More Dorade work, Roof Cleats and Painting

Roof Deck Cleats

This past week after work, I managed to get all the roof deck cleats epoxied to the bulkheads. I made sure I cleaned up any epoxy drips a couple of times. I think they turned out fine. This week I plan to start with the block plane shaping them for the roof deck, which I also glued together with a butt joint.

Roof Cleats epoxied and curing. 

Dorade Boxes

Below are the Dorade Boxes with the roof cleats. I still need to add the blocking on the inside for the mooring cleats that will be installed later on the outside.

Dorade Box cleats epoxied and curing.  

Below may be difficult to see, but I applied some fiberglass tape on the insides of the dorade boxes at the joints as well as a piece of tape on the outside corner. I still need to apply another coat of epoxy to completely wet it out.

Roof Deck Panels

Below is where I epoxied the 2 roof panels together. You use a butt joint, which is basically a piece of 1/4 inch plywood 2 1/2 inches wide. I used some weights to hold it down. 

Painting Lockers
Over the weekend, I was able to apply 2 coats of Interlux Brightside paint to the locker space. I figured it will be easier to paint before installing the seatbacks. I am also considering drilling the holes for the Gallows bars and installing the supports in the lockers. I got the pattern out and I am working on a temporary piece, so I can drill the holes in the correct space.  Below is a picture of the finished painting. I also plan on doing the drain hole for the locker. From looking at other blogs, I can put a hole in the bottom right hand corner next to the transom. I just need to figure out how to do that.

Vacation, Dorade Boxes and Roof Deck Cleats

Building was put on hold for a few weeks while I went to Beaufort NC. Had a great time and did some sailing a couple of days. Had a real interesting day sailing one day in 25 mph winds. Won't do that again! But live and learn.



Dorade Boxes
This past week / weekend I got back to work. I first started on the installing the Dorade Boxes. I cut them to fit and drilled the holes for wires to hold them in place. Nothing difficult about this, but take your time.

Below you can see both the port and starboard boxes with tack welds. In some places I actually did a fillet, but I went back over with larger fillets later on.  You can see the sliding T-Bevel in one of the pictures.  I made sure both sides had the same angle before applying the tack welds. You don't want a lopsided boat! :-)

Below are both boxes with the fillets. I did on both the inside and outside. I am considering what to do on the out facing angle where the two boards come together. There is a fillet on the inside, but I am thinking about applying some fiberglass tape to strengthen the joint.

You cant see in the pictures, but there is an outside drain hold for water that gets caught in the foredeck area. For each Dorade Box there will be a inside and outside drain for water to flow through. I drilled a larger hole and filled it with thickened epoxy on the outside. I will be drilling out a smaller hole in the epoxy later on. I also will need to drill the drain hole in the bottom inside corners. In the picture below the drain hole goes in the bottom left.

Drain hole to go in bottom left. 

Drain hole to go in bottom right on the starboard side. 

Cabin Roof Cleats
Next I decided to the cabin roof cleats. I had a piece of thin board that came in a packing crate for a piece of furniture we bought. I save a lot of stuff like this and it usually comes in handy. I cut the board which was about 1/4 inch thick into strips to use at patterns on the roof cleats.  Below shows 2 of the patterns. I had to use a piece of cardboard to create the pattern for the largest cleat. ( middle)

Patterns for roof cleats. 

I think took the patterns and cut out the cleats using 3/4 inch thick wood. The angle where the roof cleats touch the side cleats is a little tricky, but I took my time and only wasted 1 piece. LOL.

Below are pictures of the cleats doing a dry fit.

Dry fit of cleats in dorade boxes. This will give the roof deck a place to glue to. 

Once I cut out each cleat, I then used a router to do a round-over on the inside edges. The edge that I will see in the cabin. I then took my sander and sanded each piece. Using the bandsaw, you get the marks of the blades, but this was easily taken off. 

Another item I will note is that you don't want to leave the cleats flush with the top edges of the bulkheads. Per the manual you want to have some wood to shave off, so you have the angle correct all the way around. That will be one of my jobs this week once I epoxy them. 

Painting Locker

And yet another one of the jobs I started was painting the lockers. I put two coats of primer in each locker and plan to put 2 coats of Interlux Brightside paint. I wanted to get this done before installing the seat backs. 

I think I had a productive week and it is nice to see things coming along! 

More Seatback work and Flotation

I have been thinking about the storage compartments a lot. I have come to the conclusion that I do want to paint the insides of them before installing the seatbacks. Looking at other PocketShips, some do and some don't. From what I have read epoxy does not hold up with UV light, so I think these do need to be painted.

