The Minutes of a Dory Build

Driftwood Drift Boat Timelapse

2011-11-08T02:22:00.000-08:00

Driftwood Dory Construction: Hull Assembly

2011-11-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

The hull came together just like the plans said they would. Things pretty much lined up without adjustments needing to be made. "That 'll do."

The cross-boards helped to keep the frames flush with the bottom chine.

My rafting strap kit came in handy for holding things together while the frames were fastened to the hull with ring nails.

The bow frames took some extra effort to get into place. I should have fastened those first... just like the directions said. Yup, I should have read those first.

Fun moment, fairing the base of the bowpost.

Not so even or fair but that 'll do!

Whitewater bulkheads made from driftwood.

Lookin' boat-like. Not pretty but strong as an ox.

Whitewater decks installed and a coat or 3 of Oil, Varnish, Turpentine.

Whitewater hatches, check. Driftwood hand rails, check. Goudy flowers to make her a bachelorette boat, check.

Driftwood foot braces.

Driftwood trim.

Driftwood transom.

Ugly but good.

I sure hope these hatches are big enough to carry all our beer.

Some of the hardware like the bow and stern eye came from a store in Anacortes, WA that salvages from all the boat yards there. Really cool, really cheap.

The bailing buckets and stern lines also came from beach/ ocean drift.

It's a little off, but so am I and so are the trip passengers... a perfect fit.

Looks like it'll float. Wondering how fast it will leak. The bilge pump is already packed.

You'd think all that decking was built to keep it afloat in the whitewater, but you'd be wrong. It was built so that you can sleep on the boat at night. Thats the best part of the trip in my book.

Fast forward to the pack up and trip to the river. Fellow tripod member finds our route. Check out the rickety drift wood trailer. Yes, it held up the whole way!

I don't know why I put all that work into building a boat when we could have just gone down on a log. Oh well, you live and learn.

Our bachelorette and passenger Sabastian aprove of the driftwood dory's slighly leaky but nimble lines

Inflatable man for safety, check.
metallic unitard, check.
Captain's hat and veil, check.
Leopard print pin stripping, check.

Yeah, I think we've got everything. Lets head downstream!

She's just so darn cute. I couldn't add the driftwood boat to the bonfire. I think she'll last another season. Then I'll have to put her down.

Well, the drift wood dory actually held up better than expected so we kept it for another season. The drift wood trailer however did achieve its destiny as a fuel source for a rip roaring bonfire party.

Driftwood Dory Construction: Lofting

2011-11-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

The dream... A boat made of driftwood, on the cheap, no chemicals, a big 'ol boat bonfire at the end of the trip. Say goodbye to storage fees!

30 days of building in the beautiful sunshine. Nailed it! But not before de-nailing it... The driftwood lumber that is. I may have developed some good karma by removing a major tetanus hazard from sunlight beach.

Beach combing is a lot more fun than shopping at the lumber yard. After a couple days and a bunch of hand carried loads I had what I needed to begin cutting the frames.

Drift plywood got stacked for drying. I nearly sank my rowboat gathering these heavy pieces. That would have been pretty ironic. I am sure the residents of sunlight beach were a little perplexed and possibly entertained by my attempts to transport these sheets of waterlogged plywood.

The transom begins to take shape from a nice 3/4" piece of drift-ply.

Having done it once, I would not recommend cutting frames from driftwood. Perhaps with a table saw it might work better. Very time consuming. Though, having done it once, does increase the odds that I'll do it again!

Frames are ready for assembly. Quite the mix of woods. I had to do 2 over again as they disintegrated when the screws went in.

I found this piece half buried in the sand. Carrying/ dragging/ rolling/ tumbling this log a 1/4 mile down the beach proved entertaining for local residents.

41.7 degrees... perfect! Well, close enough.

Sawing a bowpost by hand.... Whew! My muscles are now ready for rowing season.

Drift Boats & River Dories by Roger Fletcher, $50 bucks. Building a boat with deck screws and driftwood, $ priceless.

Lines: The 16ft Double-Ender with Transom by Woodie Hindman

Starting to wonder if this driftwood is actually gonna hold up.

Kleo the cat is doubtful.

With transom, bow post and frames constructed...

Time for what boatbuilders do best.

Another beach combing find. The driftwood dory takes on its character. The love boat.

My neighbor Curtis lent me his building construction scrap pile. ...Boat building gold! 3/8" ply for the bottom. A little thin but as my motto for this boat build goes... "That 'll do."

Also from the scrap pile, 2x6" lumber which I ripped with a power hand saw and hand planed ... also not recommended. Gunwales and chine logs, Check.

Next step, wait for the right weather to glue the scarfs for the plywood panels, gunwales and chine logs.

Lower Salmon River MegaBachelorette

2011-11-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Lower Salmon River, ID
August 8, 2011
10,000? cfs
10 lost souls
3 boats, 1 hunk of rubber

Meredith christens the newest member to the tripod fleet... The Exodus. Made from driftwood and reclaimed construction scraps.

And yup, that's top shelf vodka pouring from the tupperware... long story.

Meredith makes her way toward Green Canyon with her designated highsider, Sebastian.

The Exodus aka the Love Boat carries the bride to be down stream.

Yes, that is a leopard print pin stripe.

The trusty Zizumara does what she does best... cocktail hour.

And serves as a pretty darn good dance floor.

Good water, good weather, gooder people.

The Exodus exceeded expectations and will live to run another day.

Fixing the Boat 3

2011-02-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

Sure is fun putting the final touches on the Ziz. I feel like she's a real boat now that the first big dings are out of the way. In fact I'm fond of the carnage stories of my first wooden boat trip through Grand Canyon. I thought I should somehow record the Ziz's story. I thought about writing trip notes into the left side hatch, maybe a little notebook that stays with the boat... But both those options probably would wash or wear away. I decided on the recording method below:

1/2 Inch lettering with a layer of clear coat over it. I'm hoping it will hold up for at least one season. It will be easy to reapply and 3 sheets of stickers only costs .99 cents.

Same thing here. The letters are tucked up under the gunwale, but they are there if you're lookin'.

The oar stops are epoxied and just need a quick sand to get them gliding in the oarlock.

Little details.. Drain holes in the wine shelf for when massive water pummels the deck or when the boat is in submarine mode after 205 mile rapid.

The foot rest was reset at a better angle. I had it too steep so that I was only on the balls of my feet. It also was sanded and got a few new coats of varnish.

The handrails were revarnished and bolted back on the boat.

The front cross hatch was screwed back into place. Its starting to look like a brand new boat again.

Fixing the Boat 2

2011-01-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

The Zizumara is getting ready for the epic snowmelt that is gonna be racing down our mountains. Most of the patching has been done, the oar locks are bolted into place and the gunwales are looking good. Here is a little recap of the repair project.

This is a view of the bottom of the boat. Note the hairline smiley face crack. You might think, no big deal. Not a bad hit at all...

Argh! A little uglier view from the inside. This is round one of picking out the shattered plywood.

Round 2 of picking out the useless wood. Note all the grey Grand Canyon grit coating the wood.

Final round of shattered wood removal. The orange glow is the light from the heater showing through the exterior glass. It took weeks to dry out this zone. It was completely saturated and spongy. A large portion of the thwart had to be removed as well. The wood was just turned into tiny bits and pieces between flawless glass.

Patch complete with new glass, fillets and glass tape. You can see here how much of the thwart was replaced. The rock hit which caused this damage was directly under the thwart.

The purple fairing goes down and is sanded to 320 same as the rest of the boat.

The anti-skid texture was epoxied to the bottom.

The zone where the new texture and old texture meet is gonna look a little obvious as some of the epoxy coated the old textured area and will make it look too smooth. Ahh...close enough. This zone is gonna get bashed again.

Primed and ready for the color coat.

Not perfect but done. I think the bottom will look better once it gets a little worn like the rest.

One issue I had to fix on the Ziz was gunwale bolts. They were pulling through the wood. On this photo you can see a dark shadow just below the bolt head.

The other issue on the gunwale was water damage where the varnish rubbed off.

Here is an image of the indented wood with the bolt removed.

Here is the fix. I filled the indentation with wood flour and fiberglass fillet then when it was nearly set I created a square notch for the carriage bolt to fit.

With the gunwales varnished and all the bolt issues cared for it took only an hour to fasten the bolts and the oar lock.

The Ziz is ready for the water now!

The one place on the boat that had a problem which wasn't due to user error... kind of, was the front cross hatch area. During the summer the wood expanded and popped the glass. Somehow water must have been getting in and after tearing off the old glass I think I found the problem zone. This area looked water damaged.

I cleaned it up, dried it out and put in some epoxy filler then glassed over the whole area again. Laid down a layer of fairing compound and got to painting.

Primed.

Color coat.

Another fun project was working on a repair of a friends oar. Its a beautiful 10 foot solid ash smoker oar. The blade was nearly snapped in half when a gust of wind took it and our kitchen tarp airborne. Luckily, most of the crew was in the kitchen because we had been blown out of our own tents. We captured things just in time. I straightened out the blade by wetting one side and placing weight on the other. It took a few weeks but it worked!

All varnished up and ready to feel the Canyon again.

Fixing the Boat

2010-11-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

The river season has ended and the rains are coming in on the west coast. My first priority with the boat is to get it dried out.

The gunwales took a beating where the tie down straps rubbed. It took off the varnish and water got into the wood.

The other issue was that the varnish itself was recalled by the manufacturer and has not held up well so I decided to sand it all off and start over.

I've chiseled out the crushed wood from the hit I took in 205 mile. The damage went all the way through the 1/2" plywood but the outside glass is still intact.

Its possible to do a fillet patch but that will make this zone very inflexible. It will be the easiest way to fix this though.

On the outside of the hull the only damage is this hairline crack. After I fix the inside, I'll flip the boat over and lay down a glass patch.

