Day 12: Trailering the Hull back to Seattle

The boat is home safe on Whidbey Island. We loaded it on the trailer this morning for the 6 hour drive from Idaho. The fillets and glass were well cured and hopefully kept out the water from the rainy drive.

View from bow to stern of the gunwale after the clamps came off.

Here are some pics of the epoxy/wood powder caps on the transom and bow post.

Transom closeup

Bowpost cap

Closeup

The boat emerging from the shop.

Also a couple pics of out morning routine at Gail & Lonnie's; morning tea, great breakfast and the Lewiston paper.

Leaving the shop.

Leaving Lonnie & Gail's and pointing it to Seattle.

Day 7: Hull fiberglassing

Dad and I sport our fabulous glassing outfits.

We all had a long day wearing a respirator but it was worth it. With 3 people the glassing of the hull went smoothly.

First thing this morning we cut the glass this morning and went straight to it.

We wetted out the 17oz biaxial cloth on the bottom.

Next was the 6oz on the sides.

Then 9oz on the bottom.

Then 6oz halfway up the sides.

A final 6oz on the bottom.

Next came the 6oz tape; 6", 3", 2" on the chine, transom and bowpost.

Now the waiting game until a good cure. Next step will be to pop it off the mold. We have our fingers crossed!!

Day 6: Gunwale Blocks

Just got back from Seattle and headed straight to the shop. Dad and I set a metal batton to lay down a pencil line for the gunwale.

Tom set up a jig for drilling the center hole in the gunwale blocks that were cut yesterday.

While I was in Seattle, Tom, Lonnie and Gail walked the property in search of edible mushrooms but didn't have much luck. Hopefully we'll get a chance to hunt again.

Lots of firewood was cut as well.

Day 3: Boat Bottom, Transom, Bow

Today things are looking boat-like.   We attached the 1/2" ply transom and luan mahogany bow stem to the boat mold using wood screws.  The glassed thwarts were also screwed onto the mold.

This is me with the excess bow post.

The most important thing we did today was to attach the battons to the boat mold.  This took some time to really line everything up and get the mold true.  Lonnie has build a lot of boats with this mold but it is still holding up pretty well.

We also prepped the mold with plastic and wax in areas.

Tom and Lonnie work to get the bow post lined up.  My job, nag them about millimeter increments.  This boat will be no ambi-turner.

Presto.  Center.

Thats the shape.

Prepping the bowpost for the bottom 1/2" ply.

Tom fine tunes.

Ready to glue the bottom.

3 person job to get the bottom glued.  A little tricky to get the ply to bend.  Lonnie would stand on the bottom and screw things down while I snaked through the mold to glue and Tom would hold the ply off the mold for me to sneak the glue in.

This is a pick of lonnie showing me the gluing technique.

The bow was the last to be fastened.  Lonnie was barely heavy enough to weigh it down.  Luckily Tom had some monster wood screws and heavyduty washers to keep things put.

Tom cleaned up the edge of the 1/2" bottom and cut the perfect angle to accept the sides.

Last thing we did today was glass the interior surface of the 1/4" sides. The thermostat is set to 60.

Day 2: Scarf Joints2

Well, all the glass cured perfectly just as Lonnie knew it would.  We trimmed off the edges and then moved on to tackling the glass for the bottom of the boat.

Lonnie used a jigsaw to cut the rough shape of the bottom.  He used a template that he had made from previous boat builds.

Meanwhile, my Dad and I cut the scarfs on the 1/4" ply for the sides of the boat.  This is a pic of me using the power planner to make the initial cuts.  Whew, a little nerve racking!  It was a heavy and powerful tool.  I was terrified I was going to take a huge gouge out of the edge.

Tom fine tunes.

Perfect.

With the bottom cut.  All 3 of us worked on getting it glassed.  We rotated positions as 2 people spread the epoxy with putty knives and 1 would mix the epoxy.  It was a 3 person effort to lay the glass and get it wetted out.  Went smoothly with 6 hands... well more like 7.  Lonnie counts as 3.

We set it on top of the mold to free up the table for the sides.

We glued and set the scarf joint with the same procedure as the bottom scarf.  Each side had two scarfs and we glued them all up at the same time for a total of 4 scarfs.

At this point the shop was maxed out on space. We set the thermostat to 60 and headed to the woods to cut some firewood.

Kleo the cat came to do a final inspection.