Centerboard and Keel Protector

After many hours of wet-sanding and rubbing compound and polishing and waxing the hull looks pretty good.  Even though it was labor intensive I think I would rather do the work then wait out the Florida summer.  Maybe...

The final product looks really nice.  I thought about putting a second water line on the hull but I think this looks nice and I'm really not up for the extra work.  I might try some white vinyl tape to see how it would look and make a final decision.

The rub rails look nice also.

As you can see, I installed the centerboard in the trunk.  With a little help from my daughter, it went in easy.  I had installed a fish line before I rolled the hull and it was trivial to pull the centerboard painter into the cockpit.  Glad I did that.  I think it saved me some frustration working under the hull in this hot weather.

A while back I purchased this 3/4" half oval stainless steel for the purpose of protecting the bottom of the keel.  This is installed with 1 1/2" SS #10 oval head wood screws bedded in 5200.  I haven't done the short section on the front as I was one screw short -- wife's been telling me that for years.

I'm getting more excited.  I've got some painting to do in the cabin before I flip this thing upright.  And then it's endless topside sanding and painting.  I still need to order the wood for the mast, boom and yard and build those.

Hours this session: 3

Hours total: 588

Painting the Hull

I've a proponent of System 3 WR-LPU (Water Reducible Linear Poly Urethane) since it is water soluble easy to roll or spray and provides very nice result -- most of the time.

I prepared the hull with high build primer meant for this kind of paint and sanded it smooth.  So far so good.

Then I sprayed the "Mercer Green" color coats.  Had a few runs but nothing I couldn't take care of.  So far ok. 

Then sprayed the gloss coats.  Ugh! Blushing!  Very bad bad blushing.  Crap!  Called the System 3 rep.  Said I would have to wet sand to bring out the gloss.  More sanding... so sad.

Started with 600 grit.  So far this is what the boat looks like.  A lot of the blotchiness in the photos are because of dust from the wet sand.  It does look a lot better but I've got about 4 more circuits to go before I get to 2000 grit.

After that I will use 3000 grit rubbing compounds and then finishing compound with wax.

The initial run seem good and it's getting better with each pass so I think I'm going to be ok.

Hours this session: 24

Hours total: 585

Some Fairing and Anti-Fouling

This is the third stitch and glue boat that I've built and by far the most ambitious.  One thing my short span as a boat builder has taught me is that no matter how careful you are.  No matter how well you sand.  No mater what precautions you take there is always some filling and sanding to do right before you put the first coat of paint on.

I had a few divots and empty spots at the aft end of the keel that I filled with fairing compound.

On the aft port hull bottom I had some "starved" areas that didn't get a good epoxy fill.  These areas I simply filled with epoxy and putt peel-ply over the top to reduce the amount of sanding.

In the area above I had sanded through the weave.  I cut an oversized patch of fiberglass and epoxied it in place and again covered it with peel-ply to try to make it feather in.  In the end this worked exceptionally well and the area only needed a little touch up sanding... maybe 5 minutes worth.

This is a ding I put in it when I didn't wait for my sander to stop before putting it down.  This put a nice cresent shaped arc into the wood.  Filled this with fairing compound and it's like it never happened.

So I didn't get any pictures of me striking the water line.  I did have some difficulty with this.  My laser level is kinda a cheap one and it wouldn't shoot very far down the curved hull.  I ended up using a combination of a home made water level and the laser.  I would strike points on the hull about 6' apart and use these points as center points to mount the laser and then level the laser and shoot to each side.  In the end it worked VERY well and I don't think I could have gotten it much closer.

As you can see the Interlux 33 went on very nice and even.

The automotive fine detailing tape I used to mask the bottom really did a good job at keeping out the bleed through

My only mistake is this little drip I got on the side of the hull.  A little sanding took this off nicely.

I did this early in the morning but it's still summer in FL and this stuff dried very quickly.

Hours this session: 10

Hours total: 561

Working On the Bottom

Since the last installment I finished the fiberglassing of the hull bottom and the two coats of epoxy filler. The hull looks pretty good.  I've found a couple of areas that will have to filled/reworked but IMHO a very small amount for a boat this size.

I've started on the sanding of the hull.  As you can tell by the pictures I've got the bottom, transom and part of one of the sides rough sanded with 100 grit.  My calculation indicate that it will be a full 24 hours of work to get the bottom ready to paint.

The plan is to work the 100 grit until all of the shiny is gone.  and then do a fast once over with 220. Then I will use strike the water line and use the trilux below that.  The sides will be primed and coated with WR-LPU.  Green will be my color of choice.

The hull bottom was easy sanding since I could stand in a relaxed position and let the sander glide over most of the surface.  The sides are a different matter.  I either have to bend at the waste, sit on a stool or squat down and hold the sander against the surface.  I anticipate the keel to be the hardest part of this job since I'm going to have to hold the sander at almost arms length and be on a stool to reach it.

