Tabernacle, Companionway and Bowsprit

Tabernacle 
A few weeks ago during a hot streak of about 103 degree days I was working in the garage. I was doing other tasks and decided the last thing I would do for the day was to glue up the tabernacle.
Below are a couple pictures of things clamped up.

Since it was so hot I was in some what of a hurry. I noticed the holes didn't look like they were in the right place, but decided the templates couldn't be wrong. I should have stopped, but I went ahead and glued things up. So my mistake. I had the outside boards turned around. The middle piece should have been on the other side. So now my tabernacle has the holes in the wrong place! :-(  

But not a big deal, I have already fixed the bevel so the tabernacle sits correctly and I plan on refilling the holes and then drilling where they should go. Just some wasted time to have to redo things.


Toerails
I cut the toerail angles on my bandsaw. I noted the angle on the plans and adjusted the table on the badsaw and ran them through.

I predrilled the holes. I think I used about 7 and cut little pieces of wood, so screwing it down would not damage the wood. I screwed everything down doing a dry fit and then lathered everything up with some thickened epoxy. I have been using the pre-mixed epoxy Total Boat Thixo from Jamestown distributors. Sort of expensive, but quick and easy.

Since I lathered the epoxy on, I had good squeeze out and used a fillet tool to make a mini fillet along both edges. This will help with any water standing and help with run off.

Companion Way

I also installed the companion way to the top of the cabin. I used epoxy to attach and used a combination of clamps and weights to hold it down while the epoxy cured.  This turned out good.
The portion that slides back and forth works well. Below are a few pictures of the work.

Bowsprit Hole 

As with any hole I have to cut in the boat, I am always nervous. The other night I cut a piece of wood to equal the end of the bowsprit.  I used a 4X4' post and cut it on the band saw. I then took an angle finder and measure the angle of the bow. I then marked that angle on the piece of wood.

I then held the piece up to the bow and marked it on all sides. I then took a couple of my small saws and took my time cutting. I had to use a keyhole saw to get the corners and then had to use a rasp to fine tune the hole so the bowsprit wood fit. I would estimate that I took another 1/8" off, for the bowsprit to fit properly. As the manual said, I could not resist putting the bowsprit in and taking some pictures.

Things are coming together! I am hoping to work on things tomorrow. Probably finish up the sanding, so I can start the painting.

Tabernacle, Sanding, Rub Rail and Other

Tabernacle

I cut out the tabernacle pieces and have covered them with fiberglass. I finished putting the 3 coats on the pieces this afternoon and will be working on putting the pieces together next. For the holes that go in for the mast and bowsprit, I marked and drilled them larger. I filled them in with epoxy and will be drilling out the final holes with my drill press.  I coated the inside parts with fiberglass and will be applying glass to the outside facing. 

Below are a couple pictures. 

Sanding
Next up was sanding the entire top of the boat. I didn't do much sanding before flipping over the first time, so I had my work cut out for me. I have already done a few 3-4 hour sanding sessions. I had to quit, because my back started to hurt, but will get back to it soon. I have plenty of other tasks to do. I have to finish up sanding the bow section and then I need to do the footwell in the cockpit area. I got a pair of bluetooth headphones to listen to music and that has really helped to cure the monotonous task.

Below is a picture of the hull now. I will finish up the above mentioned work and will quickly go over with 120 grit again. I should be ready to primer coat soon.

Rub Rail
I had to sand the top of the rub rail once I turned the boat back over. I used a block plane to take the high stuff off first and then used my sander to get it ready using 80 and then 120 grit. I applied 2 coats of epoxy over the rails over the last couple of days and will wait until later to lightly sand then start to apply varnish.

I also applied a small fillet along the entire length of the rail. I noticed a couple slight cracks where I was unable to get the rails epoxied close to the hull and didn't want any water working its way behind the rails and causing damage. I did the same small fillet underneath when I had the boat flipped over.

Below shows the rails after sanding.

The couple of pictures below show the small fillets. I will need to sand them some.

On the rub rails I also had to fill some small crack between the 3 pieces. Again, I saw some small cracks and didn't want water to get down them. I applied thickened epoxy and then sanded smooth. The picture above shows one of the spots.

