Finished Boat

For once in this entire project, a step of the building process went exactly the way I pictured it in my head.

I mixed up the epoxy, added the sawdust, mixed well, and applied. One smooth coat over the entire exterior. Made exactly enough. There's really not much more to say.
(You can click on any picture on this blog to see a larger version.)





The Boat

Friday Cleanup, Pt. 1

I got out there about 7:00 this morning, hand-sanding the boat. If I'm going to get it in the water while the girls are here, I have to have another coat on the outside this afternoon. I hand-sanded until 9:00, and then power-sanded after that.

I got the rough edges and screw-ups sanded down. Then I lined the inside seams, where the bottom (or "deck") attaches to the sides (or "sides") with strips of fiberglass/epoxy, to further strengthen the boat.

Then I flipped the whole thing back over and sanded the crap out of it. It's pretty much set for the final outside coat this afternoon.

And by "final" I mean "nowhere near final".

A second coat of epoxy will make it waterproof and water-ready. But I will -- in the near future -- need to add some fiberglassing reinforcements around the edges and I'll need to clean up the stringers, too.

And, of course, adding the deck, sail rig, transom, rudder . . .

But all that remains to get her in the water is one coat of epoxy on the bottom. I suppose I should get a bottle of champagne and settle on a name.

Fiberglassing Sucks

Sorry. Not a very polite title there, huh?

After 39 years, I've come to know myself. I'm good at some things. Like Excel. And . . . um . . . well, I'm really good at Excel.

What I'm not good at? Detail-oriented projects that require patience and quality physical craftsmanship.

Guess what fiberglassing is? It's a detail-oriented project that requires patience and quality craftsmanship.

It started so promising. I decided to do the "tricky" parts first: the pointy ends. I cut enough cloth to cover the first two feet of boat, and then trimmed it down and cut "darts" (if that's the word I want) to overlap the cloth over the bendy parts. I mixed up a litte epoxy, added a little sawdust for coloring, spread it over the hull, laid out the cloth, applied more epoxy, and squeegeed it down.

And, in truth, the first pointy end went pretty smoothly.

So I did the other pointy end. Pretty much the same process, pretty much the same result. Flat application, pretty smooth and clean.

Then I tried to do a bigger piece for the main body of the boat. Larger cut of fiberglass, more epoxy. This is where it started going badly. I should have used much smaller pieces to cover the boat carfully. The "stringers" on the bottom and sides created air pockets under the glass, and when I worked hard to get one out, it would appear somewhere else. The epoxy started hardening, and so I had to work more quickly. Much less perfection than the ends.

But, in the end, the entire hull was covered in glass and epoxy. It is messy in parts, but that just means sanding down and doing patches here and there. It's not the end of the world. Just like glassing the original pieces (in my failed butt joints): you have to start somewhere and then build off of that. The building process is, as Fred told me at the start of this, mostly just a matter of fixing screw-ups. And, to quote him further:

And when you are ready for that final phase, remember that fibreglass and epoxy resin, augmented with assorted thickeners and enhancers, can adequately address any and all perceived deficiencies, aesthetic and otherwise.

My biggest concern now is that I'm getting low on epoxy/hardener. I should have enough to re-coat the whole bottom and do the inside. But I'll need to get more before I can make changes and additions (like cutting the end of the boat and adding a transom.)

But first things first. I want to finish the boat (and by "finish" I mean "make watertight") tomorrow so that it can hit the water on Sunday.

Some pics from yesterday:

Above you see the first go at fiberglassing. I mixed four different batches of epoxy, each with a slightly different proportion of sawdust, hence the variegated color. I kind of like the different hues. After I get it sanded down and apply the covering coat, this should be somewhat evened out. (You can see the edges of fiberglass (white cloth) hanging down below the rubrails, towards the ground.) Yes, the pointy end in the foreground was glassed, too. It just had the least amount of sawdust mixed in to the epoxy so is a lighter color.)

As I was finishing up, a major thunderstorm rolled in, but I couldn't cover the boat, as the plastic would stick to the EXTREMELY TACKY epoxy. So I had to build a tent:
One thing I didn't mention is how great it is to build a boat barefoot. Until my last day of construction (when I sanded it down last weekend), I had done all of the construction shod. But last weekend, I worked on the boat barefoot, and it was really great. So I continued barefoot yesterday.

