Life goes on.

The end of summer brought with it a devastating personal loss. My boatbuilding work suffered in the aftermath. So did a whole lot of other things. But, as they say, life goes on. I'm finally back to working on the boats, so here is a little update:

The Utility
After sanding, filling in holes and low spots, more sanding, more filling, and yet more sanding... the hull was finally ready for encapsulation. Taking advice from more experienced builders, I applied the epoxy (System Three Silvertip) with the special thin foam rollers from Glen-L. This made application much faster and easier than trying to do it with a chip brush. And if you're thinking about using the "regular" paint rollers for this... DON'T. I made that mistake. I regretted it. So will you, in all likelihood.

Glen-L Utility hull, encapsulated with 1 layer of System Three Silvertip epoxy.

On the transom, after rolling on the epoxy, I squeegied it meticulously to remove all excess epoxy. This gives the transom a very attractive "stained" look, accenting the grain that I want to show.

I was very happy with how the transom turned out.

The hull is now ready to be fiberglassed.

The ZIP
Yes, I am enjoying building the Utility. I even got to drive one recently, and it's a neat little boat. However, I want that Zip in the water. There's a long, long way to go before that can happen. So, I built frame 5-1/2 over the weekend. I built it out of 4/4 African Mahogany, lapped with 1/4" Douglas Fir gussets and 3/4" Douglas Fir floor member. It is ready to be disassembled and epoxied. Hopefully, I can get that done sometime this week. 

Glen-L Zip frame # 5-1/2

Sanding.

When we last left off at the previous blog post, it was time for a lot of sanding on the Utility's hull. That is exactly what I’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks. I’ve done enough sanding, in fact, that I’ve come to a new realization: 

Up to this point in my life, I did not fully grasp the true definition of the word “dust.”

Sanding this boat hull in preparation for fiberglassing it has generated a colossal amount of fine red dust that has covered absolutely everything in my garage. My poor shop vac is trying valiantly to keep up.

In any case, there is still more sanding to be done.

Since it’s now August, I thought I’d post a couple of updated progress photos. All the sanding has revealed a spot on the forward port side where the bottom of a frame did not get adequately faired, resulting in a little “bump” in the plywood. I obviously didn't see this before... perhaps due to the amount of extraneous plywood that was overhanging the side. It’s really best to avoid this type of thing, but there’s not much I can do about it now.

Current state of the hull. Soon it will be time for a little fairing compound.

Frame #2, which is about an inch aft of this bump, apparently had a high spot that I did not catch, resulting in this bump in the planking. Fortunately, it does not feel to the hand as bad as it looks to the eye. I'll fill in these spaces with fairing compound. After fiberglass and paint, I don't believe it will be very noticeable.

This is the shimmed area at the port aft, where I had accidentally gouged the side planking. I think it will look fine once the hull is painted.

Planking completed.

 

The planking is now completed. In a manner of speaking, the structural work on the hull is basically done. However, there is a lot of work still to be done before the fiberglass goes on.

I had just barely enough epoxy left to finish the job. I used System Three Silvertip, which I thickened with #2 silica, as the last of my mahogany sawdust was gone. I was also running low on 1” silicon bronze screws. However, I did have plenty of 1-1/4” screws. So, I snipped the ends off of enough of them to finish the job, and they worked just fine.

Now it's time for a lot of sanding.

Butt blocks on the port bottom

Not a lot of visible progress since the last post... mostly sanding throughout the last week. However, I did get the backing blocks attached for the last butt joint, where the two bottom panels on the port side will meet. Here are a few photos:

Deep-reach C-clamps are ideal for attaching butt blocks.

4th of July in the boat shop

It was a busy 4th of July weekend in my cramped little boat shop. I set out my U.S. Yacht Ensign flag, and got right to work.

After a week of shaping that mahogany shim on the port chine, I finally got it to a point I was satisfied with. So, without any more delays, I epoxied on the forward bottom planking.

The shim on the port chine

3/4 of the bottom planking is now attached.

This time around, I used System Three Silvertip epoxy, thickened with the remainder of my collected mahogany sawdust. I learned a valuable lesson about using thickened epoxy versus Gel Magic.

Although I used the remainder of my mahogany sawdust, the mixture was still not as viscous as Gel Magic. However, it sure seemed thick enough to do the job. In the end, I used perhaps 2/3 as much epoxy for the port side as I'd used of GelMagic when I did the starboard. Not only that, but it was easier and faster to apply. This saved me time, stress, and money.... some pretty good selling points. 

I still had plenty... PLENTY... of squeeze-out to fill the gaps I was concerned about, too.

I also used 4” spacing on the screws for this side, compared to the 3” spacing I used on the starboard side. The planking contact seemed just as good, and I used 3/4 as many screws (73 this time, compared to 97 before). Again, this saved me time, stress and money.

And yes, this time I did remember to scrape away excess epoxy from the areas where I’ll need to fit the butt blocks.

Shimmin' O' The Chines

It sounds like it could be the title of an Irish folk ballad... "Shimmin' O' The Chines." As many ballads go, the actual work has so far been a mixture of hope and tragedy.

Well, perhaps "tragedy" might be a bit of an overstatement. But, what was that I said in the last post? "Two steps forward, one step back?"

In any case, I'd made the shims by cutting a 14-inch piece of mahogany in half with a hand saw. Then I planed each half down to approximately 3/16" with a planer/jointer. I epoxied these into position along the low point in the port chine.

When I was planing down the overhanging edge, however, I wasn't paying enough attention to the angle at which I was holding my larger hand plane. Before I knew it, I'd inadvertently gouged the side planking. There's not much I can do about that now, other than fill the gouge in with epoxy. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't planning on a bright finish for the sides.
 

Mahogany shims for filling in that low spot along the port chine.

The overhanging edge faired away quickly, but you've gotta watch the angle on those larger hand planes.

A close-up of the gouge in the plywood.

All the bottom planking is fitted. However...

All the bottom planking is finally fitted.

Two steps forward and one step back. Technically, that is still progress. That’s also the current situation with the Utility as I try to finish up the bottom planking.

In a nutshell, the panels are all fitted, but there is a little more fairing work to be done. Back in March, I mentioned in a post that there appeared to be a low spot on the port chine. With the planking on, I can see that this problem is compounded by a second one: there is also a high point on frame #1.

These two photos show the "hook," or low spot in the planking caused by a high point on frame #1 and a low spot in the chine.

So, what needs to be done now?

I’ll have to remove the panels, and sand down that high point on the frame. I’ll also have to add some more wood to the chine to build up the low area. Then the panels can go back on to re-check the fitting.

Aside from that issue, there has been other progress. I cut away part of the sole support on the transom to make room for a drain tube. I have not decided yet for certain if I will add a drain tube or not. However, if I do, part of the sole support would need to be removed. That is much more easily done before the bottom planking is attached permanently. I cut away a section 1-3/4" wide, next to the port transom knee. That should allow enough room to install a 1" drain tube. A coping saw and a couple of chisels handled the job nicely.

1-3/4" of the sole support on the transom cut away to make room for a drain tube.