I also was looking at how water would possibly pool inside them and the need to install drain holes. The manual calls for drain holes along the front, which I will be installing. Looking at the compartment on the inside bottom, there are fillets on 3 sides. Looking at the compartment, both sides and up against the side panels/outside of hull. It looked to me that that the 4th side facing the seatbacks/cockpit was a good place for water to pool and if I didn't get the bottom stringer attached properly, water could find its way in. I decided to put a fillet up against the bottom stringer. This will allow for fillets all the way around on the bottom and hopefully prevent any water damage.

Next up I decided to cut the flotation that goes on inside the seatbacks. I definitely underestimated the time it would take. Not that the task was difficult, but it was a lot of cutting to do. I decided to use this pink insulation from Home Depot. I think total for the boat, I used 2.5  (4 by 8 sheets). I bought Qty 2 - 1" thick and 1 - 2" inch thick. I had some of the plain white that you get in shipping boxes, but that stuff makes a huge mess. The pink insulation makes very little. I used a fine tooth hand saw and cut the pieces to fit. It took a good part of  4 hours to cut all the pieces and wedge them in there. Once I get the seatbacks installed, I plan to wedge some more, so there is no movement. I may get some of that spray-in foam to fill up the empty space.

Port side flotation

Starboard side flotation

Seatback work and Upper Breasthook

I had to go out of town for work, so I was limited again with personal stuff and not boat building. But I was able to do some odds and ends this past week. I used a router to do the round over on the seat back flanges and that turned out pretty good. I applied two coats of epoxy and plan to do another one before installing.

I also used a router on the upper breasthook and installed it to the bow section. I used 2 bronze screws on both sides and filled with epoxy. 

I also installed the sheer clamps for the decking and cut them off flush with bulkhead #2. 

Sheer Clamps installed. I used 2 bronze 1 1/2 " drilled through the rear cabin bulkhead for support and per the manual. 

This is before I cut them off flush, but they were already glued up.  

I gave the seat back section supports and stringers another coat of epoxy to seal them up.  I should be ready to install the seat backs shortly. 

I also did a lot of sanding inside the cabin and in the bow area before installing the sheer clamps and breasthook. I figured it would be better to get some of this out of the way.

Seatback Blocking and Doing some Sailing

I don't have much to update this time. We went to a Bed and Breakfast last weekend and did some site seeing and sailed some as well. Happy wife = Happy Boat Shop!

Below is my Hobie Kayak I bought back in 2015 and really prompted me to get into sailing and to build PocketShip. I still have fun sailing it, but can't wait until getting out on the PocketShip.
We went on the Chickahominy River in Virginia right at the James River. Nice sail except for the 50 plus fishing boats in a tournament that kept on flying by me. I wonder when they actually fish. All I see them doing is running up and down the river.

Below is a picture of my Hobie Tandem Island.

I did manage to cut and fit all the blocking and put multiple coats on the wood before installing them.
I installed the port side one night after work and then the starboard side. I'm glad I tested them before applying thickened epoxy with cabosil, because I wrote port and starboard on the wrong ones.  Oops!
So just a reminder to double check things before glueing up!


This is the starboard side all glued in. I used a paper template to cut the notch at the bow block, so that it would cover all the space. I didn't want to install a cleat into a portion that didn't have the blocking below. I cut is out with my bandsaw.

Port side all glued up and clamped.  I also used temporary screws to hold in place. I again cut out the notch on the bow block so it fit properly.

I have more conflicts coming up this weekend with helping my son move, so again time will be limited. I plan on taking my belt sander to the top of the blocking to level out, take a router to the seatback boards and install the floatation. If everything goes well, I may install the seatbacks!

Seatback Framing, Stringers and Transom Skirt

I finished up all the seatback framing and started to apply epoxy to seal all the stringers. I will need to put 1-2 more additional coats of epoxy on them, then I can start to install the floatation and close things up.

Below you can see some of the pictures of the standard stringers and some of the additional stringers I installed. Below shows one of the stringers that will help support the seatback on the transom.

Below is a picture of the stringers after I leveled them out using a plane. This was actually a lot easier than I thought when I first started todo this area. I used a chisel to get the edges closest to the rear cabin wall and transom.

This is the port side all installed.

Below is a picture of the stringers and block at the transom on the port side. I was glueing the extra piece of stringer to the transom as extra support. I actually used a piece I cut off on the bottom stringer. It had the angle that I needed and was already made.  So don't throw your scraps away to quickly.
I used a clamp on the top of the piece, but had to us a screw on the bottom. Be careful not to drill through!! :)

The manual calls for blocking to be place in 3 places on each side. They will support the hardware block you will install last. I was able to cut the blocking and plane it so it fit properly.  I opt'd to go with thicker blocking based on some of the other blogs I read. In the manual, it looks like they used another piece of Okoume plywood. 

