Narfi's Life after EU: Chapter Four - FS17 a 17ft V-Hull Powerboat

April 26, 2018

Got the rubrails on!
4layers of 1/4" makes for 1 inch thick and I cut them just over 1.5" tall. Will see how much will need to be shaved off after its flipped.

The already look much nicer at this stage than the ones I freehand cut for the canoe. (Hopefully that will mean less work finishing )

Tanner a young guy got talked into helping. (Even though he was supposed to be studying for his instrument pilots rating). Its him you see in the picture with Landon.

After done I scraped the excess starting to cure epoxy off and layed in a fresh bit to fill any irregularities and built a preliminary fillet with the tongue depresser radius.

We started at the bow. Applied glue to an 8', 6', 4' and 2' pieces and screwed them together at one end with a single screw.
The screwed end was extended past the bow just so the screw wouldn't hit and then cut to shape later. Screwed the first 2ft down then glued and clamped the 4 middle 8ft pieces and worked out way back screwing it down. The back section was easy after that since it is a straight stretch.

Cut off the extra on the front and did the same to the other side.
Ideally I would have liked to "braid" the two sides where they meet at the bow as well as screwed and glued one layer at a time from side to side instead of completing one side before the other. I just couldn't figure out a practical efficient way to do that though and this seemed to work ok.

Will be interesting to see how symmetrical the front 5-8ft is once we have it flipped and out in a larger work area.

 

May 2, 2018

Finished sanding and swept the worst of the dust up.







Pictures make it look better than in person, but I still tried to show the areas needing most work.

The chines and transom need more filling and sharpening. I used duct tape as a dam for the initial fill and the thickened epoxy sagged through a lot requiring quite a bit of sanding and rounded surfaces instead of flat.

I am really happy with the sacrificial keel and strakes, they will require nearly no fairing beyond the few areas of weave needed filling after the first coat.

I really think a bit of work before laying up the glass can save a LOT of work after...... it's easy to tell yourself that its wood and epoxy, you can't screw it up and anything can be fixed with some fill and sanding. This is true, however its easier, much easier, not to have to fix in the first place.

Now what prep did I not do?......
The sides...... two things I should have done differently.
1. I should have done an initial coat of either neat or fairing mix before any sanding. Now there is dust in all those little crevices, and I am guessing this is the source to all those pinholes I fought for so long on the canoe.
2. I should have taped and papered the sides off before laying up the chine strips. I ended up with lots of epoxy runs and about 2hrs of unnecessary sanding.

Any thoughts on cleaning the dust out of the crevaces in the weave without an air gun?
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Yesterday was Landons last day of school so we woke up this morning and it was snowing. I didn't wake him before going to work...... what kind of summer break is it with snow and mud?..... He still played outside all day and it wasnt too bad this afternoon.

The channel in the ice on the bay we canoed through Sunday was open enough today to launch a float plane for its first flight of the year.

 

May 4, 2018

First coat of fairing applied.

 

May 7, 2018

Finished sanding the bottom.
Cut a hole in the plastic and opened the garden door and blew as much dust outside as possible waited 10 minutes and did it again 4 times.
Closed the doors and taped the plastic back up. Once the residual dust has settled used warm water and a new dishwashing scotchbrite pad to scrub the entire surface down.

Ready for to start applying graphite tomorrow.

I am happy with it so far. Not up to Jason's standards but much smoother than Eric's........
I don't think the overlap seems will show through it will be interesting to see how it turns out. There isnt any seaworthy concern, only potential cosmetic on the bottom where no one will see and will be dinged and scraped up soon anyways.

 

May 8, 2018

(Someone asked how I intended to apply the graphite on the bottom)

Same as I did my hc14.
6" high density foam rollers like they sell here at BBC.
I had forgotten to get any do a buddy picked them up for me at home depot. I asked him to look for 12" as well but he couldn't find any.

I'll use medium hardener at about 70f (still building inside my wife's dining room)
This is the one area I would have preferred slow, but I've been using fast and should be ok with medium I think. Will just work fast.

Mixing small batches I will roll the keel side to side, then working just one side roll the strake also side to side, then the flat between keel and strake for and aft, then the chine side to side then the flat between Strake and chine fore and aft. Then repeat on the other side, hopefully fast enough the keel hasn't started kicking yet and can still roll/flow together.

Spring is here even if still muddy in places.