The thwart was the most damaged zone. The damage goes all the way though. I think I'll have to cut out the bottom of the thwart and put in new plywood, glass and fillets. The rock hit was directly under the thwart.

This damage has me scratching my head a little bit. The ply is damaged underneath the glass but not very badly. Its temping to make sure its dry and then seal it up with epoxy.

The gunwale took a big hit too but looks only lightly damaged. I still may scarf in a new section of gunwale here though.

Well, at least the Zizu didn't have to be abandoned like Bert's.

Zizumara Runs the Colorado

2010-10-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

Sept 28 - Oct 15 2010
Constant 8,000 CFS ...we thought.

Fueling up at Late for the Train in Flag. Then we hit the road toward Fredonia to pack up for the trip.

Before the Ziz was dipped in the Colorado she was christened with Martin's favorite.. Sheep Dip. -I think it may have stripped a little of the paint off!

At the ferry the weather was perfect. In the evening we were treated to incredible music from the fine men of Can-X.

We started the trip with clear water and high temps. Gorgeous!

The Ziz is a dream boat.

Though its so loaded at this point my footwell has 5" of water in it. The hatches are full to the top and I feel like it wants to take off on its own.

Luckily I am carrying produce so it should get lighter.

At Saddle we really started getting into the groove.

Everybody had sweet lines through our first big drops.

The Ziz is loving the Canyon's currents.

Dory sleeping is nice.

Around Lava Chuar the sky starts looking a bit ominous.

Above Unkar we are treated to a light show.

Then it comes... Wind and rain, flash floods, camp goes airborne, the river goes red and the rapids get mean.

Overnight the river rises 3ft... possibly 3,000 more cfs. Just in time to run Hermit and the inner gorge. Yippee?

Things get a bit wild and I forgot to take pictures from here on out. Hoping the clients will fill in the gap!

Crystal Rapid officially breaks in the Ziz... literally.

We went into the left wall and hit the 2nd fang. The sound was horrible but luckily we hit directly where a thwart meets the hull. The gunwale was scratched and about 1 inch below the gunwale and the hull has a hairline crack. Everybody stayed in the boat too.

A piece of duct tape took care of the fix. Whew! Got lucky.

They say its good luck to have a clean boat.

Uh-oh.

Still in one piece below Lava Falls... I can breathe now.

...Until 205 leaves its mark. Had a huge hit at the bottom of the steepest drop I've ever run. There was plywood floating in the footwell... I was sure we were sinking.

Somehow we didn't flip. I hope someone has a photo of me trying to row an underwater boat. The Ziz was going back to her dolphin roots.

She's a sturdy boat! Just a big compression buckle. Not even a hole. Patched with epoxy putty during lunchtime and back on the water towards our last night's camp.

The trip was incredible.

Wild weather, an awesome crew and the Ziz was a dream come true.

Can't wait to do it again.

The Ziz is back above Lava!

Lower Salmon River & the Maiden Voyage

2010-07-27T22:12:00.000-07:00

July 12, 2010. Lower Salmon River, Idaho. The Zizumara touches the river for the first time. A-Team eases her into her new watery home.

10 souls. 100,00LBS of gear. Most of which was outfits and champagne.

Dressed to impress... yes, we are still at the put-in.

The Zizumara receives her blessings and hopefully hears our prayers for safe travels.

And a little bubbly for us!

We loaded the boat with the essentials and shoved off.

Perfect day for a maiden voyage.
Dog claws making sure I don't get too attached to the paint job.

We got to our favorite camp early and took full advantage. And a good excuse for a wardrobe change.

The gunwales were dressed in LED for the evening.
She matched her namesake -Delphinius in the sky.

Next day we get our first taste of some whitewater.
We got a little sideways in Wrightway and at 15k it was huge. Good thing I had 2 awesome highsiders. Perhaps I should have put the rubber chines on the boat...

Prepare for launch. 3...2...1...

First rocket ship ride for the ZIZ. Good highsiding Bro!

Kindred souls.

The Ziz takes a break from the whitewater for a little lunch in the sun.
At some point this day I took 1/2" off the Ziz's nose after hitting a meta-limestone wall in cougar canyon. It was about as low impact as you get but still enough to put the first ding in the boat. Glad its over, now I can relax.

There's a little magic in the left side hatch.

Ziz=Party venue.

Ziz=Dance floor.

Ziz=Bed... not tonight!

All ship shape and ready to run China... on the right! woo!

Close up.

Basically, the Zizumara is a floating bar. If only I could bring the bartender on every trip. Yoohoo...Ken!

Beautiful last night in Blue Canyon. View from the perch at Buzzards.

Fine bailing technique after a big run in Eye of the Needle.
Then out to the Snake and finally the take out.
Not bad for a maiden voyage.

Maiden Voyage or Bust

2010-07-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

When the boat letters arrived in the mail I was jumping for joy, but, I was too nervous to put them on by myself. I was terrified of putting them on crooked or in the wrong place.

After consulting with people in the know I finally decided to tackle the last big step on the boat.

Gail the design guru gave me the "how to" and then set me free to sink or swim.

A bit nerve racking.
No second chances.

Almost there.

Beginners luck.

Phew!
The Zizumara is river ready.

Nizina River 2010

2010-06-30T01:10:00.000-07:00

From our wharehouse/shed/den in Valdez, we set off in our friend Jeff's truck enroute to McCarthy, AK. About 2/3 of the way through the trip we pass over the Kuskalana River which we would eventually see again as it emptied into the Chitna River just downstream of our last night's camp.

Just outside of town we backed the truck up to the footbridge for our first major gear portage into the town of McCarthy. As we loaded gear onto a hand truck we ran into a friendly and hairy Alaskan who oriented us to the happenings, weather, and nature of the place. He seemed a great guy and little did we know that we would run into him again at the perfect time. We waved him goodbye and good luck on his fishing excursion to Chitina.

It took quite a few trips back and forth across the footbridge and Lonnie gave us a ride our first time back to the gear pile, certain he'd convince us that "portaging is fun!"

The foot bridge ran over the fast moving current of the Kennicott river. Elena and I noted how scary it looked and were glad not to be running it.... Or so we thought.

Pilot Gary loaned us his truck for our gear portage to the airport. The truck's doors were dukes of hazards style... you could either go in through the windows or have someone really burly lift the door open for you.

By the time Gail and the clients arrived we were close to being done with the gear transfer and rode back to the airport to set up camp.

Just off the runway and within a too close for comfort distance from the jet fuel tanks we set up camp and sorted gear for the trip. Lonnie hits the sky with Gary to scout the river and when he came back about an hour early from his flight we knew something was up.

Turns out the river is extremely low.

Meanwhile the crew scours town for supplies. We score a shovel in the general store that has everything from dip-nets to gluten-free pancake mix.

We all meet up for dinner with the clients. It seems we are the first big tour group to come through town as the servers have a look of fear in their eye as we walk through the doors. They inform us they have very little of what is on the menu and so we are served burgers and fish. The food is decent and they have beer on tap so almost everybody is happy.

So, on the scout mission, Lonnie counted a minimum of 20 potential portages. So after dinner he decides we need to do a little recon... We head to the local guide shack for some answers.

We run into Gaia, owner of Copper Oar. We have a great time talking to her and get a glimpse of all the fun stuff they're running out of there. The only info that we get is that the Jökulhlaup is unlikely to happen while we are on the river. ...but you never know.

So we wander town a bit in the never setting sun and eventually make it back to the airstrip where we rest our heads for the night. Wondering if we'll ever get to run the Nizina or if the Jökulhlaup will sweep us away if we do...

Next morning, the crew drinks cup after cup of coffee as we discuss what to do about the low water. Lonnie decides to fly into the Nizina glacier as planned but just camp for 3 nights and fly back to run the lower stretch of the Nizina in hopes of avoiding the 20 portage scenario. The crew gives him the thumbs up.

Then we head up the hillside to check out the Kennicott copper mine before we raceback to catch a ride on the Pilatus Porter to the Glacier.

We do a last minute sorting of the gear and try to extract the river gear and food that we will not need for the Glacier. Gary is fast and he has the plane packed and ready to fly in no time.

We fly the Nizina river corridor and the water sure does look low. We fly over Dan creek and the Nizina doesn't come anywhere near its outflow. The Valdez newspaper is reporting 70 year record lows for many river systems. Spring is late 'round here.

We have a smooth landing on an old glacial eskar and as soon as we dump the gear, Gary is off to pick up Elena and Kevin.

We check out our camp site and get psyched on the glacier views. We bust out a few portages while we wait for Elena and Kevin to arrive.

With 5 crew the full portage is complete and we celebrate with a beer. It feels good to finally be here!

As the sun sets on the glacier we head to bed.

Next morning the clients begin arriving and we begin portaging their gear and getting them oriented to camp. They arrive in a light rain and we hustle to get a big fire going to welcome them to their new home by glacial lake Nizina.

After everyone got their tents set up the clouds began to lift. Most of the "talks" were completed and we gathered our group for the most important talk of all... the "this is Alaska and we never really know whats gonna happen next" talk.

Later on, we headed down stream to meander the flood plains of the Nizina river.

Walked along old moraines for iceberg viewing.

Scouted the boundary between the lake and the flow of river.

We then headed back to camp. The crew ladies and I cooked up a salmon dinner and gazed on the spectacular views until it was time to turn in.

Next morning we woke to a breeze coming off the glacier. It was a bit chilly but it was pushing the icebergs across the lake and towards our camp for some nice views.

Kevin took advantage of the event to hitch a ride on a particularly close berg. ...Brave soul.

After Kevin was safe back on land, Lonnie gave a "glacier talk" to the clients before our trek out to view the Nizina Glacier. It appeared that it was going to be the long version so decided I'd have some time to fix my hiking boots before we left. Well, about 2 minutes into my project...