Hours this session: 18

Hours total: 551

Bottom Fiberglass Part 1

I went over the entire bottom with an eye to making sure everything was smooth and fair.  Rounded out the chines in preparation for the fiberglass.

I did one side at a time using my normal method of taping off the area with blue painters tape.  Since this was such a large area I rolled out the fiberglass, cut the requisite darts and let it sit for a couple of days so that it could conform to the shape of the hull.

Did I mention that it's hot in FL?  Anyway, since I had a large area to do and I would have to reach so far over the hull I decided that it was prudent to purchase some disposable painters overalls.  So I bought the Home Depot cheapies.  They were advertised as durable and breathable.

It was about 85 degrees in the garage when I started.  I decided that it would be too hot to wear the painters overalls over a layer of clothes so I wore them over my under wear.  That was a mistake.

I stared by using a shortened chip brush to attach the fiberglass to the keel.  From there I switched to a roller.  This system had worked well on the smaller areas I had done before but rolling large amounts of epoxy pulled the fiberglass out of place.  I struggled with this and the fact that the painters overalls wern't as "breathable" as advertised.  The heat was actually making me feel faint and I had to work quickly with small batches of epoxy to keep it from flashing in the cup.  Eventually I got everything done and looking the way I wanted.

By the time I got back into the air conditioning the cool air made the room spin.  I peeled off the overalls in the utility room and about a pint of liquid splashed on the floor.  Yuck, but the cool air on my skin soon brought back to my senses.  I would have to re-think how I did this the next time.

A few hours later I went back over with a razor knife and trimmed the fiberglass to the edge of the tape and removed the excess.  The results were excellent.  I found a couple of places that will need to be sanded and refilled but in the end very minor stuff.

A few days later I repeated the prep for the other side of the hull.  This time I paid about a $1 more for a different brand of overalls that the guy at Home Depot said would be "better".  I decided that I would wear clothes under this set to absorb the sweat and that I would get up early on a Sunday morning to do the work before it got too hot.

When I got up that morning it was 74 outside and I set up my shop fan to blow into the garage.  I set about attaching the fiberglass to the keel using the same method as the last time.  This time instead of using a roller to lay out the large areas I used a spreader.  This went much easier and didn't displace the fiberglass nearly as much as using the roller.  The second side went quick and easy.  It too had a couple of spots I will have to tend to but it was easier and I didn't feel I risked my life.  No light headedness, not nearly as much moisture trapped in the suit and a much more enjoyable experience.

I've just got the hull sides and the transom left!

Hours this session: 15

Hours total: 533

Preparing the Bottom

Last week I planned in the underside profile for the rub rail.  I didn't mill the rub rails as precisely as I should have.  I figured it would be easier to trim them up in place.  The job turned out to be too much for my belt sander so I resorted to planning them down.  This worked very well but was time consuming and uncomfortable since the rail sits too low to stand and plane and working on my knees without kneed pads is a form of torture.

Spent last night filling holes and cleaning up the keelson to keel joint in preparation for fiberglassing.  Only task left before I add fiberglass to the bottom is to create the "giant" fillet between the keelson and the keel.  Lost about 10lbs in sweat.

It's getting hot here in Florida (imagine that) and I'm going to have to tackle this at night when it's cooler.  Otherwise, the pot life of the epoxy really suffers even when I'm using slow hardener.  The same is true for when I go to 'glass it.  I've already bought a bunch of roller tray liners so that I can spread the epoxy out and get more pot time out of it.

Hours this session: 16

Hours total: 518

Flip It!

Last saturday I gathered up some of my karate students and some friends from work for the highly anticipated roll over.  It had been raining on and off here in central Florida for about a week and still drizzling at the designated hour.

The tires that I left outside to be used as cushions for the turning were full of water.  It's a little bit of an engineering problem to figure out how to get all the water out from the inside of an old tire.  We ended up throwing them around until they were empty.

We decided to try to turn it in place.  First we pushed it as far as we could to one side of the garage

Some strategically place tires and were were ready to go.  

Rolling...

Rolling...

Rolling...

Rolling...

We stop on the side long enough to remove the building cradle.

Since we didn't have enough room to roll the boat completely over we stopped at this point and slid the boat back over to one side of the garage before continuing the roll.

Reposition the tires...

... and continued the roll over.

Settling it down on the tires.

Done!!!

Get everything back out of the rain an into the garage.

 And it is done.

 Total time 1/2 hour.

It was actually much easier than I had imagined.  We had 5 adults but probably could have done it with less.

Since the roll I've been working on cleaning up the underside of the rub rails and getting them to their final shape.  I haven't leveled the hull yet I think I'm going to use jack stands at the rear to get the height right.

I'm adding in some odds and ends time to account for glassing the rudder, drilling drain holes, filling the weave on the companionway assembly, etc.  It's all looking pretty good.

Hours this session: 12

Hours total: 502