Fly to Anchorage Friday and Texas early Saturday, board the cruise ship sunday.
If nothing goes wrong with the graphite I am on schedule. Will do 3 or 4 coats at half day intervals. Not intending to sand between.

 

May 8, 2018

Good news, bad news.

If I had more time I would have spent another week or two sanding the bottom.

First coat on, two more to go.
Used 5x 6oz batches.
4 pumps resin 2 pumps hardener and 4 heaping as high as possible plastic spoons of graphite each.
Put the epoxy in front of an electric space heater for 10 minutes before mixing to make it as runny as possible.

 

May 9, 2018

Woke up this morning and took a look at it.
It is nearly the same as first coat was on the HC14, and I was ok with it.
Even more so now, even stored upside down with the bottom up looking at me, I am happy with it and the scratches and scrapes its already gotten....



I do not plan on storing the FS17 upside down, I do not plan on shaving in the reflection off the bottom.......

The sides and interior will have much more detail given, and a much more 'anal' approach, but for the bottom, I am not too worried as it is.
After inspection this morning, the lumps were not because of lack of sanding, but induced either with bits of foam, or lumps of graphite. (thus why identical to this stage of the canoe even though I spent more time into less surface sanding and fairing on it)

Pumps vs. Weight
Round one goes to the masses who swear by weighing
Round two goes to the simplicity of using the pumps, and being (more) difficult to screw up when tired, 2 drinks in, distracted, or all three. (I work a full time job, a part time job, am a parent and a home owner(mortgage holder), I don't have the luxury of working in a laboratory with a clear head and lots of room, My boat building time is borrowed from time I should be sleeping)
Round three and the knock out goes to personal experience with over 13gal of epoxy mixed on two boats so far in varying meteorological conditions with zero (0) issues.

I do not think it is black or white, and I do not think weighing it is wrong, but we must each do what we are most comfortable with in our quest for safe and efficient methods of doing things.

 

May 9, 2018

Got the third coat rolled on, it's good enough but I have enough graphite still so I will do a fourth.
The three coats used most of 2 bags of graphite. I bought 3, used less than 1/2 on the canoe, so after this 4th coat I'll not have much left over, maybe enough for minor repairs for the first year......

Camera held 4ft above the transom




Close up.





And glamor shot as requested

 

May 10, 2018

4th coat on.
Its finished.

Results..... I am ok with it.
Yes it could have been better but not without an emense amount of hours put into it. I think for the bottom this compromise on aesthetics is acceptable.
I wont be rolling anything up where people can see and I will fair better and be more pleased with sprayed paint

Will flip when we get back from vacation.

 

June 10, 2018

Vacation was fun!
Highlight for me was boating on a river through the jungle in Belize. In two hours on the river we saw monkeys, iguanas, crocodiles, manatees, dolphins, and tons of birds.
Cruise ship got back to Texas on a Sunday morning and our flight out was that afternoon...... Flight was delayed a bit and some genius spent the time drinking..... about 30 minutes after we took off they turned the plane around so cops could pull the guy off the plane for causing problems.
So we missed our connecting flight in Dalas and Amarican Airlines screwed up rebookings repeatedly for two more days.... we finally got into Anchorage Wednesday night(instead of sunday)

Hit the ground running and been working long hours since getting home so no time for the fs17.
Got it flipped today though and cleaned the house out so momma has her dining room back!

The flip was uneventful. I built a cradle onto of the bottom place. 4 guys I work with came over and helped so 5 of us total.

I pulled the garden doors off their hinges and we took the cradle out first and set on the leveled platform in the tent.

Then we lifted the boat up off the jig. Came up easy, wasntglued down anywhere, just a few pieces of duct tape stuck which ripped easily.

The jig was in the way of getting the boat out the door though. So we tipped the beat up on its side and we unscrewed the jig from the floor and pulled it out the door and over the railing. Then we pulled the boat out the door and over the railing, it was a tight fit but went no problem. Once on the lawn we flipped it over and set it on the cradle in the tent.

Start to finish was maybe 15min, it went quick.

Landon wanted in right away and started pulling tape off the seams.

Probably another evening or two getting everything out away and tidied up in the tent then hopefully start putting some of this late daylight to use.

 

June 13, 2018

Sanded the glue squirted out the rubrails so I wont cut or snag myself while working on the boat.

Landon had all the duct tape pulled inside, so I sanded all the bleed through glue on the seams.


Lesson learned.... I should have cleaned up the clamping board on the transom more before assembly.