Below I am dry fitting the pieces and using a plane on the edges to make sure they fit properly. I will apply multiple coats of epoxy to seal them up before glueing them in place. 

Below of the pieces of blocking I am using. I have one coat on them and the epoxy is curing.

Below is the transom skirt. I have been playing with it for about a week looking at the best way to install it. The manual shows the inside edge of the skirt flush/even with the inside edge of the transom. Pg. 176 shows a good picture of how to install it.  

I did a dry fit and got it close to where I wanted to install it. I then drilled one hole through the skirt into the blocking on both sides. I used a finishing nail the same size as the holes and laid down a large bead of epoxy from a pastry bag. I used the nails to line things up on both sides and then just pushed the skirt down. It slides on the nails and goes right into place. I think this method helps, so you are not sliding the piece and getting epoxy all over the place. I did have to use a brush to move the epoxy, because I could not see the pilot holes for the nails to go in. I then drilled some additional holes and used drywall screws to hold in place. I was actually very pleased with the way it turned out. I took a fine tooth saw and cut the extra piece of wood on the edges off, so they are flush with the sides. 

I wanted some weight in the middle of the skirt to hold it down, so I used clamps to hold weights in place. 

I used 2 clamps to hold the horizontal and vertical position of the small stringer on both sides. The small blocking shown in the picture below was a little difficult. I messed up a couple pieces, but I also was trying to rush one night after work to get it done. Rushing in boat building does not work! Actually rushing doing anything usually causes problems! :-)

Another shot of everything glued/clamped in place. On the starboard side I broke the glue joint playing with the blocking, so I had to re-epoxy the piece in place. I used a screw through the transom skirt to hold it in place. I hope this holds. I think I will leave it there until I get the blocking glued in.

Below is the skirt in place with the epoxy fillet on the inside. This will need to be sanded smooth, since I still can't do fillets very well. Oh well I like sanding!

I started on the seatbacks and epoxied the flanges into place. Below is a couple of pictures. 

I have cut out the holes, but still need to use my router to do a round over on the edges. 

Things are slowly coming along. 

Bow Foredeck Fiberglass and Seatback Stringers!

I sanded the bow area fillets and made everything smooth prior to laying down the fiberglass in the bow area. It has been in the 90s to 100 degrees, which is NOT good epoxy working conditions, but I have managed. I can't remember which member of the forum that suggested it, but I have been using a container of ice to help keep the epoxy cool to delay the hardening. It has worked! I cut the fiberglass to fit and then over multiple nights put the 3 coats of epoxy to fill out the weave.

Below is the fiberglass cut to fit. You can see the different cuts, so that it will lay properly. I used a combination of brush, roller and yellow plastic epoxy spreader. The more fiberglassing I am doing I am finding that the yellow epoxy spreader works very good for the initial 1st coat. The roller seems to stick/pull on the glass. However the roller is definitely the way to go on coats 2 and 3, using the brush to get the corners.

While doing the multiple coats, I have also been working on the blocking on the upper transom. This was a fussy to say the least task. I will have to admit, that trying to rush a part of this type after work, just to get it done is not the right approach. I wasted a few blocks by not properly thinking it through. When I had more time, my work definitely improves. I have learned this to some extent. I try to save the complex cuts/tasks to the weekends and the simple tasks of just applying a coat of epoxy to fill in the weave to during the week after work. Boat building is not a hurry up and get it done process!


Below is  a few pictures of the upper transom blocking. You can see the different angles that I had to cut. I will also note that the manual show installing the stringers first, but if you did that you would have stringers epoxied to the upper panels and would have to remove it. Another note to read ahead in the manual to plan the next step. I used some temporary drywall screws to hold in place while the epoxy cured.

Starboard blocking.

Port side blocking

Below is the upper stringers on the outside edge. These went on pretty easy with no fuss. 

Now the manual talks about being very careful as you put on the upper inside stringers. Now I try to be careful, but trying to drill a pilot hole in the middle of a 1/4 inch thick piece of wood seems pretty complex / stressing to me.  So looking a the other blogs, specifically Jeff''s "Old Soul" , he installed small stringers on the seatback supports. This will allow more area to drill pilot holes to hold the seatback piece in place.  Below you can see where I did this on the Starboard side. I plan on doing this on the port side as well. 

Close up of the stringers not specified in the manual, but will make things easier.  Also be sure to coat all the edges with epoxy prior to installing.

This weekend in Virginia is calling for a high of 100, 100 and 96. I plan on working on the boat and will get as much done as possible with the heat!  At least I will loose some weight in the sweatbox boat building shop!!! 😀  , but still enjoying working on the boat!!  Working on the boat in the extreme heat beats even the best day at the day job!!!!!!!!!