Not so great, as I ended up epoxying grass and dirt and seedpods to my bare feet.
I had to soak my feet in acetone to clean this off. Whoops.

I Dill It

This is going to be a fairly photo-heavy post, as there was a neighborhood block party last night, and I am in dire need of one of Jeeves's pick-me-ups. Fortunately for me, I know the recipe:Raw egg yolk, Worstershire sauce, tobasco sauce, tomato juice, ground pepper.
One gulp.
I feel much better now.

But there was, in fact, some minor clamoring for information on the progress of the boat, so I feel I owe it to my public to give them what they want.

Yesterday:
Boat, awaiting bottom
Bottom, awaiting boat
Bottom attached, using wood glue, screws and rocks
Houston, we have a Boat
The only thing remaining was to add "fillets" around the inside of the bottom, connecting the sides to the bottom piece. To do this, you mix up epoxy, and mix in a good amount of sawdust (provided for this purpose) and press it into the connection groove (like caulk).

This was harder than it sounds, and I don't know how successful the result was. It's certainly messy.
But it's holding together.
I have a Boat.

Today, I do a little clean-up, and priddying, and then, I dunno, maybe fiberglass the bottom?

Starting Over

That's what it feels like. I am no further along than I was weeks ago.

About my fiberglass repeatedly breaking, from Fred:

You kind of do have to treat your over-large butt-jointed panels like antique glass eggs until they are assembled as a self-reinforcing whole. You might consider adding some trooping sticks to the panels to help with safe handling--long strips of scrap temporarily screwed across the joint.

If you used two or three long strips of your plywood, say 2" x 3', screwed on along the length of the panel, roughly centered on and perpendicular to the joint, you could conceivably leave them in place until the boat is finally put together. The screw holes can be filled later, when the beautification begins.

I will do this. But presumably these stringers will by necessity have to run over the fiberglass. Isn't there a risk of the resin affixing itself to the underside of the stringers, making them difficult to remove after the project has cured?

I will do this tomorrow. I will re-butt-join the sides. And the bottom. For the third time.

This project is starting to make me feel stabby.

Progress Continues

I think I made good progress today. I met my stated goals (see here), and I sanded down one side of the messy fiberglassing of the bottom butt joint and the two sideboards, and re-glassed each with a new, clean layer. Fred had sent me a follow-up to his earlier e-mail, and advised me to slice open the "hinged" joint with a razor blade and fill it with the sawdust/epoxy mixture. This I did.

I took a couple of pictures of the fiberglassing process. First, here's the roll of fiberglass itself:As you can see, it's very pliant - it's very much like regular fabric.

Here's the epoxy/hardender mixture:
And here's me, actually fiberglassing:Photo by Henry
That's me working on the sheet that will ultimately be the bottom of the boat.

I have the bottom sheet set across four sawhorses, which I made perfectly level using my iLevel app on my iPhone. On top of that I set the two sideboards, side-by-side. I then put a two foot 2x4 lengthwise across the stacked seams, and weighted it down with big rocks from the garden bed, to make sure the joints are as flat as possible. Because it's spring in Chicagoland, I have covered the entire works with plastic against the rain. This is what it looks like (illuminated by the lights strung across our backyard to make it festive):

Hm. That didn't come out so well. I'll try another picture in the light tomorrow.

Henry has his first-ever baseball game tomorrow evening, so I'll get back to the boat on Tuesday, after work.
The plan then is to essentially repeat today's steps: I'll flip over the two sideboards and the bottom piece and sand down the messy layer and re-glass with a "pretty" layer. Actually, I may just do the two sideboards on Tuesday. To get the bottom piece flipped, I'd have to take the sideboards off and put them on the ground, and I'd be afraid of breaking the new glass I just put on today. So the plan is on Tuesday to flip over the sideboards and glass the other sides of those seams. That way, by next weekend, they should be set and done and cured. The next step in construction is to secure the sideboards to the fore and aft stems, so I can do that Saturday and at that time flip over the bottom piece and re-do that glass. That's a better plan.

While I was writing this, I got an e-mail from my mother (Mary).
I told you previously about my Uncle John (Mary's big, strapping brother who was in the Navy and could (and did) carry entire refrigerators on his back) and how my helping him to refurbish a power boat when I was a kid gave me a fondness for brass screws on boats. Mary's other brother, Tom, was less big and less strapping but a magnificent human being nonetheless. Evidently he, as a young priest, built a sailboat with some of his young priest friends. I was reminded of this recently, as I am now building a boat. This is background for my latest (and more supportive) e-mail from my mother. (You may recall her last e-mail could possibly have used a little more optimism.