It was my hand that needed fixing.

Luckily Elena knew just what to do and had me prepped and numbed up for our client and expedition Doc Julie to stitch me up.

The clients fed me some whisky to make me feel better and we all trotted off to the glacier and had a fun hike.

We saw lots of tracks and gathered way too many rocks.

While Kevin contemplated other iceberg surfing adventures, Lonnie had everyone gathering cotton for his artwork back home in Idaho.

We headed back to camp for dinner and all went to bed early for the coming early morning portage and fly out back to McCarthy.

Back in McCarthy we began the next portage of gear from the airstrip to the Kennicott river. While Lonnie and Kevin looked for a put-in site I wandered the street of McCarthy looking for a trustworthy soul to take my raft back to Chitina as my shoe repair gone awry had left me unable to row.

I had lined up some ladies to drive the gear to Chitina when I ran into hairy Alaska man from the footbridge, he was pulling the stitches out of his hand which had just healed from a mountaineering accident. And as fate would have it he wanted to row my boat down river with us to Chitina. Fantastic!

So off we go to the Kennicott river that no one been down, that looks terrifying, in the rain, and is ripping along at mach speed with our new friend Tyler who we hope knows how to row.

We are psyched to finally be on the river but this water is a little intimidating. Somehow Lonnie reads the braids and gets us to a camp without incident. We set up in the rain and just kinda make it through the night. Elena and I share a tent perched right on the river bank and have our nerves rattled by the proximity of the rising current. We are all tired from the portages and the thought of running the Nizina Gorge tomorrow where the previous week someone died is pressing on the mind.

The next morning we head out on the Kennicott river and onto the confluence with the Nizina. Its mixed clouds and rain but as we approach the gorge the scenery is getting really cool. We stop on a gravel bar to change into wetsuits for the gorge and play a game of rock paper scissors tag to warm up. Only about half of us figure out how the game works so there is a lot of people running into eachother which is pretty funny.

We run the gorge without incident. The low water has turned the famed hydrolics into runnable joyrides. We get to the confluence of the Chitina and decide to lunch over there. We go on a walk and gather rocks, view tracks, and discover wildflowers. Back in camp the clients build a solstice rock cairn while we set up hot showers.

Kevin and Tyler opt for the Alaskan shower. That is some cold water!!

With everybody clean and happy we gather for some solstice songs.

With a bucket drum and a hair comb kazoo we have a trio.

Next day we set out on the Chitina river. The sun pops out every now and then and the cameras come out again.

Tyler is super stoked to be on the river. Turns out he knows what he's doing out here and has run many of the rivers our crew has. Maybe we can coax him down to run the Salmon with us.

Lonnie finds camp on river left amidst huge driftwood piles. The sun comes out in earnest and its gorgeous.

Elena and I take a quick hike up to a lateral moraine before we race down to cook dinner. Nice views and we manage to avoid the bears.

We throw together dinner in the sun and cook up a beautiful piece of king salmon that Tyler brought with him.

After dinner, people head off to bed and I take advantage of the hours of daylight and zero bugs to enjoy the evening and get in a good read before heading off to bed myself.

The next morning we wake to rain and its really coming down. We end up not getting out of camp until 10:30.

We get to our last camp above the Kuskalana delta in the clouds but by the time dinner arrives the sun is shinning once again.

After dinner, Kevin and I write a song for our trip.

We are treated to an eternal Alaskan sunset.

Great last night.

On our last day we join up with the Copper river and just barely make our take-out at Obrien Creek. Tyler and I almost flip in a tube sucking hydrolic then the same feature sends Kevin across the river to a different braid. Then a huge boil sends Elena's boat rocketing to the other side of the river just as we are trying to pull in to Obrien Creek.

We all make it and then portage the gear along the creek bed to the trucks. Somehow lunch gets made. We pile into the vehicles and head toward Chitina. We run into Liz along the way and say goodbye and thank you to our new friend Tyler. We arrive in Chintina which has been transformed into a tourist town, though I must say a definite improvement over the shady place it once was. We get to pet puppies and drink esspresso and chat with hippie architects. Then back to the truck for a final drive through the rain to Valdez for the de-rigg.

The trip had a bit of that epic feel. Like a month went by in the course of a week. A classic Alaskan river trip.

Copper River 2010

2010-06-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

June 4-11.
The previous week we heard a group of rafters had to hack their way through the ice on miles lake... we were going regardless.

Lonnie and Kevin push through the wind towards spirit mountain -day 1

The first night we camped in a new place on a silt bar, river left. It was out of the wind and a gorgeous little spot. We were all happy to be there.

Camp 2 we made it to Dewy creek by lunch time. We had a nice hike and came back to a fairly wind free dinner. In this pic our new 15' rafts, double tied, against the currents.

Next day we shot through the Tasuna delta faster and with easier than ever before. We set up for lunch on a snowy bench, river right, just below the Tasuna and midway through the Bremner Dune.

Lonnie scopes out our lunch spot...hmm. Lots of snow!

Camp 3 was just downstream, tucked into the alder, away from the winds.

Next day we weaved our way down to the Werneke river camp which had great vies of Mt. Williams.

Just before dinner we got to watch a black bear romp through the slough and up a stream drainage close to camp. Pretty awesome!

Camp 4 at Werneke we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

After the sun went down, I headed back to the tent for a read before my head hit the pillow hard.

Next morning we woke to major rain but the day improved. We all had a great day relaxing on our werneke layover.

Just before dinner we had two groups float by. Our first people spotting of the trip.

Night 5 was beautiful again and Keevin treated us to some capfire tunes.

Day 5 was glacier day. We also, spotted a brown bear with two cubs near Abercrombie Rapid.

In this pic Lonnie is teaching the clients about glaciers with Miles glacier in the background.

While at lunch at Miles Glacier had the biggest calving I've ever seen. We ran to our boats and got on them just in time as a pretty good breaking wave tossed our boats all over the place and up onto shore. Luckily we got them back into the water using the surging waves to help.

Next we floated past Childs Glacier. You can barely make out Kevin's boat infront of the massive front of Childs.

Camp 6 was just below Childs. We had good weather and a nice dinner as we watched icebergs float on by.

The next day we floated through the delta to our take out at 38 mile. We had to line our rafts upstream for a bout 2 hours to get to the take out spot. The low water created some uncrossable currents for us to contend with.

Eventually we made it back to Cordova, a little later than expected, and got on the ferry bound for Valdez.

We arrived in Valdez about 2:30AM and went straight to the boathouse to get some much needed zzzs.

Owyhee River 2010

2010-05-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

April 30-May 4: Rome to Birch Creek

We had a couple days of cold weather to start the trip. This pic is our lunch spot just a few miles downstream from the put-in at about 3,400ft of elevation.

Luckily there wasn't much precipitation just cold and clear.

The night skies were spectacular and the full moon was like daylight when it crept over the canyon walls at about 4AM.

Sunrise the next morning brought some welcome warmth but then suddenly changed into swirling snowflakes and some fierce winds. The crew pushed back and we made it to a great camp for the 2nd night. The sun broke through just as the wine was uncorked and the fire was lit in time to warm us for dinner.

Our time on the Owyhee swung wildly between cold and windy to calm and sunny. Day 3, we had a cool morning but as we moved out of the canyon and into the wide open Chalk Basin the heat turned up.

This is a pic of us floating downstream, descending into the Lambert Rocks formation of Chalk Basin.

Day 3, our pre-lunch hike was set amongst the castles of Chalk Basin.

Clients are pulled into the shadowy unknown.

Inside the volcanic tuff hoodoos, sculpted rooms emerge.

...Wandering through light and shadows.

...Wish we could explore here for days.

...Working our way back into the daylight.

More hoodoos as we ascend the trail.

Camp 3.

We had a huge Salmon dinner. The Silvers were so big I thought they were Kings. Lonnie brought them back from AK last year.

So far we had seen too many birds to list, otters, big horn, and a few mysterious fish rises.

We put on the river at about 1600cfs and by the time we got to Montgomery Rapid the river had fallen to 1000cfs. Montgomery wasn't too bad but Nuisance was challenging. We also had nuclear winds at Nuisance and watched a group take horrible runs which didn't help the nerves any bit.

Luckily we had Minister John to bless our boats and we all made it through.

We all made the pull in to our last night's camp and had fun sipping fine wine from McMinville while hunkered down against brutal wind gusts. The clients pulled off an amazing tent raising spree post cocktails and managed to get everyone's tent put up without any of them taking flight in the winds.

On the last day, with a blessing from John, we set afloat toward the take out at Birch creek, elevation 2,600ft. The water was down to 920cfs but we made it through the rock maze and to a sunny and quiet take out.

Tables, Boxes, etc...

2010-05-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Just finishing up little projects:

Mounted the nameplate in the left side hatch.

Varnished the blocks for locking down the spare oars.

Laced on the oar sleeves of the other two oars.

Filled the oarlock side of the oarstop with epoxy filler to smooth it out.

Hot waxed the leather oar sleeve and oar stop with a couple rounds of left over ski wax.

The heat from the iron seemed to help the leather soak up the wax.

Built a folding table with plywood scraps and some found pieces of fir. My Dad made some nice looking table legs from the spare pieces of ash.

My Dad made a really sweet little kitchen utensils box.

I sealed it with epoxy, did some minor fairing and painted it.

Made a seat for the "groover".

Painted the groover in a Gucci theme.

Day 105: The launch continued...

2010-03-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 27th 2010 the Zizumara is christened in Elliot Bay.

*Photos by Peter Neu.

Mom readies the champagne and fellow river guide Meredith brought all the dory goodies... Tulips, welcome mat, bailing bucket, sponge, sweeper... so perfect.