Port Holes
I also cut out the port hole openings.  If you look at the pictures above, you will see that. I used my dremel tool with a cutting bit. It has an adapter to make it work like a mini router. Worked pretty good. It's nice to see the final look of the boat coming out.  I am looking at different port holes other than the standard ones, but haven't made up my mind yet.

Flipped back over!

With the help of a few friends and family ( 7 including me) we flipped the boat back over. I modified the cradle to put carpet where it would touch the boat and used some heavy duty straps to hold it in place while we flipped it. Actually pushing it back over was easier than the first time. Using 2 tires, I just rolled it over gradually and it was down. We put it back on the furniture dollies so I can move it around. 20 minutes work and then beer and pizza! Well 20 minutes work with the friends. Still a fair amount of prep work to make sure everything was in place. I had to test the beer to make sure it was good!

Below is the picture of the cradle with carpet and extra 2X4 supports. 

And here she is back right side up and pushed back into the Garage.

Now for 300 hours more sanding and painting!  LOL.  Hopefully it is not that bad, but time will tell.
Its a good feeling to see back up! 

Inside Painting and Varnish Rubrails

In preparation for flipping the boat back over, I have been working on applying clear epoxy and paint to the areas that I will not be able to get too easy once I flip the boat back over. I decided to leave some of the wood natural color, since I like the looks of it.

I applied a couple of coats to the underside of the deck/cockpit seats as well as the back side panel of the cabin.

Below are a few pictures of after the applying of the clear epoxy.  These are taken with the boat upside down, so the areas may be hard to follow.

With this picture, there is an extra piece of wood going across the boat. This was my fix to the gap that was left when I installed the rear cabin wall. 

With the above picture, I had a gap that I needed to fill due to the location of the rear cabin wall and the setback panels. I have noticed on some other builds that there was a gap in length with the seat backs. When I was dry fitting, I adjusted the rear cabin wall to basically fit the length of the seat backs. In doing this the location of the rear wall went back about 1/4" resulting in a gap. The cockpit seat was sticking out into the cabin about 1/4". My fix in the picture was to install a 1/4 " piece of wood all the way across and do a small fillet. I don't think it looks bad. Almost looks like a piece of trim. I am not sure this is an error in the cutting of the wood or an error in me putting things together.

If you look closely at the pictures below, I had to run a small bead or mini fillet to fill in gaps between the panels and stringers.  Having the ceilings clear sort of hides my mistakes vs. painting. I still like the look of the natural wood and I don't think I will need to varnish them, but I may put a coat of varnish on since I am a little more comfortable with applying it now after doing some of the rubrails.

Ceiling of Cabin

Ceiling and support for tabernacle.

Rear Cabin Wall 

Next up will be flipping the boat back over!!!

Odds and Ends

Mast
I finished up working on the Mast for the time being. I had a couple spots that I wanted to fill with thickened epoxy and actually a small crack that I filled at the bottom of the mast. Hopefully that won't come back and haunt me. After doing that I sanded everything with 120/220 grit and should be ready for 2 coats of epoxy. With limited space in my garage for 16 feet pieces, I decided to wait a while and focus on getting the boat flipped back over.

Inside Finish
I need to finish up the inside and paint/varnish those areas that will be hard to reach. I decided instead of painting everything, I am going to us epoxy/varnish as the finish coat in some areas. Mainly the roof of the cabin and underneath the cockpit deck. I like the look of the unpainted wood. So last weekend I spent a lot of time sanding, filling holes, sanding some more and then putting a couple of coats of epoxy on. I haven't decided about a coat of varnish, but I will probably put a least a couple coats on to make it look good. I will have to see if I can get some pictures.

Rub Rails 
I did some sanding on the rub rails of the previous coats of epoxy, since they looked bad. I guess you would call it orange peel look. I remember coating them in cooler temperatures and I don't think they cured properly causing the wrinkle look. So I sanded down both sides and had to put a couple coats back on due to sanding through the epoxy. I will need to do the final sanding carefully and then put many coats of varnish one.

I will sand off the areas this weekend and hopefully get a couple coats of varnish on with the long weekend.

Varnish
I bought the stoplossbags from CLC and built the little stand for it, only to find out that the kit came with a funnel and I really don't need it. Oh well, it didn't take 20 minutes and I only used scrap wood.  Maybe I will use it as my wine class holder! :-) LOL! actually I may have something here. More to come.