Today, however, she is flowing with the milk of human kindness:

I read all postings on boat. Frankly I am at a loss with terminology. It all sounds so complicated and difficult. I think I have pics of u toms boat building. Will show when out here or maybe send if I can find. But I don’t think epoxy was available then so wood is just wood. But thought you might appreciate the task you (one person) took on when you see the army of men doing same. Job. I admire you talents and determination.

(emphasis added)
It's true, wood was just wood, but he had God on his side.
Uncle Tom's Particular Friend

And, because this post isn't long enough, I have one more thing to add. If you've been reading this log with the proper attention to detail, you may recall that last Sunday I cleaned my basement workbench. In one of my old toolboxes, I found some very old pictures, including a few remaining prints from a disposable panoramic camera I bought while on the SF Opera Tour in . . . the fall of 1997? (Among these pictures is a classic of my particular friend Fred with a look of abject horror as he stepped on the singer bus for the first time ever for a trip to the Grand Canyon. I will save him the embarrassment of posting it.) But on the same trip, Fred took what is probably my favorite picture ever of me (it's right up there with the cow picture, Fredye) sitting at the edge of the Grand Canyon.

I lost the original print of this more than 10 years ago, and have long bemoaned my loss. But last week I found the negatives (a hyperlink for anyone younger than me who has no memory of how pictures used to be taken.) Today I picked up the copy of the print, which I now share with you (you can click on the picture to see a larger version):
Tom, sitting with his feet hanging over the edge of the Grand Canyon,
circa 1997
Photo by Fred

Joining with Fiberglass

Well, it's done.

I did elect to go outside for construction, and I just got a very gratifying validation from Fred:

I'll try to make this quick so as to not be left behind: building outside is always better than building inside, even if conditions might suggest otherwise. And, after all, you're building a boat, not a chess set.

Good point. Right now, the rain will hold off until around 9:00 tonight. Says Fred,

If the weather turns before the cure is complete, you can still carefully move the pieces to a sheltered location to allow the chemical process to finish at its own pace.

That may be more challenging than you'd suppose, although I'm sure Fred's thought about it. I have two 8' x 28" pieces of plywood, end to end, with what feels like scotch tape holding them together. I think picking them up before it's rock-solid and the joint will bend, and it will be ruined.

In any event, here's what I had at 8:00 AM:From left, two rubrails, two 8'x28" bottom pieces, laid end to end, and two sets of 8'x10" sideboards, paired up and laid end to end.

And, here's the same view at 10:00 AM:The same pieces (minus the rubrails, which were moved into the garage [rear]), after being joined with fiberglass and covered with protective plastic.

I wish I had pictures of the process for you, but fiberglassing is a messy job, and I didn't want to get my phone all epoxy-y. The glass itself is very easy to work with: it's in a big roll, like fabric, and cuts easily with scissors. There were no jagged edges on which to cut myself - it was very straightforward. The epoxy comes in two jugs, a big one (the epoxy) and a smaller one (the hardener), which are mixed on a 2-to-1 ratio. I measured by pouring into a cheap plastic measuring cup I got a the hardware store and then carefully pouring back and forth between the measuring cup and a mixing bucket. (This is the recommended way of mixing according to the epoxy instructions.) I also stirred with a wooden paint stirrer.

I had pre-cut the fiberglass to the size I want (a piece large enough to cover about 8" on either side of the joint, wrapping around the entire boards and overlapping a bit). I painted on the epoxy, laid on the fiberglass and pressed and painted until the glass was saturated with epoxy, smoothing out to the edges and working my way around. I then painted another layer of epoxy over the top, smoothed, and set. I covered the epoxied fiberglass with waxed paper, wrapped in the plastic sheeting, and weighted down.

Did I do a neat, tidy job?
I'll be honest. No. I did not. It was messy and amateurish.
Wanna know why? Because I'm a messy amateur.

But the point is that I used plenty of epoxy and had plenty of overlap on each board. I believe what is going to make this joint hard is the epoxy itself: according to what I've read, epoxy is much stronger than almost anything you can join with it: if you glue two pieces of any strong material together with the correct type of epoxy and let it completely set to 100% cure, if you then stress the joint, the original material will fail before the epoxy joint does. So I think the fiberglass fabric is essentially just a way of holding the epoxy together until it gets hard enough.