Fellow river guide, Helmut brings the good vibes.

The cork is popped and the bow is christened.

May the Zizumara be blessed with endless snow melt waters and safe passage from mountain to sea.

To the Zizumara!

The starboard side is christened.

May the Zizumara never feel the touch of a boulder!

The stern is christened.

May the Zizumara be blessed by the playful and joyous spirit of the constellation Zizumara!

The port side is christened.

May the crew and passengers of the Zizumara have safe passage!

Co-builder Tom receives his Zizumara brass plaque to mount in the port side hatch...next to the wine rack.

Dad & I pre-launch.

Tommy is commandeered to launch the boat... Just a little pressure!

Pops off the trailer like a dream. Perfect launch, nice work Tommy!!

We take off on the maiden voyage.

Dad takes her for a spin and tries out his work.

Brother Pete takes a turn on the sticks.

Me, taking a tug on the oars.

Tommy pilots the family along the Bay.

Its a party boat.

Cheers Zizumara!

A day to remember.

Day 105: The launch!

2010-03-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

So happy!

Just loaded the boat on the trailer, and on my way to the launch.

Stopped at home to pic up my brother and got to show off the boat to the neighbors and my cousin Sarah and family.

Me & the Zizumara

Pete & I

We headed to the launch site and went across the road to the Alki Tavern for a little pre-launch celebration. Met some fellow boat builders there and set the stage for a fun time.

The gang begins to gather for the launch.

....Actual launch pictures are coming! I was so excited I didn't take a single shot. My brother however has the professional documentation. Stay tuned...

The christening and launch went smoothly and we had a great time in the Seattle sunshine. We rowed around Elliot Bay and then moved on to Salty's restaurant to party.

My Mom made it all happen. Great food, drinks, people and stories. We had pics of the build playing in the background and a grey whale spouted in front of the dock where we were celebrating.

The next day my Mom & I went out for a morning row before breakfast. Got to really take it for a spin and test it out. Its really sweet!!

The bow of the Zizumara with Seattle in the background.

Mom pushes on the oars.

The Zizumara got a wash down from a rain squall that hit just as we pulled her out of the bay. The spring flowers welcomed her into life as a boat.

Back on the trailer and ready for the ride home.

An experience to always remember.

Day 104: Oar sleeves

2010-03-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

The sleeves take some focus to accomplish.... 2 of 4 got done.

Looks like a wreck...

A little less chaos...

O kay, this might work...

Brother Pete pulls the lines through the sleeve.

The Zizumara hosts its first salmon dinner.

Not bad for a first try. Hope the epoxy cures for tomorrow's launch!

Day 103: Hardware

2010-03-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Today, the oar locks were installed. The bronze looks pretty good.

Also got the missing gunwale blocks put in place and bolted, cleaned the deck paint of varnish drips, fixed some varnish flaws in the oars and measured them to fit the oar sleeves.

"before"
Re-drilled the holes in the hand rails. The umbrellas I ordered were too big for the holes. The specs said the umbrella pole was 1 /4 inch, but it turned out they were actually1 5/16" inches. It was nerve racking cutting the new holes but it turned out really well. ...and we'll need the umbrellas for the launch in the Seattle rain.

"after"

Day 102: Varnish and details2

2010-03-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

Varnish is at round 8 on the gunwales and 9 on the oars. I think I may stop there as I'd like the varnish to get a full cure before it hits the saltwater in a few days.

Installed the foot brace.

The foot straps came from a local surf shop. $5bucks in the bargain bin. They'll work for now while I track down a nice piece of ash or make some custom straps.

Installed the boatman's hand rails that my Dad made. Still have to make a seat... after the christening this weekend.

Day 101: Varnish and details

2010-03-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

Varnished round 7 on the gunwales and round 8 on the oars.

The table pieces were painted.

Prepped the UMHW that I found on the beach for use on the trailer.
I didn't have a measuring tape so things were just eyeballed. I'll find out tomorrow if I got it.

It was fun to chisel this material. It was sort of like hard candle wax.

Hope it works.

Day 100: Commercial name plates and repairs

2010-03-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

Woohoo its day 100 and things are looking good. The commercial name plates were sprayed today. It was a little frustrating as one of the spray guns stopped working midway but the big gun was put to use and worked well. Also was working with very little air capacity so things were not quite pro but will do for now.

The oars got round 7 of varnish. I was too tired at the end of the day to do the gunwales.

The boat took its first hit a couple weeks ago when my Dad stepped into the stern of the boat before supports were under it. The bow went to the ceiling and the stern hit the deck pretty hard. I sanded the damage and filled it with auto glaze, sanded, then painted.

This is "before".

"After"

I'll get the black on tomorrow.

When I first painted the boat I left the tape on too long and when I peeled off the tape I pulled off the base coat. (You can see the grey primer showing the flaw)

I did my best to fix this but I really didn't know what I was doing.

It turned out so so. The photo makes it look a lot better than it is.

Also had some big gouges from flipping the boat a bit too hastily.

They are a bit more hidden now but I'll have to learn how to repair this kind of thing a little better.

Day 99: Varnish and oar locks

2010-03-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Round 6 of the varnish. Starting to get the hang of it.

The boat is looking pretty cute.

Used a razor blade to pick up the varnish that had escaped the gunwale.

Notice the blade is bent. I learned this trick on youtube from an auto paint guy with a sweet mullet.

The textured areas are looking a lot better after a second coat of paint. Some areas aren't perfect but I'm calling it good anyhow.

Polished up the cobra oarlocks. Started at 100 grit and worked up to 2000 then some roten stone powder. They could still use some buffing but they're not bad for now.

The lock on the left is the original; center is after the 100 grit; right is finished.

Day 98: Hatch seal and details

2010-03-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

After a trip to the mainland for supplies the weathersrtip/hatch seal was installed. 1/4"thick x 1" wide, closed cell neoprene foam. It was a fun project and things are fitting well.

Also installed the blue strap which holds the hatch lid in place when it is in the open position. Its nice to have that done so I can clear the deck of all the supports I was using to prop up the lids.

Inside the rear cross hatch I installed a couple hammock hooks for the ukulele.

Applied a second coat of deck paint to the textured areas.

Here is a "before" of the starboard side hatch.

After

Port side hatch "before"

After

Day 97: Redos and life line

2010-03-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

Installed the eyelets for the life line. I was excited that I chose the right length for the screws. My measurements usually need readjustment, maybe I'm finally getting the hang of it.

Used a micro amount of clear silicone in the joint. Used 10-32 machine screws for a tight fit. I also learned from a guy at the hardware store that silicone breeds mold.

Also installed the d-rings which will secure the hatch lid strap.

I bought the wrong size strap for the d-ring. That was redo #1 of the day. It takes a trip to the mainland to fix this one.

Installed the ash handrails. I had to readjust the pre-drilled holes a little bit. -Redo #2.

Upon closer inspection of the grey inside hatch gutter, it became clear that I had major paint failure. It looked o kay but it felt like sandpaper. I think the hardner was mixed insufficently and so it granulated the paint. Bummer.

I sanded off the granules and got a coat of paint down. Redo #3.

The paint looked good after I was done. My fingers are crossed for tomorrows inspection.

Built a mini spray booth for getting a few things shot. I still need to paint the commercial name plates and the tables.

Sprayed these little boots for my Mom. She is planning the christening party and these will be turned into flower vases. (Its a family inside joke)

Redo #4 was the weatherstrip foam for the hatch seal. I opened the package to find that it was double stick. (adhesive on both sides of the foam) I think the only fix is to but new weatherstrip foam.

It was a bit of a frustrating day but still managed to make a little progress.

Day 96: Varnish & Life line holes

2010-03-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Round 5 of the varnish.

Hoping to get as many coats as possible before the launch. It needs a day in between coats to cure to a point where I can sand.

Getting better with the technique... just took 5 trys.

Drilled the holes for the eyelets that will hold the life line. They got treated with epoxy.

Day 95: Details

2010-03-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

Just a half day to finish some details.

Glued in the wine rack.

Painted the latch catches and the hatch side of the gutters.

Day 94: Latch Catches

2010-03-14T23:35:00.000-07:00

The catches for the southco latches were set with epoxy glue.

The last of the hatch lids were fit.

A thin layer of epoxy was brushed over areas on the gutter that had raw wood exposed.

This is my secret weapon for hatch fitting. I learned this technique from a boot fitter in Montana.

I apply the lip stick along the edges that I suspect are too tight, then lower the hatch lid... the areas that are hitting get marked with red lipstick.

Bow eye was put in place.

Stern eye. The hardware is steel though it looks brass in the pic.

Made a little accessory I stole from Gregg on Wooden Boat People Forum. The oar handles fit though the holes to help stabilize an oar tripod. I'm thinking it might be a nice set up for a shower.

Also got the table painted and drilled holes for the hinge.

When I got to the shop, the handrail fairy had come. My Dad had dropped off these nice pieces of ash for me to varnish. There are two small rails that will be installed next to the boatman's seat.

Oars are on round 4 of varnish.

I went back to the rag method of application.

Gunwales are on round #4.

Day 93: Hatch Latches

2010-03-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

Installed the Southco latches today. Only one was a little tough to get in... nothing a rubber mallet couldn't handle.

Also faired the inside edges of the hatch gutter lips to safeguard against moisture getting into the seam.

Used glazing putty to fill the small seams at the corners of the gutter lips.

Another look at the gutters.

The table pieces got a coat of paint.

The footbrace, wine rack and handrails got round 7 of varnish.

A gunwale block went missing so Tom made up a new one.

The oars got round 3 of varnish.

Before hand I sanded the oars and gunwale to knock down some of the raised grain.

The gunwale also got round 3 of varnish. I tried using a brush this time. It took a lot longer, went on thicker, but has some curtains in it. I think I'll try going back to the rag method.

