After the hull sides were completely stitched, I laid fillet ‘tack welds’ along the joints from stem to stern. I then removed the stitches but only from the bow to bulkhead #8. I then ran large fillets along that length only. I stopped at BH8 because I had not yet installed the transom and wanted […]
It’s been about three and a half months since my last post. Since then I’ve done some thinking and work towards electrical components, installed some deck plates and installed the hull sides and transom. None of that took a terribly long time to do. I’ve also been out of town on the weekends a fair […]
In my last post I had laid down fiberglass for a few of the bilge sections but had yet to roll any epoxy. At this point I have finished all the bilge glassing and finished all sanding but for some touch up spots. Strong Suggestion : Following the lead of several other builders I refrained […]
Having a good place to spread out and get fiberglass off the roll has always been troublesome. I have seen a recommendation to set up a bar for the roll to hang on for spooling off the glass sheeting (Doug Braun maybe?). I rigged one of these up and after cutting fiberglass for half the […]
With all the tack welds in place it’s time to remove all the stitches and lay down large continuous fillets at all the seams. Prep Removing the stitches is fun. Seeing everything held together and standing on its on is satisfying. Just 1,517 more steps to go. Though I had cleaned my tack weld fillets […]
All the pieces are stitched in and are all level, flush, plumb, etc., etc. Or…as much as they’re going to get at least. Now to start tack welds. Before starting to glue, I got on the floor and taped up all cracks and holes from which epoxy might escape. Easier said than done to say […]
Before applying the initial ‘tack weld’ fillets, all the floors and bulkheads need to be squared up and leveled. As my shop floor isn’t perfectly level I first had to mess around with leveling the cradle itself. Then I stitched in the remaining floors and bulkheads (except for floor 3, more on that later). All […]
With the bottom hull panels now fully stitched to the keelson and to each other at the bow, the floors and bulkheads can go in. First, floor 4 & bulkhead 7 are fit and glued to the centerboard trunk. Those pieces fit to the trunk in just one way, and they will serve as good […]
Bringing the two bottom hull panels together at the bow was a bit of a chore. A note about the image at the top of this post : All those bulkheads are not glued in at this point. I just had them sitting there for dry fitting. Pulling the Bow Tight In short, I did […]
Before fully stitching, I quickly threw together the hull bottoms, floors, and bulkheads with just a few wires. No other reason than just to see what it looks like. It’s been a year of nothing close to resembling a boat. Following Brent and several others, I’ll be holding off on the hull sides until the […]