Gunnels

Having flipped the boat, progress has been slow. This is the time I've been looking forward to but as it turns out it's been a time of frustration! I spent the better part of a day trying to get the breastplate to fit. Initially I'd wanted to cut it exactly to fit the weird cutout in the stem. 5 hours later I gave up on that idea and figured that I'd just fill the gap with colored epoxy. I think it'll land up looking ok.

 
 

 

Getting the gunnels to meet correctly at the bow has also been a challenge - these compound angles are killing me! I spent several hours yesterday cutting, planing and sanding until I had the joint pretty close. Unfortunately, once I'd finished epoxying the gunnels to the side, I realized that the laminations had slipped fractionally, opening up the gap I'd spent so long trying to close! At this point, it's going to be wood filler all the way.

 

You learn a lot about yourself building a boat. I'd been going for perfection and slowly that's been eroded by a case of getting it done. If I went any other way I'd never get this boat in the water.

I decided to laminate my gunnels from VG fir ripped to just over 1/4". 3 of these strips will be used for the in and outwales and will hopefully result in a nice looking gunwale.
 
 

Epoxying the laminated strips for the gunnels was a royal mess! I masked off the sides so I shouldn't have too many issues with runs on the boat. When clamping the gunnels, though, a ton of epoxy was squeezed out of the joints. Hopefully I didn't clamp it too tight and squeeze it all out. I'm a little nervous about the strength of this gunnel and I may land up putting a bunch of screws into the whole thing for peace of mind.

 

LOTS of clamps were necessary to do the lamination!

Flipping the boat!

Here's one case when flipping a boat is a good thing! This was a big step as I was able to flip the boat so it's right-side-up. The boat is now supported on a rectangular frame of 2x4s sitting on the shop floor. This way, no wayward screws or nails will damage the bottom. It's also easier to level the boat when it's sitting this way.

 
 
  

Progress!

I've made some decent progress over the last few weeks. Having stitched the bottom to the sides, I was ready to fiberglass the outside bottom. Deciding I wanted a decent amount of abrasion resistance, I laid down 3 layers of fiberglass cloth. This is going to contribute to weight but I figure with these layers over a half inch bottom, I'll land up with a strong result. The chines received similar attention with several layers of overlapping fiberglass tape. The middle section received an additional couple of layers as this is the area that will likely receive the bumps and bruises. All in all, I think that section now has about 4 or 5 layers of tape.

 
 



Having done a couple of flow coats to fill the weave of the cloth, I added graphite powder to the epoxy and added another 3 coats of the graphite mixture to the bottom.

 
   

The graphite will help the boat slide easily over rocks once in the river. I masked off the sides of the boat to get a decently crisp line and will paint over any stray graphite when I do the final finish of the boat.

 

Bottoms up

Managed to find some time this weekend to work around fishing trips so I could get the bottom installed. Friday, I cut out the bottom - not a simple task with a circular saw that does not have a depth adjustment! The bottom turned out a little ragged but it's not going to pose much of an issue.

I decided to pre-glass the inside bottom before installing it and laid down 2 layers of 7.5 oz glass - I'm leaving the flow coats until later.



Having let the glass dry until no longer tacky, I dry-fitted the bottom to double check the dimensions. After a bit of jiggling, I got it pretty well fitted. I really hope that everything is nice and symetrical (or at least close enough)! Getting everything perfect is something I think I just need to let go of a bit...

Having got the bottom lying how I wanted, I stitched it in place with bailing wire. I had been planning on screwing it to the strongback stations but found that stitching was just easier overall.





That done, from the inside I worked thickened epoxy into the angled gap between sides and bottom. The plans I'm using had said to plane the sides flush but Bob convinced me that leaving the gap would result in more epoxy and a stronger bond - I was convinced and landed up doing it this way. Pre-epoxying a bead along the sides and dropping the bottom down onto it would have been damn difficult without creating a glue debacle!



Hey this thing may even float right now!

What's that boat-shaped thing in my shop?

Finally! I have a boat-shaped thing sitting in my shop. Last night I mounted the sides onto the strongback (temporary frame to give the boat its form) and after weeks of working on flat panels, I now have nicely-shaped sides! I also got the stem and transom installed so it's getting to look like a boat. I was going to attach stem and transom with screws but discovered that a power nailer is much easier - a few well-placed galvanized nails later and I had me a boat!


Mounting the sides was a task I wouldn't want to try on my own. It was hard enough with Vern's help!





Prepping the bow.



Detailed view of the strongback.

The transom was a bit of a surprise. For whatever reason, the sides aren't the same length as the sides of the boat! No biggie as it gives me the opportunity to do some cool design with other wood back there...

Noses and Tails

Well I've been working fairly steadily on the boat - although visible progress has been minimal. Over a course of a couple weeks I was able to glass both sides of the side panels. The second side, I landed up doing over a weekend and that was a much better idea that spreading it out over a longer period which required sanding between flowcoats. This time I also found some decent roller covers that made getting a smooth coat much easier!

Also got the transom cut out, beveled, and one side glassed.




The most fun was building the stem. I wanted to let in the sides so that they'd be flush with the stem so that required a bit of a funky cut. After some fiddling around, my neighbor, Bob, and I came up with a stem that should work well and looks great too.