The gunwales are time consuming!

Day 92: Hatch Lids

2010-03-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

Tom came up the island again to help fit the hatch lids. All the holes were pre-drilled and treated with epoxy so it was mostly a matter of setting the screws and barrel nuts.

4 out of 7 hatch lids fit perfectly. 3 need some minor adjusting.

The stern cross was a little off. (A little tight on the right and just the opposite on the left)

Also the back lip of the hatch lid was getting hung up on the gutter lip. Tom narrowed the gutter lip using a saw.

Here is a pic of the bow hatch. The hinges have been installed on the deck and are awaiting the hatch lid.

Close up of the hinge and the lip of the gutter.

Pic of a finished hinge on the hatch lid. I think this is the port side hatch.

After the hatch lids went on I rolled out primer onto the other side of the table pieces and went on to round 2 of varnish on the oars.

The footbrace and wine rack got round 6 of varnish. The hand rails look pretty good at 6 coats.

The gunwales also got their 2nd coat of varnish. The wood is looking a little more golden and shiny.

Day 91: Varnish

2010-03-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

I came home smelling like turpentine... much better than the isocyanates of the hull paint!

Cleaned up the shop in the AM then went to it with the varnish.

Turns out I had been using the wrong thinner. So now that I have the right combo, things are looking really good.

The oars and gunwale got a highly thinned rub with the varnish/turpentine mixture. Used a rag to apply it and it worked great. Goes on real fast too.

The other ash pieces got a very lightly thinned mix applied and they are looking nice. The varnish brushes on 100% better thinned with turpentine compared to the laquer thinner mix.

Its tough getting the inside of the gunwale varnished! Havn't figured it out yet.

The camp table got a coat of primer on one side.

Hx: Here is a pic of the deck texture I used. I eventually ran out of this product so "Trex" was used in the footwells.

Day 90: Hatch Gutters

2010-03-09T20:58:00.000-08:00

When first installing the hatch gutters I talked about the "gutter lips"; well, here they are. Finally making their debut.

Their design came from the Alumaweld style gutters.

Its a bit hard to tell whats going on here, but, the wood blocks on the top left of the pic are directly on top of the "lip" which is being glued to the inner gutter wall.

So here is a cross section-like view.
On pic right is the outer gutter wall, then pic left is the inner gutter wall, then directly on top of the inner wall is the lip.

It over hangs to (in theory) help keep the water from splashing into the hatch when the mega waves start crashing onto the deck.

Tom came up the the island today and we blasted together all 7 hatch gutters.

Got the gunwale sanded and ready for varnish.

In the foreground of this pic is the block for the oarlock. The notch in the inwale is where the post of the oarlock will nestle. The outer gunwale was going to get carved into as well but I had a bad feeling about it after seeing the inwale so I called for a redesign. (Opting for longer bolts instead of carving into the gunwale)

A little more varnish for the left side hatch wine rack.

A touch of varnish on the footrest.

The boat is looking like it might be ready for its March 27th launch party!

Day 89: Inwale

2010-03-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

Tom came up to the island today and the inwale was fit and bolted into place.

We fit the bow end first.

Then fit the stern end.

Tom did some beautiful fine tuning at the transom.

One we had a good fit we drilled the holes and placed the carriage bolts. -52 of them.

The boat is looking pretty sturdy with the gunwale complete.

Tom grinds the extra length off of the carriage bolts at the bow.

Day 88: Oars, Table

2010-03-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

After a bit of sanding, all 4 oars are ready for their first coat of varnish.

The inner and outer gunwale are sanded to 180 grit.

One side of the emerging table was glassed. I had some 9oz, 6" cloth tape left over, as well as some pieces of 1/4" ply... I'm hoping I can turn these materials into a table. ...Definitely won't be commercial trip-worthy but it will be classic private trip sketchy perfect.

Also found these pieces of scrap for the table supports. They got a thin coat of epoxy and will be painted. Need to track down 4 legs next.

Day 87: Hull bottom paint

2010-03-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

Masked out the bottom for the polyurethane paint.

Cut out some holes on the boatman's well cover. This will provide finger space to make setting and removing the cover a bit easier.

Faired the other side of the commercial name plates.

Cut out pieces for a table. The ply was filled with holes, staples and pins from various projects so I filled those and put epoxy around the edges.

A little shout out to my local hardware store, Sebo's in Bayview. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Day 86: Paint clean up

2010-03-03T20:24:00.000-08:00

It was fun to come to the shop this morning and check out the paint job.

A giant bee decided to sign its initials in my clear coat... its a pretty large and deep pattern so I'm not sure if I'll be able to buff it out. At least it looks like a giant "n". I'll claim it as my initial as the poor bee did not make it.

Peeled the tape off the gunwale.

It will be some work getting the gunwale sanded and varnished!

Speaking of lots of work, its was indeed, to clean up after painting. Lots of waste from all the tape, containers, plastic and paper tarps and blocking. Kind of a bummer to create all that garbage.

When I peeled off the tape I also peeled off a small piece of the paint job. In this pick the flaw is next to the transom gunwale block on the left.

I'll have to test my spot repair skills.

Cut some commercial name plates out of spare 1/4" ply. Hopefully I made them long enough for trips with "Sundog Expeditions".

This is a pic of them with the fairing just applied.

Shaped oar #3.

Also, filled flaws on the last two oars with epoxy.

I wanted to paint the bottom of the hull today, but was worried that the clear needed to cure a little more before I put tape on it. Patience.

Day 85: Base Coat/Clear Coat

2010-03-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

Today was an exiting day. I could hardly sleep the previous night in anticipation.

I wasn't sure if I had the skills or the equipment to paint the boat. Turns out, I really don't... but I faked it pretty well.

Ready to paint the stripe.

The blue was looking good at 3 coats.

The pin stripe coming to life.

Masked for the hull color.

The orange was looking okay at 4 coats. I laid a 5th and it looked significantly better. The grey primer was a little too dark for the orange.

Peeling off the tape was like tearing open a christmas present at age 4.

Bow with just the base coat.

I wasn't sure how to end the stripe... I had all kinds of fun ideas but this was the only one I could actually pull off.

Clear coated.

Next step will be to roll on the bottom paint.

Day 84: Masking

2010-03-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

Masking is a time consuming process... but fun.

In this pic, I'm laying out a pinstripe. The top blue tape begins the masked edge, the middle blue tape was used as a spacer then removed. The orange tape will be the pinstripe.

Before the tape was laid down I sanded the primer to 1200, rinsed with water, then cleaned with wax and grease remover.

The hull could have really used a 3rd coat of primer but I ran out of paint and time.

Masked to shoot the blue stripe.

Its a large stripe... more like a two tone boat rather than a stripe. Its about 9" wide at the transom and gains to about 12" at the bow. -Thank you Brad Dimock for the equation!!

Had fun getting these stars cut out. It was tricky setting them in place as the design is upside down. Some of the stars are a little off, but hey, its only my first boat. Gotta let a few things go.

...Speaking of. The hull fairing is definitely not perfect. There will be some visible raised and depressed areas. I just ran out of fairing compound and didn't want to wait for it to come from florida.

In case you're wondering what is that mess on the transom?? -Its ZIZUMARA, the Delphinius constellation.

Day 83: Spraying Primer 2.2

2010-02-28T00:02:00.000-08:00

Coat #1 was shiny and smooth. I hit it down with 400 just to make sure coat #2 adhered. Probably took about 10 minutes to sand and about 45 minutes to clean up for the 2nd coat.

Coat #2 went on like coat #1. You can see some striping in the paint here. I was going a little too fast and the stripe is due to less paint.

Afterwards, I got the air in the shop refreshed and turned the heat back on, hoping to get things warmed up for coat #3.

Escaped to the truck for some lunch. It was pouring down rain.

I had Kleo in the truck to keep me company today. There was a tsunami advisory due to the earthquake in Chile so I didn't want to leave her at her beachside abode. She came up the hill with me today.

With the rain coming down, Kleo and I went down the road to run some errands while the shop heated back up.

I reserved the rental equipment I'll need for the base/clear coat spray day. A large compressor and heaters. Hope to get the HVLP gun working optimally.

An hour later the shop was still quite cold but I decided to try to spray coat #3. The pile of paper shows all the failed experiments. I finally got a spray pattern that seemed ok but when I sprayed it on the transom it was no good. I tried thinning the paint way down no avail. Just couldn't get atomization. Had to pack up for the day. Will have to do some extra sanding on the transom.

Also, I hope I did not damage my spray gun. When I went to spray #3 the pressure shot up for no know reason. The pressure at the gun got all the way to 90 before I was able to release it. It was maxed out at the air filter regulator. It took about 45 minutes messing with the pressure gauges to get things normalized. I'm hoping to build a reliable system for the base/clear stage.

Day 82: Spraying Primer Round 2.1

2010-02-26T18:56:00.000-08:00

Heated up the shop as much as possible this morning and got everything ready to spray.

Set up this little homemade spray gun craddle.

By noon the shop was as warm as it was gonna get, so I began by getting the spray pattern correct. I've never sprayed before, so it took a little while to figure out which nobs do what and how to set all the pressure gauges. But after a little while I got a good pattern going.

I practiced on big sheets of paper to get the speed and overlap right. The gun I am using is really cheap so the fan size is pretty small. -About 4" instead of a normal 6-7" so I'm gonna have to be careful of tiger-striping.

Before

After.

You can see some glazing on the transom edge. I found a spot with micro holes after the first coat went on.

I was only able to do one coat of primer as the shop got too cold and the paint started atomizing poorly. I am hoping to be able to do the 2nd and 3rd coats tomorrow if the shop can stay warm. Looking forward to tomorrow morning to see how I did!

My rubber chine guards came in the mail today from Nott Attwater in Spokane, WA. They were super helpful and got this to me only 2 days after it was ordered. nice!

