially Sheryl Waters and the top albums of 2009 show.  Thank you!

Day 46 and 47: Deck Fairing3

Well, I am getting pretty fast on the epoxy dispenser rebuild.  I really need to keep this thing near the heat.  Once again the resin was the culprit.

The whole deck is faired now.  Just needs to be sanded.  The tops of the stern and bow hatches are not faired yet as the gutters still need to be glassed.

Also, went back to the passenger areas for another coat of fairing compound to even things up.

Sanded the "lip" pieces for the gutters and gave them one last coat of epoxy.

Painted a thin epoxy/wood powder mix onto the edges of the hatch lids.
Also did the same on the gutter edge which will support the edge of the hatch lid.

Yesterday I found some treasure on the beach.  A perfectly straight piece of UMHW, exactly the right length and width for the cross bars on my boat trailer.  Unbelievable!  There is lots of drift plywood out there too, it would take a year to dry out but it still could make good tables.

A few days ago I ordered the carriage bolts for the gunwale, bolts for the hatch hinges and hanger bolts for the ash handrails.

Dad is working away at the oars.

I'm hoping to go to town soon and pick out a paint color for the boat.  The star Arcturus is a honey colored star so I would like to pick a shade in that range.

Though the color on this piece of drift wood is pretty cool too.

Day 45: Flipping the Boat... Almost

Just waiting for the mail man to deliver the epoxy so I thought I'd flip the boat and prepare it for the fillets.

It was really fun to do the rigging.  I have limited equipment so things were not quite ideal but at least solid.  The boat raised up well and then came the flip.  This pic is the stage where things came to a halt.  Just couldn't get things all the way over so I returned the boat to rightside up.  Its only about a 1/2 inch off the ground here... not an inch to spare!

I think I can make things happen with a few more prussik loops.   If that doesn't work I'll have to get a second person to help make it work.

Right before I set the boat back down I found that one of the lines was failing.  I was in panic mode to get the boat back down on the dolly.  Super lucky it didn't just snap.

Got all my river permit applications out today.  Hope I score something this year!  I'll actually be ready this time.

Day 44: Deck Fairing2

Just popped into the shop to check on the heat and it turned out the fairing was cured enough to sand so I went for it.

I'm really happy about how it looks/feels.  With the thick coat, the edges are super protected and no more coats are needed.  I should have been doing this thick coat method all along.  It also seems to cure faster.

I hand sanded all the edges... gonna have to really look them over and make sure they all have a consistent curve.

I'm psyched the BQR showed up in the mail today.  Looking forward to going off into river dream land with it.

Headed to Seattle tomorrow to hardware shop and go over the oar plans with my Dad.  Gonna have to pick out some paint here soon.  Can't believe its really getting to that stage!  First were gonna have to figure out how to flip this boat over though.