Tomorow I'll finish cleaning up the transom and bottom of clamping board. Then I will clean out the sawdust and apply fillets to all the interior seams in preparation for taping.

 

June 14, 2018

Cleaned up under the clamping board and rounded over the corner with a 1/2" round over bit.

Vacuumed the boat out then blew out all the remaining dust.
Mixed epoxy/wood flour and filleted all the inside seams and under the clamping board.

Will touch up any rough spots tomorow with the 6" orbital, clean again and be ready for taping.

 

June 14, 2018

Meanwhile my son has built his own work station.
He measured and marked everything for his table and stool and I cut on his lines and he screwed and nailed them together.

I cut up some scraps from the formers and mixed him a cup of epoxy/wood flour and he glued and taped together the birdhouse while I was working on the boat.

 

June 15, 2018

I think different kids are wired differently, but with mine I can not teach or direct him. He is too smart and too stuborn.

So all I can do is present him with as many opportunities to learn as I can and show him my successes and failures. Then hope he chooses a wise path.

I love competition and sports, but he has zero interest in sports. I am an introvert and struggle when forced to converse more than x amount per day or be around too many people, but he loves talking and making friends and being around people.

I want to build boats and airplanes with or around him, I dream many things for him. But ultimately he isnt me, he will have to find his own way, his own carrier, his own hobbies, his own way of life. Hopefully I can equip him with enough knowledge and experience to know what that is when he finds it.

 

June 15, 2018

Sanded all the fillets down.
Was only 55f so decided to wait till a warmer day to lay the tapes. Was summer just a couple days ago and 90+ in the tent....

Oh well, back to reading about boats and planes

 

June 23, 2018

Finaly a warm enough day I could tape the inside seems.

I had what I thought was a genius idea. I cut stirsticks 2, 3, and 4 inches long to use as a pen guide for marking the lines for where I wanted the tape.

Got done and took a picture to post and realized the measuring straight edge I used for reference is two inches wide and I could have just used it for most of the lines......



Taping went smoothly. I overlapped the double keel tapes where the four panels meet at the bow because I wasnt sure how well it would play into the curve(turned out very easy and no worries) and because I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a little extra strength there since I had fought the spring pressure so much when putting it together. The chine tapes overlap there as well and so thinking about it now I should have just run them the full length and now worried about it.




Took me from 5 to 9pm for marking the lines and laying out cutting and rolling the tapes then applying them.

It's probably a good thing I hadn't measured and cut the full size cloth already. I was really tempted to keep going, I was really enjoying seeing progress.

The heart is willing but the back was saying it's a bad idea. Plus I've got too much grey in my beard to be pulling all nights any more....

 

June 27, 2018

Layed out the the cloth last night and marked where it will go and rolled it up.
Had trouble laying it in the bow so cut it about 2ft short and will use smaller pieces up there.
If you remember I rounded it quite a bit instead of a straight line. This makes it a pretty deep compound valley to lay the cloth into from the inside.

Ready for the next warm day to lay it down with epoxy.

The first side I dont think I will have too much problem with applying resin from the over the side, and kneeling on the oposite half of the boat.
The second side though.... Thinking about laying black garbage bags down to kneel on over the first side.... Will I slide around too much to be practical?

 

June 30, 2018

Momma mixed while I brushed.
A good coat of epoxy over the entire area first then laid down the cloth then brushed the epoxy in over.
More dryish areas than I would like, but it laid well into the corners and I dont think the dryish areas are a structural issue, just uglier than I like.

I think 2 people brushing might have been better, it was gelling enough when done I didn't want to mess with brushing in more for fear of making a bigger mess.

 

July 4, 2018

Happy 4th!

Worked a 1/2 day then went to the community picnic at the beach in front of my boss's house.
Landon played in his canoe with some friends and they intentionally swamped it. Full of water it still floats surprisingly high from those water tight end hatches.

They did it on purpose so I didnt offer to help them empty it. That provided some good entertainment for a while as they tried and experimented with different bailing and tom Sawyer whitewashing techniques.

We did a bit of paddling once my life jacket was dry, then went for a pass around the bay on the 3 man tube behind the camps ski boat.

I conned 2 young men to help me glass the second half of the inside for the price of 2 hot dogs and some lemonaid.

Not dry this time but did get a little puddling at the chines. Wasted epoxy but it's not a plane so I'm not too worried about the weight.

 

July 18, 2018

Working too many hours, the joy of never ending daylight.......

Finaly got the bow and transom glassed tonight.