These are some supplements I take when I'm gonna be around chemicals. I feel like it really helps my body deal with all the free radicals. I take a dose the night before and then morning of...

Day 81: Spray Gun Shopping

2010-02-26T18:51:00.000-08:00

So after talking to some paint shops and experienced painters, the best remedy, was to replace the spray gun. I called Sherwin Williams Auto and they were very helpful. Instead of selling me their top gun they recommended I get an inexpensive one that will only last for a couple projects but still do a good job. Perfect. I'm not a painter, and I only need something for this one project.

So off the island I went to Harbor Freight Tools to pick up my $20 auto paint gun. BTW, that hardware store is awesome! For 50 bucks I got the gun, gauge, inline filter, correct hose, a bunch of brass fittings, tyvek suit, and confidence that I have the right tools for the job.

Later that day, got back to the shop to prep it for painting. Its a lot of work to turn a woodworking shop into a paint booth!

Easel.

Antigravity wall.

Day 80: Sanding Primer 2

2010-02-26T18:41:00.000-08:00

So coming back to the boat this morning and attempting to wet sand to no avail I gave in and went to the orbital. I started at 320... wasn't doin' it. Went to 220... still not happening. 180... finally was getting it down to a smooth surface.

So I 180'd the boat in the morning, then 220'd it, and by late afternoon I was back to 320 ...where I started a week ago. I then began the cleanup process of all the sanding.

Finished shaping the 2nd oar.

The blue tape marks are the balance point. They are a bit low on the oar but at least they are very similar.

Epoxied the other side of boatman's well cover.

Day 79: Sanding Primer

2010-02-26T18:27:00.000-08:00

Well, when I mentioned in my previous post that the paint wasn't going on smoothly I hadn't realized the extent of it. I returned to the boat this morning to find orange peel city. This thing looks like it belongs in a Florida citrus grove.

I wet sanded the entire boat with 320 and let it dry...I then realized I would be spending a lot more time sanding. The boat is textured like a basketball. Even with wet sanding its really bad. I had someone come look at it in case I was just going crazy... Unfortunately I wasn't crazy ...but will be when I am done sanding. Its a do over. Again.

After round one of wet sanding I filled all the micro-holes from the fairing compound with auto glaze.

The Raka Phenolic Microballoons performed very well. Super smooth, very little holes.

Here is a typical glaze filling on the Raka fairing.

And here is a typical graze filling where the quick fair was used. Yet again another reason why quick fair is not quick. Ahh!

Such a novice move to switch building materials mid project. What on earth was I thinking. Never take boatbuilding advice from a salesman!

It took 10 minutes max to sand out the glaze over the Raka areas which covered 75% of the boat. The other 25% was quick fair... it obviously took much longer.

To break up the sanding glassed one side of the boatman's well cover and shaped an oar which was fun.

Today was a tough day 12.5 hours of sanding to get me to nowhere.

Day 78: Hull Primer

2010-02-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

We laid the primer on the hull today.

It was the last forecasted sunny day for a while so we had to go for it. Our shop will not heat up enough to spray the auto paint unless the sun is out to warm the metal siding on the shop.

Here is our paint system.

Pressure pot and HVLP gun.

The compressed air goes though this thingy and the water gets filtered out.

Air compressor 1

Air compressor 2

Before

After

Our paint is still not going on smooth... so a few days of sanding for me. I hope we can work out the issues before the color and clear coat go on.

Before

After

Ammos

Inner gunwale scarf

Day 77: Gunwale blocks

2010-02-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

Today the gunwale blocks were glued on. You'll have to take my word on it, as I forgot the camera at home.

The epoxy on the oars and inner gunwale need another day to cure. Very low temps at night here are the cause of the slow cure rate.

Coated the edges of the spare wood/boatman's well cover w/ epoxy and wood powder mix.

Day 76: Oars2

2010-02-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

Put some glass on the end of the oar blades. Also sanded them to 220grit and cleaned up the pencil marks and black marks from car rack.

Sanded and epoxied the blocks for the southco latches. These will provide a catch ledge for the latches.

Glued the scarf for the inner gunwales. Most of the time was spent rearranging the shop to make space for them.

The shop was a bit cold so I heated up the scarf ends for a couple hours with an electric heater. Then applied plain epoxy to the joint. Then laid the glue.

Also, went back into the hatches and sanded some flaws and put a second coat of hardened polyurethane down.

Day 75: Oars

2010-02-20T20:20:00.000-08:00

Went into Seattle to finish the oars.

My Dad has done everything on them. Just a little final shaping to do.

We put a slight bevel on the blade. Making it a little more wing-like.

Tom sanded all the plane marks and fine tuned the shape.

At lunch we went to a leather wholesaler to get the leather for the oar sleeves. My Dad found a beautiful piece; a stiff 1/8"thick, medium sized hide. It will be plenty to form the sleeves and the oar stop.

We also tried to get the oar handles nice and round. When the oar went on the lathe they came out a bit oval. They are pretty circular now.

We did all this work at Seattle Stair. They do incredible spiral staircases. My Dad introduced me to all the talented craftsmen there.

They're not just old-school there. They're old-world. The techniques have been passed down from the ages.

...and I thought making oars were tough.

We loaded the oars up for the trip back to the island.

That night I dropped off the oars at the Whidbey shop. I check out the paint job while I was there. It looks pretty good. Will probably have to do a second coat on some of the textured areas but the rest should be good as is.

Day 74: Deck Paint

2010-02-18T19:51:00.000-08:00

Today was a painting day. The weather stayed warm, the sun came out and we had the window we needed to make some progress.

My Dad came to the Island and we got right to it.

First we rolled paint onto the textured surfaces. That went really fast and easy.

We took our time to dial in the sprayer and then went full steam ahead.

Tom sprayed the boat while I rolled paint onto the texture on the hatch lids.

Then Tom sprayed the hatch lids.

We first sprayed the underside then set the lids atop pins for the top coat.

After the paint went on we peeled off the tape.

And now the deck is painted. Its starting to feel like we just might finish this thing!

I'm psyched on the deck color... yellow! I had that song; keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, stuck in my head while we were laying this color down. I think I'm gonna definitely have to change the name of the boat from Arcturus to Zizumara. This wild color is screaming to be called the Ziz. Besides the "Arcturus" is way too serious of a name for this first attempt at a boat. I'm sure the Zizu will bounce off rocks, while the Arcturus would crumple... or maybe thats just the Xylene talking.
P.S. Use more thinner than they list on the can.

Day 72/73: Sanding Primer2

2010-02-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

Ahh, finally finished sanding the primer. Ready for the deck color. There are some bumps and flaws where the quick fair has been used but I don't feel like putting in the extra days it will take to fix them. Lets just paint this thing!

Glued the boards for the boatman's well cover/spare wood. It will get glassed and painted.

Found this funny dolphin bottle opener... hmm does the boat want to be named Zizumara? ...I think so.

Its been beautiful on Whidbey Island. Hope it stays nice for a little painting tomorrow.

Day 69/70/71: Sanding Primer

2010-02-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

The deck is nearly 100% sanded. The only method that works has been wet sanding.

Also had some adhesion problems where the "quick fair" was used. My solution was to rough up the quick fair with 180 grit, recoat it with primer and will take care sanding it tomorrow. My fingers are crossed. There might be a slight variation in deck texture but at this point that would be a whole lot better than having to strip the primer and coat the quick fair with some sort of binding coat.

Also realized that I had forgotten to ease the edge of the stern hatch, so got that sanded and recoated with primer. The primer really does make the details pop.

Got another varnish coat on the handrails and foot brace.

Watching Paint Dry for 2 days

2010-02-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the primer was still too soft to sand and today is the same issue. It seems winter is back in Seattle and once again getting the shop warm is a problem. The primer has a huge temp range 50-90 degrees but the shop was 36 degrees last night... Not warm enough for a cure.

Yesterday I filled the small holes and flaws that were revealed by the primer. Today I cranked the heat to high and got the fans circulating the air. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be able to get to sanding.

We'll have to do some tweeking on the spray equipment too. There is a tremendous amount of contaminants in the paint. Flecks of material up to 1/4 " are everywhere! Hopefully with sanding the effects will be mitigated a bit. It looks like a mess right now. Also the spray pattern is very splattered. The paint droplets are both tiny and large which makes a very uneven surface. The large droplets are still soft and taking too long to dry. The boat deck looks like a 1980's splatter paint nightmare. Its gonna take some serious elbow grease to get it back into shape.

Day 68: Deck Primer

2010-02-09T21:24:00.000-08:00

After a long day of prep work Tom laid down the primer coat.

Pre paint

Tom spraying

Hatch Lids

Day 67: Varnish and Hatch Paint

2010-02-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

The hatches got a coat of grey paint.

Another coat of varnish on the ash gunwale blocks, foot brace and handrails.

Day 64/65/66: Anti-Skid

2010-02-07T13:57:00.000-08:00

It was really fun ripping off the tape to see the results. The Anti-Skid looks great. The grit zones got 100% grit coverage and the smooth zones stayed 100% smooth. I didn't go with the star pattern in the grit. Just keeping it simple.

It feels really rough. Cheese grater. Hopefully with the primer and deck paint the sharpness will decrease.

This is the Anti-Skid on the mini hatch lid.

The varnishing continues. I now thin every layer (just a little) and use a foam brush. Works great.

All the flaws have been patched, the inner gunwale clean. Next steps are to glue on the gunwale blocks and tape things out for painting.

The epically warm winter continues in Seattle. I hope it stays this way until we get the paint done.

My fellow river ladies came the the island this weekend and trip plans have been hatched. All we need now is the spring run off!

