Let's get back on this project!

Well the boat has been on hold for the past several weeks due to some much needed vacation (Went to Venezuela to meet some family - Good times!) and also due to the fact that it is currently STINKING HOT!! Prior to going on vacation I made my wife a happy woman by attaching some eye bolts to the ceiling so that I could store the boat. This allowed her to park her car in the garage - a first for the past several months (Which has been a bit of a sore spot with her!!). It also has set the permanent storage location of the hull once it is finished.

This Sunday during a fit of "Cabin Fever" I went outside in the garage and braved the heat. I cut out all the deck panels from the main sheets in preparation for the next step of installing the deck. Next step will be to clean up all the pieces that I cut out and join the two pieces of the deck floor together, along with the two pieces of each internal side panel. Working with epoxy in this heat should be fun - Now I know why I ordered the slow cure laminating epoxy!

Intermediate Wing Beams

Today I finished installing the intermediate wing beams. It turned into a two day process since I was using my 76" level to keep them in position while the epoxy set up. This process turned out to be easier than expected. I went ahead and cut the intermediate wing beams to the correct length and also cut the 27 degree angle (same angle as the bulkheads) on each piece. I clamped the intermediate beam to the level and located the outboard end of it by attaching a straight piece of lumber between the previously glued wing beams, I attached the other one to the level on the opposite side of the boat and located the other end using my other level. With the beams securely attached to the level and one end snugged up against the temporary cross piece all I had to do was fillet the beams in place and wait for the whole thing to set up. I let it dry overnight and installed the other set this morning using the same method. All that is missing from this particular step is to install the 45 degree angle ones in the back. For that I'll need to get some hardwood @ Home Depot for both it and the end caps. Pretty soon it will be time to start closing up the hull and installing the deck on the boat!

Wing Beams

Started the wing beam process by going to Lowe's and buying one of their 8' select 2 x 4's (It took a lot of sorting to find one that was halfway straight). I cut it in half (to make it more manageable) and ran two of the edges through the joiner so I could have both a straight cutting surface and a level surface to run it through the thickness planer. I ran both pieces through the thickness plainer and got them down to the 32 mm height dimension prior to ripping them on the table saw to a width of 22 mm. Armed with the correct dimension lumber I proceeded to cut the slots at the bulkheads for the beams. I ended up buying a 76" long level and clamped the milled lumber to the bottom of the board to get the correct depth of cut. I glued the the beams to the bulkheads making sure to again use the level to keep everything nice and straight. Looks good! Next step will be to cut the intermediate wing beams slots and glue them up.

Cleats are Done!

Well, as predicted the deck cleats turned into quite the lengthy process of not only cutting them but also gluing them on. Based on the number of clamps I had, and the fact that gluing them to the bulkheads was difficult at best due to the 45 degree angles, I ended up going through 4 different gluing sessions to get them all done. Tonight was the last one! Prior to each glue up I dry fitted every piece with the clamps on to anticipate any issues. I'm glad I did this since it made the gluing process a lot easier by allowing me to resolve any challenges prior to applying the glue! It is pretty amazing the stiffness that the cleats have added to the bulkheads!

This weekend I also figured out where to hang the boat from the garage ceiling. My wife will be very happy to have the boat out of the way and her car in the garage on the off days that I'm not working on the boat!

Next step - the wings!

Deck Cleats

After a couple of weeks of not working on the boat due to Meghan's Graduation, vacations, and a Memorial Day Weekend camping trip I decided to start tackling the next step - The Deck Cleats. I'm ripping up some of the 2 x 2 lumber I had previously used to support the forward back bone into 16 mm x 16 mm triangular strips. I have started the process and have the front third of the boat almost complete. This is a somewhat time consuming process! While I was at it I also cut out the mainsheet block supports. My plan is to get all the cleats cut out and then glue everything up at once.

Taping the Bow Transom

After some confusion on my behalf as to how far I should run the fiberglass tape up the Bow Transom (Which stemmed from my first not so good attempt described in my previous post) I initially decided to run the tape on part way up. This uncomplicated matters somewhat and allowed me to get a decent taping of the nose. Today, after some research which involved looking at build photographs from Dudley's pages and other pages I decided to run the tape the rest of the way up. Next step is to flip the hull and start working on the deck supports and the wings

Flip the hull again!

Well it was time to flip the hull so I could cut out the dagger board slot, round off the forefoot and tape the chines and the bottom of the hull. As usual what I originally thought was going to be a fairly straight forward job turned into quite the learning experience! First I bought this nifty tool from harbor freight that has this cool oscillating blade that cut through the plywood like it was butter! (A big thanks to another PJ 14 Builder) Of course, in my enthusiasm I got it a little close to the edge of the dagger board casing and nicked a small portion of it. No worries since I will be adding some spacers to align the dagger board and the nick should get covered up and faired. Next step was to round off the forefoot to the 50 mm radius - that went pretty smooth!

With the hull flipped I took out all the screws that I had used to keep the stringers attached to the hull while it was setting up and broke out the filleting epoxy so I could fill all the plethora of holes that had magically appeared in the hull since it was last upside down (mainly the stringer screw holes and holes that I used for the zip ties to keep the bulkheads in place while filleting them to the hull). I also added filleting material to the center line of the hull at the forward section. That way I could get it all sanded down to a nice straight line and take out any irregularities. Finally I added some material to the bow to take out a low spot that occurred during the hull attachment process. After a good sanding it was ready to to start laying the tape. This is where the true fun began.

Yesterday I taped the chines and the bottom of the hull. Everything went well until I had to wrap the tape around the forefoot and up both sides of the bow transom. The issue I ran into was that I could not get the tape to lay down flat on the bow transom and it kept popping up. I thought I had finally gotten everything kosher until I got up this morning and inspected it. At which point it was pretty clear that tape had not laid flat against the transom and had creating an air bubble. So this afternoon when I got back from work I got the heat gun out and took the whole mess off, scraped it, sanded it, and tried again... No luck same issue, pulled the wet tape off... tried again...Same bad luck same issue, took the wet tape off... Finally after a lot of head scratching it occurred to me that the fiberglass tape did no like to make multiple sharp corners and that it was most likely the root of all my problems. Out came the sanding block, and after a good 10 minutes of sanding and shaping I tried again. This time Success! I guess the bottom part of the bow is meant to be rounded! Went ahead and laid to sets of tape one on top of each other. They ended up being slightly uneven, but not to worries, it will even out during the fairing process! Looks like I might have to buy some more 2" fiberglass tape to finish the boat! Definitely wasted a bunch on this particular project!