My Huggy Blanky

So rolling around in the fiberglass dust ain't much fun. The two packing/moving blankets I got the other day work wonders!

Packing/Moving blankets work wonders

Don't have to strap on my knee pads either to crawl around under there. It is a bit of a workout for a guy my size. Who needs Yoga anyways?  :-)

Beside some bilge paint I picked up the collapsible bladder tank at the Chandlery store. I'm thinking this is gonna work well. It certainly fills up the void space in the box keel.

200 L (52 USG) collapsible tank.

That'll put an extra 200 Kg (440 lbs) right under the engine. I'll have a stainless tray fabbed up to go under the engine that'll help shield the tank from heat. I think I'll rig it like the ballast tanks in the wake board boats so that I can fill it from the main tanks and pump it dry back into the tanks. Its primary purpose is ballast but it'll give us a total of 600 L (156 USG) of fresh water capacity.

So I managed to get the section of the cradle cut away so that I could shove the skeg in there.

Skeg just sitting in place

It's going to take some careful alignment and drilling of holes to get it set up correctly. I'll also have to build a 'wedge' to fill in the gap between the skeg and the box keel.

Pretty close for a first rough layup

I'll have to remove the cross braces and work on the alignment but I think I'm going to be pretty darn close!

Going to be pretty close!  :-)

That's all I could take today. It's warm under there with no air moving around. It'll also take time to work up the nerve to drill a guide hole in the very bottom of the box keel!

Standby.....

Still at it

Slowed down a bit due to the heat but still at it, sorta. This morning I drilled the first hole in the 1/4" stainless channel that'll make up the skeg. Never had much luck before drilling stainless let alone this size but figured it out.

Next was a lil' 'under da boat' yoga! Oh that hurts, in more ways than one! The ground's covered in fiberglass dust. *Itch*

Under the starboard side

The cradle is the main support for the boat. You can see below where the box keel is sitting directly on the 2x6 cross beam.

Box keel sitting on cross beam

I have to remove part of the cradle that the boat is sitting in to fit the skeg. Here's a shot of the section that has to have some material removed to fit the skeg into place.

Close up of section

I have to take a section about 5" x 3" out. Using my oscillating cutter it'll be easy enough. Just couldn't get past rolling around in the fiberglass dust so it was off to a couple of my favorite stores for some moving blankets & stuff.

Ahhhhhh one of my most favorite stores!

The moving blankets are cheap enough at $10 each. Much better than laying on the cold ground covered in itching powder. Next I skipped over to the Chandlery store for some bilge paint and the 200l (52 Gal) collapsible water tank that'll go in the box keel under the engine.

The 'Spendy' Store!

Tomorrow I'll get that part of the cradle cut out and start to fit up the skeg.

Standby....

Temperature's Rising

10:00 hrs and it's over 100 F in the  boat shed! Had to scamper to get the port side engine bed covered.

Engine beds covered in 22 oz/sq yd basalt fabric

Constantly on the lookout for more basalt fabric. If you should happen to see a deal on it let me know please!  :-)  It is extremely nice to work with.

If you've done any fiberglass work you'll likely recognize this!

Epoxy & Fiberglass Art. One of a kind!

That's what happens when your brain is two steps ahead of where you think you are but you actually aren't! *sigh* So, it's for sale! Unique one of a kind art piece! I'm guessin' some millennial will need it to accent their Pokemon collection!

It was 34C in the shed when I bailed at 11:15.  Time for a ride in the ole' jalopy!

Standby....

Main Bulkhead Glued & Taped

Yesterday I filleted and taped the fwd section of the main bulkhead and this morning the aft section.

Engine compartment side (aft) of main bulkhead

She's now permanent affixed and never ever coming out!  :-)  Two layers of 6 oz biax tape staggered about 3" offset. I'll go back later with one more layer of 12 oz biax tape on all the joins.

Sanded and cleaned up the engine beds for a layer of 22 oz sq/yd basalt fabric. You may remember I've used this before on the transom and keel.

Basalt fabric on stbd engine bed

This should make the engine beds the strongest part of the boat. The basalt fabric is absolutely wonderful to work with. It wets out quickyl and easily and forms well to odd shapes. I wish I had enough money to do the whole boat in this stuff! I think I bought about 5 yrds of it a long time ago to try out. When I went back to get more it was all gone. I've got enough left to do the rudder post block.

Another view of stbd engien bed

I'll finish the other side tomorrow.

Four hours in the shed today before it got too warm to work.

Standby....

Ordinary Day

Just another ordinary day in the boat shed. Tabbed in the main bulkhead. Got tired of it moving around and having to remeasure every time I stepped over it.

Tabs going in to hold main bulkhead in place.

I'll go over these tomorrow with the sander and finish the filleting and taping. Could have done it all in one shot but you can't rush perfection! :-)

I captured the rest of the morning's boatbuilding session on video. It's a long one so you better take a bathroom break, refill your beverage and pop some corn!  :-)

Special shout out to Doug Jackson and his 'Boat the Internet Built'. I've been following Doug's project from near the beginning. I thought I had bitten of a huge chunk of boat project till I saw this! He's got plenty of info and great video's on his YouTube channel. Definitely worth checking it out.

http://www.svseeker.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/submarineboat

That's about it for now.

Standby....