Day 62/63: Anti-Skid

2010-02-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

For the past 2 days I have been putting down the anti-skid compound on the deck. I ran out of compound today so will have to add a day to the process. Kind of a fun process. Though, its hard to see all that perfectly sanded deck get buried in grit!

Laying down the tape took a little time but also a fun jig-saw puzzle at the same time. It took about a half a roll of blue tape to do. All that is left is to coat the stern floor and stern hatch lid. Its tempting to lay out a star pattern in the anti-skid... we'll see. It might look too corney.

The varnishing continues on the gunwale blocks and hand rails. I've added the footbrace and wine rack to the list. My last epoxy coat had a problem so I had to sand it off. Not sure the reason. It was the first time I used the varnish unthinned. It looked like it had been aged in the sun. So now I'm back to coat #3 after a backwards step.

Been trying to figure out how to wrap a cobra oarlock. After multiple atempts and ridiculously complicated patterns, I've come up with the version on the left. It works with this small twine... hope it works for 1/8" cord. This design hold the line so well that I cannot get it off. It does leave the top 1/3 of the oarlock horn unwrapped though.

Whidbey Island continues to be gorgeous. warm temps and calm air... It feels like spring, especially as the river trips start to get planned. Really looking forward to this season... for obvious reasons!

Day 60/61: Sanding

2010-02-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

January in seattle has broken the records for warm temps. Its been great for working on the boat.
Check out Cliff Mass's weather blog.

-The deck has been sanded to 320 grit.
-Most of the small flaws have been patched.
-The edges on the transom and bow fillet cap have been eased.
-epoxy stains have been removed from the interior side of the gunwale.
-Some filleting details for the hatches have been completed.
-Lines laid down for the taping for the anti-skid compound.

My Dad came up and dropped off all 4 oars! wow.
Also, the foot brace, wine rack :), and put on the transom gunwale cap as well as faired most of the bow and transom hatch deck.

Day 58/59: Sanding and Varnish

2010-01-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-26T16:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-22T19:38:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-19T15:39:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-14T20:53:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-14T20:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-01T23:27:00.000-08:00

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.

Day 43: Deck Fairing

2009-12-31T16:28:00.000-08:00

Faired the deck today... well, most of it. Ran out of epoxy with about 25% left to go.

Used the phenolic microballoons again. They sand down so easily that I really like using them despite the fact that they are a little tricky to work with when wet.

Decided to go with a thick coat of fairing instead of my usual super thin method. Hoping to cut down on the number of coats this way.

I sanded the glass before I did this as it had quite a bit of blush... maybe from all the cold weather curing.

These are the "lips" for the hatch gutters. They are curing over the heater for round 2 of an epoxy coat.

They are 1/4" ply and will turn the U shaped gutters into nearly a full rectangle. The lip on the hatch lid will squeeze between the edge of the deck and this gutter lip... Alumaweld style.

I've gotten some questions about how these gutters will drain. Here are some pics which I hope will clairify.

This is a view of the starboard side hatch with the boatman's footwell in the foreground. Looking closely at the top edge of the footwell riser there are cutouts in the wall which are the drain outlets for the gutters.

Here is a close up of the starboard gutter outlet.

I am hoping to get away with this method by adding two drainage factors:
1. The gutters are pretty big to shed water quickly. Most gutters are 2" deep and 1" wide. (This one is a little wider)
2. The entire deck and gutter have a constant slope toward the stern. This will help shed water more quickly.

My fingers are crossed though. If I have to add drain tubes later I will but it sure would be nice to go without.

Port side of the Front Cross Hatch.

Plan view of an outlet.

Outlet for the front cross hatch gutter.

I'm questioning this one a bit. Its in the center of the boatman's foot well and about 2" wide x 3/8ish. I'm doubting that it will be enough to drain in big water. This will be the hatch drain to modify potentially.

Well thats the drain slide show. Happy to take more pics or add detail. Just let me know.

Let me end with something a little prettier than all this.

Dirtbag & the Orca Bay I.
And thats me in the stern freaking out... before I ever dreamed of rowing rivers.

Day 42: Deck Fillets

2009-12-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

After the holidays, I heated up the shop to do some epoxy work. This is a pic of the port-side fillet for the deck. The starboard fillet and spare oar slot were also done. The stern edge of the deck was glassed as well.

The second coat of fairing was spread on the hatch lids.

This pic is the filleted, glassed and sanded hatch gutter. They are ready for the next step.

Christmas brought some really fun times and gifts. Some new hardware is pushing the boat building forward.

yeah!

Day 41: Fiberglassing the Bow Hatch, Fairing

2009-12-22T19:36:00.000-08:00

Laid glass on the bow hatch deck today. It was a little cooler in the shop so the epoxy was thick. It definitely takes more epoxy on cold days. I think this would be a lighter boat if we could keep the shop warm.

Also put fairing compound along the edges of the gutter tape as well as some corners that needed it.

This fairing compound is really light weight stuff. I made a small bear sculpture out of the extra last night and when I picked it up this morning it was as light as air. Pretty cool.

-I also cut off the excess glass sticking up from the gutters.
-Cut out any air bubbles from the glass tape and filled with fairing compound... not many. -yeah!
-Coated the end grain of the exposed inner gutter wall with epoxy.
-Glued the drain pipe to the boatman's footwell.

When I glassed the gutters yesterday I left the tape heavily wetted-out in hopes that it would produce a smooth surface on the bottom of the gutter. It worked in all the areas where I had sufficient epoxy in the tape. There are just a few areas that I may have to fair. everything looks pretty good.

Christmas begins tomorrow so I buttoned up the shop for a few days. Unplugged and cleaned up. Its lookin pretty spiffy. I'm dying to sand and finnish the gutters but it will be easier with a few days of curing anyway.

Came home to a beautiful night on the bay and a message on the phone that my Dad has found some good ash for the oars and the oar lock blocks are in production. Things are getting exciting!

Day 40: Fiberglassing the Hatch Gutters

2009-12-21T22:09:00.000-08:00

Put in a solid 11 hours at the shop today.

Prepped the gutters for glass and precut all the tape. Then went for it. The only hang up was the serrated scissors finally gave out. It was definitely messier with just the plain scissors.

I used a ziploc bag to apply the fillet into the tight angles. Worked great.

This pic is the precut glass tape before the epoxy and fillets.

Pic is post fillet and epoxy.

Also sanded the fairing compound on the hatch lids. Just did a quick pass with the orbital. Still need to hand sand the edges and true the lips.

Long day with the epoxy. That stuff is nasty. Hope the respirator really does what it says it does. I still feel a little loopy.

Day 39: Faring the Hatch Lid and Gutters

2009-12-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

Just a half day today. Since the glass was still a bit soft I spread on the first thin coat of fairing compound on the hatch lids.

The tops, rounded edges and the front face got a coat. The other 3 sides will probably be left alone depending on how they fit.

This is a pic of the towers we used to elevate the hatch lids off the table.

Also put some fairing compound along the hatch gutters where needed. All the depressions from the dogs were filled, corners smoothed, gaps filled... hopefully in preparation for filleting and glassing the gutters tomorrow.

This is pic of where the stern cross hatch gutter exits. The purple putty is the fairing compound.

I chiseled the exposed wood gutter back 1/8" from the surface so that I could apply a sufficiently thick epoxy end cap. I think it will look nicer and hopefully be more durable.

Day 38: Hatch Gutter Installation, Hatch Lid Fiberglassing, Deck Routing, Drain Cutting

2009-12-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

Dad and I got to the shop early today.

The deck looks great. Its really nice to walk on too! No more hatch crawling.

Tom braved the fiberglass and used a router to fine tune the gutter/deck interface. He also put a 1/4 inch bevel on all the edges.

Tom also created a jig for the router so that he could even out the inside edge of the gutters. Turned out is was a good thing he did it. One spot was 3/16th too high... we would have been really bummed when our hatch lid didn't lay flat. That would have been one backward moving day!

Tom cut out the drain holes for the hatch gutters.

This is a pic of the drain hole of the starboard side hatch gutter.

Pic of the drain hole for the front cross hatch gutter.

I decided to go old school on the drainage. No drain tubes. I'm thinking that I'll be able to install those later if it turns out I need them.

We also glued on the deck of the bow and stern hatch.

This is a pic of the stern hatch glue up.

Last thing today was to put glass on the tops of the hatch lids.

They have a 1/4" bevel on them...just enough to bend the glass around. It took some time but it seems to have worked. The vertical corners are gonna need a little touch up as the glass did not lay very well in those spots.

Day 38: Deck Installation, Drain Installation

2009-12-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

Today, Tom came up from town and we glued on the deck. Its a whitewater boat now!

This is a pic of the stern portion of the deck.

This is a pic of the spare oar slot.

Pic of the starboard deck.

We have yet to install the deck for the bow and stern hatches. -Just ran out of time for the day.

Before we glued down the deck we installed the drain tube for the boatman's foot well.

This is pic of Tom sawing the excess off.

Day 37: Hatch Gutter Installation, Hatch Lid Fiberglassing

2009-12-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

Took the clamps off this morning and the gutters were glued tight. Everything stayed in place and is looking good.

close up of the gutter system

This a pic of the hatch lids. I set them in place just to check the fit. The starboard side lid will need a little adjustment but the rest of them look good.

The inside of the hatch lids got a coat of glass. They took a bit of time because I was attempting a very small fillet between the lid and the lip. It took some delicate work to get the glass to accept the severe bend. Seemed to work out, however, tomorrow will tell...

To ensure the hatch lids stayed flat during the glass process, I used some blocks my dad had cut to pin down the 4 corners of each hatch lid.

The top surfaces of some of the large deck pieces were also glassed today.

Day 36

2009-12-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

The hatch gutters cured beautifully overnight. They feel pretty lightweight, though, they still have the inside layer of glass and fillets yet to add.

