Slow and steady will

win this race. Not being actually as smart as I thought I was I tried to glue and tape both sides of some panel seams at once. The result was a massive failure.



Voids in the splices are unacceptable. They'll eventually lead to a failure of the panel or worse. So I got to spend some quality time with my power planer, grinder and belt sander to get rid of this mess. Oh, and it wasn't just one joint I had to fix it was FOUR! *sigh* Anyhow after some grinding and sanding and lots of scratching I managed to get them fixed up.



These are the panels that'll eventually make up the sides of the boat, the sides most people will notice first so I have to make them as near perfect as I can get.

It's been getting a lil' warm in the shed, low 90's F yesterday and I knew I'd have to do something about ventilation so it was off to Lowe's for some fans. This lil' box fan ($15) pulls enough air out of the shed to lower the temp inside close to what it is outside. At $15 a pop I can afford to burn up a few of them for this project. A proper ventilator would have ten times that cost.



And......... if it gets too warm this lil' puppy will blow a hurricane though the shed! ;-)



That's about it for now. I have a few more splices to do then there's some fiberglass that needs to be cut to match the bottom and side panels. That's gonna be fun! NOT!

Feel free to carry on doing whatever it was you were doing! ;-)

I knew I was

going t run into this lil' issue eventually.



The side panels I'm working on are 32' 3" long and the shed is only 32'! Doh! But I knew I'd run into this issue eventually.



So I've had a plan to open up the barn doors and frame in a smaller door and canopy. This will give me the extra room I need to work on the longer panels and still be able to get around the boat once it's being assembled.



I know it's not pretty but it works. I'm also going to have to address the ventilation system soon. It was 90 degs F in the shed on Saturday! On the boat building site I'm just gluing and taping seams on the side panels. Should have them wrapped up by next weekend. That's about it for now.

This boatbuilding stuff might

actually be healthy! I got a real work out tonight. Laying out the side panels I came up one panel short! Where the hell is it? The hunt is on. I find it mislabeled miscreant tucked in behind all the long bottom panels I just stacked up! *sigh* I tried to hold back all the panels with one hand while at the same time reaching in behind with the other to grab the piece I needed. Needless to say that didn't work. All 4 bottom panels have to weight at least 300 lbs. which by the way hurts like hell when you drop them on your shin! Doh!

Long story short, after a lot of huffin' and puffin' and gruntin' and groanin' I managed to liberate the AWOL panel and get both sides lined up on the table.



I'm going to get ultra lucky on these panels. The apex of the curve where I need to splice in the extension is exactly on an existing seam. It's about time something started to go my way! ;-) You can't beat a good set of plans though! I'm sure these will be totally worn out by the time I'm done.



I've had 'nuff for one night. Shower then puttin' my feet up. Guinness Time! ;-)

Saturday morning in the boat shed

From previous posts you can see the kerfs that were cut in the panels by the CnC machine. These are there to help when bending the plywood over the frames that form the bow. When I taped these the fiberglass and epoxy have to be cut away after the epoxy kicks off and is at the "green" stage.



A sharp chisel makes quick work of it! Cuts through the fiberglass just like a knife going through butter! If you wait till the epoxy is fully hardened it be a much tougher and messier job probably requiring a grinder. I don't much like grinding fiberglass! ;-(

One half of the bottom panels is now finished, well sort of. I decided to leave them in two parts and will join them up on the strongback. They're just too big to handle otherwise. This mornings session in the boat shed was 4 hours. Once I got the first bottom panel tucked away I laid out the second.



Also during this session in the boat shed I broke out a new toy, hmmmm? errrr? TOOL!, Yeah, new TOOL!



Canadian Tire had these on sale ($69.99) and as hard as I tried I just couldn't force myself to walk by the tool section without picking one up! ;-) I'm sure it'll come in handy down the road. I'll use it when joining the side panels. They have to be nice and smooth which will make "Fairing" the panels much easier (I hope)!

And lastly the first half of the second bottom panel getting it's first seams taped and glued.



Tomorrow I can flip this section and tape the seams on the other side. That's about it for now then.

Watching epoxy cure

is like watching paint dry, only worse! I guess you just have to keep plugging away while the epoxy cures. It usually takes 24 hrs till you can unclamp a part and move onto the next. These next few parts will take awhile!



This is one half of the bottom panels. As drawn by the architect they're just a tad under 29' long. We'll be adding 39" to these for the hull extension we've planned. The slits in the panels are called "Kerfs". They're there to help the panel bend when it's ready to form the bow of the boat.

These panels are so big I have to do them in halves then join them up. It's going to get tight once they're both assembled. I'll have two similar side panels to do after these.

The first half of the first bottom panel got glued up today.



I got bit by a runaway tape measure. Sliced my finger to the bone. Add to that a giant sliver in the pad of my left thumb and Schmeezus that hurts! Paper towel and hockey tape make a good temp bandage. Hockey tape is almost as good as duct tape in an emergency! ;-)

Last week the stringers got glued together. Not very exciting I know. That's about it for this week.

Making a lil' headway now

Moved the two sides of the cabin top outside.



They'll stay here till next summer I'm guessing. They'll be wrapped up neatly in the tarp to keep them dry and safe.

Moved onto the bulwarks. These are pretty simple joins so I did both sides at once. First time I've done that. We'll see how they turn out.



When the bulwarks are done I'll start on the bottom and side panels. That'll take a bit of forethought to juggling the parts once they're assembled.

That's it for now. Shower then off to the Flea Market to see what treasures I can find. ;-)