Working on the Mast!

Okay it seems like all I have been doing is working day job and taking trips on the weekend. Out of the last 4 weekends, we have taken 2 trips, one was Easter, so very little time for boat building. I did get a chance to work on the mast some. 

I was able to glue up the mast with lots of epoxy and get it all clamped up. I bought some extra clamps, but could have used more. I think I counted 52 clamps. I basically used everything I had. 

Below are some pictures of the glue up. 

After the mast cured for a couple days, I moved outside to use the belt sander to take off all the extra epoxy that squeezed out. The belt sander did a quick job of removing it. 

I then used my orbital sander to give it a once over with 80 grit. I have yet to do much finish sanding on the spars. I will probably do all of them in a session when I get time and start epoxying them. Manual calls for 2 coats. 

While I was outside, I decided to use the 1/2" round over bit on all the edges. Glad I was outside, since the router was throwing saw dust all over the place. Clean-up is easy with the leaf blower! :-) 

Below are a couple pictures of the mast. 

If you notice in the pictures above, you will see a couple dark places. I had epoxy lathered on heavy, so I was a little surprised I had some very small gaps that needed to be filled. I just got some thickened epoxy and made sure I filled the gaps. In a couple places I did 2 applications. I don't think this will be any problem, but wanted to make sure I didn't have anywhere for water to work it's way in. The 2 coats of epoxy will help seal up things as well.

I also did some work inside with filling some holes. I am going to be working on touching things up inside, so I can do the painting under the deck prior to flipping the boat back over.

Next up is finishing the mast and then start on the painting inside and have another flipping party. Need to go buy more beer!

Tiller and Mast work!

As usual work and family have been taking my time away from my build, but all is well and moving ahead. In the time I had, I finished up the tillers and working on the Mast.

I did finish up both Tillers so that they would fit in the rudder. Since I made them slightly thicker than 3/4 inches, I needed to narrow it down in the part that fits into the tiller. I just marked the ends on both and used a belt sander. That did a quick job of the task.

I need to figure out how to keep the tiller from coming out of the rudder. I have seen some pictures of builders using a pin of some type, but there doesn't look like a lot of extra room to drill a hole.
Below is a couple pictures of the tiller in the rudder. You can see there is not much wood coming out.

Now for the mast. I had previously glued up 2 of the 16 ft pieces for the mast and finished gluing up the other 2, so I have all 4 pieces.

 Once these were cured for a few days, I used a hand plane and sander to finish up the joint, so it looked good.

Now the next part was how I was going to cut these 4 - 16 foot long pieces. I purchased a Festool Skill Saw TS 55 Req Track saw for the job and other jobs I plan on doing. After spending a long time marking out the 4 pieces from the plans and double checking things a few times I put saw to wood!

I setup outside with my tent, since it has started to get warm. The track is too wide to sit properly on a small piece of 3" wood, so I just used multiple pieces to give me a good work surface. I lined the track up to my markings and cut away. I think this worked out very well. Moving the track to the next section was no problem and you could barely tell where I started/stopped cutting.

Now for the rabbet that needs to be cut on the 2 side staves. I followed the manual and used my table saw. Unless you have a long in/out feed table, you are going to need some help cutting the 16 ft. pieces. Luckily my son was home and he help me out. Being on the cautious side, I set the saw a little bit too short for the width of the side staves. Since it was getting late and  I was cleaning up, I just decided to cut the 1/16 inch portion off with my router at later time. I set that up yesterday and made the final cut. Now they fit flush as they should. 

Below are a couple shots of the Mast dry clamped together. Thats where I realized that they pieces were not fitting together properly. I did the router trick yesterday and then cleaned up things with a hand plane. I will go over things again before I glue up.  I will probably see if my son can assist with the gluing up as well. Sort of awkward trying to get the 4 pieces together and glue up with just one person. I also realized that I didn't have enough clamps. I picked up some yesterday at the Home Depot.

I also need to finish up the top of the mast piece that fits inside the mast. Or to be clearer. I need to start that project!  The bottom piece of wood doesn't require any adjustment. 

Next post should have a completed mast! But in the time being, headed out of town again! Got to keep the admiral happy!