Today we glued the hatch gutters into the boat. They went in nearly perfect. Just one side hatch was a little tricky, hopefully it won't prove to be too much of a problem when we add the hatch lid.

In this pic you can see the little wooden wedges under the gutter that we used to keep the gutters in place. We hot glued the wedges onto the thwarts and they just snap right off once we're done with them. It was a pretty good way to go. They enabled us to apply the glue to the gutters then just drop them right into place. We then went back and clamped key points to true everything up.

This is what the boat looks like when we left the shop for the night. Its pretty tricky, trying to get around in there. It will really help to get the deck on.

I kept falling over today in the boat. I wear these old pair of crocs that are about two sizes too big. I can't get them to clear the thwarts and they kept getting stuck in the hatches

Last thing we did was glass the underside of the deck pieces.

The long piece in this pic will be the starboard deck.
The large square is for the port deck.
The little narrow piece is also for the port deck.

The square is part of the port deck.
The other piece is the deck around the stern hatch.

This is the deck for the bow hatch.
We didn't get it glassed today because we are glueing the two halves together. Would have been nice to use one big piece of ply but we didn't have a piece big enough.

The two halves were lamelloed, glued and pined with the dogs.

One side note: The resin side of the dispenser stopped working again. I'm sure because of the cold, though we kept it next to the heater. The fix was much simpler this time. If I made boats more often I would invest in some sort of dispenser heater. Its time consuming to undo the thing.

Day 35: Hatch Gutter Installation

2009-12-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

Ahh, back at the shop today as the cold front has finally broken. Still pretty cold temps today but hopefully improvement by tomorrow. Tom came up from town and we got right to it.

This is a pic of Tom cutting down the boatman's well thwart for the hatch lid to nestle in. We cut down all 4 sides of the well and the thwart for both the bow and stern hatch.

I also continued sanding the fairing compound in the corners all over the boat. After a week of cold temps the stuff was finally cured enough to sand easily.

Tom's looking good in his mad-scientist outfit!

Once we made a nice mess with the saw, we got the place cleaned up and readied for some glassing.

We glassed the underside of all the hatch gutters...would have done more (deck pieces) if we had the space.

Cold Snap

2009-12-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

As the cold snap continues, the boat has been put on hold. The shop is just too cold despite our best efforts to warm it.

This is a pic of the frozen grasses outside the house.

As soon as the weather warms I'll start glassing the underside of the deck. Also would like to install a shelf for my Ukulele in the stern cross hatch.

While the cold has been a little tough it has also provided crisp clear days of beauty. I'm enjoying them while they are here.

Sunset over Useless Bay.

Day 34: Hatch Gutter Installation

2009-12-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

Big day. Put in a solid 11 hours at the shop. Was 17 degrees en-route this morning but viola! the glue has set and we have hatch gutters!

This is a pic of Tom putting a fine tune to the port side hatch gutter.

We waited 48 hours before we released the clamps and blocks which held the gutters together. I hope they are actually cured... not just frozen!

We set the gutters into place with temporary support blocks held into place with hot glue. The process was fast and easy w/ two people. The pre-made gutters fit nearly perfect. The only work was cutting out the "U" channels in the thwarts where the gutters will exit.

Here is a pic of the stern hatch gutter and the temporary support blocks.

We also put the first hole in the boat today. (And hopefully the last) This is a pic of the drain hole in the hull for the boatman's footwell.

This is a photo of both drain holes. Fore: boatman's well, Back: hull.

This is our drain tube and gaskets. We squeezed them together after an hour ride on the heater.

11 hours and its starting to look like a whitewater boat. The deck is cut and fit.

We used cardboard to template the curves and went at the 3/8" with a jigsaw and japanese hand saw.

The bow hatch deck was tough!

Still have the stern hatch deck to cut.

Its gonna have to heat up before we can glass anything.

Tom trims up the deck of the bow hatch.

An exciting day.

Nearly too tired to post this today.

We loaded Tom's truck with 3/8" an 1/4" and the hatch gutters. He has master plans to build the hatch lids. Can't wait to glue it all up! ...As soon as this cold snap heads back up north.

Oh and not only did we have our first hole in the boat we also had our first near flip. I stepped onto the front passenger seat while my Dad was in the same foot well... we went for a good ride. Glad the ceiling is high :)

Day 33: Hatch Gutter Construction

2009-12-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

The snows came in last night. Very beautiful this morning. It was 30 degrees outside the shop at 10am this morning...I really should get a thermometer for the shop.

Good news is that the glue is setting up. Slowly but surely despite the finger numbing cold inside the shop.

The plant nursery outside the shop looked beautiful. This is a shot of a little evergreen outside the door.

I've been getting some questions about the hatch gutter plan. So below are some detailed photos.

Mostly just stepped into the shop to check the heat and the glue then headed home early to enjoy the beautiful day. Whidbey Island is a pretty great place to build a boat.

Day 32: Hatch Gutter Construction

2009-12-05T22:45:00.000-08:00

Once again, woke to a beautiful but frozen morning. The cold snap is forecasted to worsen so it will be interesting to see if we can get the shop warm enough for the "fast" epoxy to cure. It was cold in there today despite cranking the thermostat to high.

My Dad came to the shop today and we had a productive day. We rain-checked the 1 month dory build celebratory beer for another day as we eeked out every minute of the day.

Tom walked through the shop doors with this beautiful piece of mahogany. 10.5 degrees. This piece will fit between the front passenger seat and the gutter for the front cross hatch.

Tom also brought in this block for drilling the bow-eye.

Our project today was glueing the gutters for the hatches. They all fit perfectly. I just couldn't believe how great they went together. How my Dad did this seems incredible to me.

I glued while my Dad fastened.

In this shot is the starboard side hatch gutter. The micro-blocks are pinned to the table to hold the ply pieces together. We also used wood clamps and some pinch dogs and some other clamps which I don't know their name but will show up later.

Starboard side hatch

Tom pin-tacking the micro-blocks.

Foreground: Port side hatch

Middle left: Front hatch

Middle right: Stern cross

Back left: Stern hatch

Back Right: Star side

Far Left: Front Cross.

It was a long but fun day. We'll have to wait a while in the cold weather before the epoxy cures. ??How long a whiles is... the waiting game begins?

Next step... Fitting & glueing the hatch gutters into the hatch.

Day 31: Spare Oar Slot

2009-12-04T20:36:00.000-08:00

The cold continues to be a bit of a curse. I could see my breath in the shop all day and by 4pm the ground outside was already crystalized with ice. Of course the fairing compound I spread yesterday was too soft to sand even though it was the "fast" hardener. It seemed pretty hard until I put the sander too it. The pic shows the problem.

The heat was left on medium tonight in hopes of curing things.

The test pieces did cure after 48 hours. Hurray!! This means the ratio is correctly set on the epoxy dispenser... at least for small batches. A sigh of relief after seeing the epoxy on these pieces nice and hardened.

The set up for the fast.

!!These are the pieces for our hatch gutters. My Dad brought them up last night. I cannot wait to get started. As soon as my Dad gets to the island we'll go for it.

They are all grouped by hatch and pre-measured. Hope the glueing process will go easy.

At the shop today I cut out a piece for the riser to the spare oar slot. It was a bit complicated due to the emerging deck lines... so it took a substantial amount of time. I ended up with a great fit in the end.

In this photo the straight edge is parallel to one of the cuts and the other edge is visible in the foreground. I was hoping to use 3/8" ply but couldn't find a long enough piece so I used 1/2". The riser is fairly small so the weight added is pretty minimal. It does take up more space. I hope my spare oars fit!

The inside surface was glassed as well.

Other projects today:
1. Faired the front passenger footwell
2. Filled in blemishes of the 1st round of fairing in the corners.
3. Round 2 of fairing on the front passenger seat where the seat meets the hull.
4. Design change to the deck of the spare oar slot so the length was elongated. Lamelloed and glued it. Will glass tomorrow.

Wow. I've been working on this boat for a month. I bought a really nice micro-brew to celebrate. As son as my Dad gets here we'll crack it open. ...no champagne yet!

Day 30: Spare Oar Slot, Hatch Shelf, Fairing

2009-12-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

Today was another beautiful, cold and clear one. The epoxy test from last night had only a soft cure. I am hoping that it was the cold and not the ratio at fault. I'll know tomorrow.

I put some hand pumps on the resin and the fast hardener. I figure it will be nice to have some quick glue for the hatch construction.

I tried out the new fast epoxy a few different ways:

1. Glued the shelf into the port side hatch. I set it about 14" up from the bottom. I hope it works out o kay. Its an inch higher than other boats I've seen, though, I think it should be fine as the front passenger seat has been raised over an inch so the spare oar slot will ride higher as well. Hope those spare oars will stay out of the way alright!! My fingers are crossed on that one.

2. I drug on a coat of fairing compound on the surfaces of the front and rear passenger seats. I had originally left them bare as I thought the non-slip compound would hide the depressions in the glass, but my Dad brought up a good point, that the difference in the fair surface and the non fair surface might show up in the look of the non-skid. Ah, looking at this photo I realize I forgot to fair the passenger footwell floor. grr.

3. I glassed the inside deck surface of the spare oar slot. It was a little hectic feeling using the fast hardener. ...I look forward to getting the epoxy dispenser up and running.

I am hoping that everything will be well cured by tomorrow but these cold temps might have something to say about that. Maybe I should start leaving the heat on.

4. Also, threw some fairing compound on the glass patches which were put on to reinforce the bow/stern-eyes. I was using the extra I had from fairing the seats. It is a thin coat but I just wanted to soften the edges enough so that no one will shave off their knuckles on the ragged surface.

WIth the cold temps I have been worrying about the potential for the resin to continue forming into a paste in the dispenser... Lonnie suggested a (fireproof) box and lightbulb ... Might save the day.