New Year New Promise New hope Ill get this thing in the water this year

Progress is coming along steadily, if slowly on the Utility. The fiberglassing work continues. Its fortunately not difficult. It just takes time... working in sections, feathering edges, sanding, etc.

You know.... "boat building."

At this point, Ive got all of the bottom fiberglassed on the Utility, and Ive begun encapsulating frame # 5-1/2 on the Zip.

Here are a couple of progress photos. Happy New Year to you!

Zip frame #5-1/2, "glued and screwed," and awaiting encapsulation with marine epoxy.

Here are the Zip (L)  and the Utility (R), side-by-side. As you can see, theyre at very different stages of completion.

Zip frame #5-1/2, partially encapsulated.

Hull bottom is fully fiberglassed, but needs to be sanded.

Starboard bottom, forward at the chine transition joint.

Sanding / Feathering the fiberglass cloth at port aft.

Overlapping the fiberglass cloth at the bow.

Read More..

More fairing on the Utility This time the transom

Warm greetings from Barnacle Mike’s crowded little boat shop. You know, one of the great things about the boatbuilding community is the fact that you meet some really cool people, both online and in person. The level of support and insight that you get from more experienced builders who kindly share their knowledge and give advice can truly help a newbie keep pushing his or her project forward. I’m very thankful for that.

An online boatbuilding friend, who has also been kind enough to follow my blog, sent me an e-mail the other day asking about the status of the Utility. It does seem like I’ve been paying a bit much attention to the Zip project lately. Truth is, I have still been slowly, slowly... s-l-o-w-l-y... fairing away at the Utility all the while. Still, his inquiry about its status gave me a little more motivation to get off my “transom” and put more elbow grease into getting the little boat past the fairing stage. (Thank you, Paul!)

So, that’s just what I did Saturday, fairing away at the transom sides until they were finished. The starboard side had a bit more excess material than the port side. So, I roughed it in with the belt sander, then worked it the rest of the way down with the mouse sander. Unfortunately, I did not follow the “best practice” of checking my work frequently with my test piece of plywood. (I thought the transom sides would be a no-brainer. I was wrong.) When I tested my “finished” work with the plywood, expecting to feel a broad smile cross my face as I witnessed my handiwork, I was disappointed to see several gaps appear. The culprit was an overly sharp bevel in a couple of spots. More gaps to fill with thickened epoxy. I’m getting pretty good at that, if I do say so myself.

Needless to say,  I was more cautious with the port side. I also went about it a little differently. This time, I started by carrying the line of the sheer and chine through the transom material first. Then, I “connected” the two spots by fairing the area in-between. This time I alternated between the mouse sander and a small block plane. I worked slowly and purposefully.

The results were much, much better.

I do still have a good bit more fairing to do, primarily in the mid-section of the boat. I also have to make a decision about the chines in that area, (more on that later). I could’ve worked on all this Sunday. However, yours truly decided he needed some time on the water. So, I spent the day canoeing. I’m sure you understand.

By the way, I met another boatbuilder out on the river. He was piloting a very nice-looking red drift boat upriver. It looked about 16’ long. The handsome-looking boat glided smoothly through the water, pushed by a silent electric trolling motor. He proudly said “yes” when I asked if he’d built it himself. He had some very nice things to say about Don Hill’s drift boat plans before we each went our separate ways. 

Yep. You’ve gotta love the boatbuilding community.

Starboard transom-chine joint after fairing.

Starboard transom-chine joint after fairing.

Starboard transom-chine joint after fairing

Starboard transom-sheer joint after fairing. As you can see, Ive got a heck of a gap in that "Marine-Grade" plywood that Im going to have to fill.

Port transom-chine joint before fairing.

Port transom-chine joint before fairing.

Port transom-chine joint after fairing.

Port transom-sheer joint before fairing. Notice all that epoxy thickened with #2 silica?

Port transom-sheer joint after fairing. I still have some thickened epoxy to file away.

Read More..

This Old Kayak Old Paint Part 1

People occasionally write me to ask whether they can use this or that material or process in the building of their boat.  I sometimes have answers for them and more often do not.  When I dont, I like to tell them to try whatever it is they are asking about and they will find out if it works or not and then they will be the experts on that particular topic.
In any case, I try a lot of stuff, more or less indifferent that a lot of it wont work.  I also am casual about boat storage so most of my boats are subject to accelerated aging. I also like to use off the shelf, not yacht approved materials to see whether there is a cheap way out of any particular conundrum.
So lets move on to todays topic, Old Paint. No not the horse.  Old paint that has turned dry and brittle and stressed and developed cracks.  To be more specific, old varnish.  Because the substrate of the varnish on a skin on frame boat is a flexible fabric, impact on the skin causes fractures in an interesting way. So proceed and feast your eyes on a variety of stress cracks in old varnish on a nylon skin.  Enjoy.

A small running critter.  The green flecks are fake gold leaf I put in the varnish.  The gold is actually brass and has oxidized to a green.

stretch marks.

Southwestern US petroglyph, what of, Im not sure.

and a braid.

More stretch marks.

This one kind of looks like an ancient shrimp fossil.

This one, Im not sure, kind of like a cartoon bird in flight.

Read More..