In any event, my plan is to let these joints completely cure, then set up the sawhorses and sand down the messiness of the joints to some reasonable smoothness, and then use the final layers of fiberglass (when the boat structure is completed) to make it smooth and pretty.

My main concern at this point is that the epoxy will want to stick to the waxed paper/plastic sheeting as much as it wants to stick to the wood, and when I unwrap the big burrito it will all come apart. But I'll jump off that bridge when I get to it.

I think I'm going to "seal" the edges of the plastic burrito with gaff tape (is there anything gaff tape can't do?) before leaving today. (We head out to Charlie's baseball game around 5:00, and we're going out for my birthday pizza afterwards, and it will likely be raining by then time we get home. I'm going to just leave the epoxy burrito untouched until tomorrow afternoon. (It's going to be done raining around 6:00 AM, and then it should be sunny the rest of the day.))

(Fred also responded to my defying his sail plan advice, but I'll save that for a later post. I would just like to reaffirm that I would never even have ordered the kit and imagined I could possibly build a boat were it not for my assumption of Fred's advice and support. So the fact that I may not follow it to the letter should not be construed as meaning that his recommendations are not correct, and better than my decisions. It's more an indication of my stubbornness and unwarranted idealism.)

Note: upon proof-reading these posts, I've noticed I really like parentheses. Sorry about that.

A Call Back to Reality from Fred

I think the concerns about pre-tensioning your panels before final assembly, while not entirely irrelevant, might be a bit academic for a project of this nature. I think your focus should be the basic construction of the vessel--unclouded by the complicated considerations of idiosyncratic resin properties, the differing strength and flex patterns of various weaves and weights of fibreglass cloth, and the inherent variables of composite materials engineering applied to compound curves and fluid dynamics--eased, perhaps occasionally, with a lowball of Connemara Irish Single Malt.

To be blunt: build the wooden boat, then glass it. Enjoy the handmade process--the feel and shape of the wood as it becomes the essence of your boat--before you move on to the synthetic wrapper. And when you are ready for that final phase, remember that fibreglass and epoxy resin, augmented with assorted thickeners and enhancers, can adequately address any and all perceived deficiencies, aesthetic and otherwise.

More on fiberglassing

Well, I've certainly given the guys at Old Sparkey's Forum a lot to think about with my question about fiberglassing the composite parts before construction of the boat.

Here's some of the latest. Bob says:

Hey Guys,
Follow this and then I want some comments on wheather this is right or wrong or just doesn't matter.

When you glass the panels before stitching, the glass on either side of the panel is relaxed, just laying there. When you bend the panel to stitch it togeather you wind up with the glass on one side under tension and the other side under compression. If you glass after stitching the boat togeather then the glass is just laying there netural in the shape of the boat. Any outside forces placed on the boat will give tension on one side and compression on the other side giving resistance to the forces applied.On a pre glassed panel what happens when an outside force is applied to the boat? Would the glassed after construction boat be stronger than the glassed before construction?

To which seedtick responds:

might be on to something Bob,

similar to a post tensioned concrete slab for your house - concrete under compression, steel cables under tension, already preloaded for new stresses and considerably stronger than conventional reenforced slabs.

Interesting. Ron then chimes in:

Personally I think it would be stronger.
Inside is glassed ,and bent ,yep that glass is compressed.What happens when you hit a rock the outside takes the blow so puncture strength is important. The inside is braced because you try to strech the glass and cloth ,if you preglass and compress that it will take more puncture penitration to reach the point where the glass and cloth starts to strech.
Boy hope you can get thru the mud and understand what I just wrote.

So . . . I think this leads me to the conclusion that glassing the inside of the sidewalls before building might make them slightly stronger. The compressed glass on the inside would have an increased puncture strength. (And, when I'm completing my trans-oceanic trip, puncture strength will be very important.)

So, I think that's what I'll do: glass the inside of the side walls before construction, then glass the entire outside and inside deck after.

Oh, and on the rub rails: I looked at it again, and I don't think I'm going to have the length I need after re-cutting the scarfs. So I'm going to have to get another 12' piece to make the rubrail scarfs (scarves?). No worries: I can use the 10' for the sail project.