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

Oct 13, 2018

I cut the tops out for the rounded seat boxes.
Think I will bond an extra layer of 3/8 to the bottom where the swivel will mount. So it will bolt through 3/4 of plywood plus glass.

Trimmed the tops of the console base boxes a little more and cut access holes for the hoses to the fuel tank.

Layed out the triangle supports for the underside of the front deck and routed the corners down with a 1/2" roundover bit. I have lots of 12oz tape, I'm thinking I'll do two layers of tape over the triangles plus 1 layer of 12oz cloth over the entire bottom.




Need to clean out all the dust and start laying in some fairing compound so I can get the insides of the compartments sanded primed and painted before it's too cold.... snow on the mountains already.....

 

Oct 14, 2018

Birthday today. (One year to go till I hit the big 4 0)
Anniversary tomorrow. 13 years (we planned the weading day after my birthday so I could remember the date)

No restaurants here, but a coworker of mine is a formally educated chef, so I got him to cater our anniversary meal and we had it tonight.

Salad and pork belly confe (no idea on spelling but it's like a cross between bacon and pulled pork awsomeness)

Flat Iron steaks with roasted baby potatoes, carrots and asparagus.

And home made icecream.

This afternoon I glued down the front deck reinforcements and double taped them, then covered the entire surface with 12oz cloth. (So 3x layers of 12oz at the reinforcements)

 

Oct 15, 2018

Trimmed the excess glass off the deck and fitted it in place and jumped on it. Even not glued down yet or cloth over the top it is sturdy enough so I am happy.

First coat of weave fill/fairing material applied to rear compartments and seat boxes.

Even with the cooler evenings here heating the half med half fast epoxy is going well, one batch even kicked before I was fully applied with it, so worked faster after that and turned the heater off.

 

Oct 16, 2018

Spent a couple hours sanding this evening in the most difficult compartment of the whole project.

It's the deepest and all the angles are tight.....

This is also where I had lots of cloth and tape overlaps, so lots of grinding needed, which is simple on the flat surfaces but impossible in the corners.

Is there a good tool for such corners?
I was thinking maybe a little angle die grinder with sanding disks or corse scotch bright pads?

 

Got Sept and Oct progress posted here on EP.
Sad thing I just realized its been almost a month since Ive made any progress, the dark saps my energy and after dinner I am less likely to go out to the tent and sand or work on the next step than I am in the summer when its daylight till midnight.

 

April 23rd, 2019

Still second winter here, but some people already over eager and out in the field getting ready for summer and need picked up,.
Getting the "boat" ready to launch to go pick them up.

I spent the last big chunk of money today for my boat besides the motor I'll buy next month.
$435 on steel tubes
$615 on axel assy w/ springs and a set of wheels and tires.

Coworkers have built a couple this winter, I waited till they had the kinks worked out of their "prototypes" and ordered a little thicker walled steel than they used. I think it should make a nice trailer. I am not a welder but will work out a deal with him to weld it up for me. Thought I had a picture of one of theirs but cant find it now.

 

April 27th, 2019

Still have snow on the ground in the backyard but got up into the mid 70s in the tent today (end still open hoping to dry the mud out)

Spent a couple hours sanding then ripped a couple 1x4s into 3/4 × 3/4 battens. Cut a few tentative batons for the gunnal, just to get a feel what it should look like.

Still haven't figured out the console and windscreen design.
Would any of the console plans sold BBC be more helpful for what I want to do than the generic one that came with the boat plans? 2x integral side consoles built ontop of the back half of the seat boxes with sloped windscreens.

 

April 27th, 2019

I found this one online, I think I'll loosely emulate it.

I would like to close off the whole bottom box as a single cube to be accessed from under the front seat.
Hoping I can make room for the battery above that without conflicting with anything else inside the console.(steering, wiring, etc...)

I forgot to mention I used my new dusk mask today and really liked it, no white boogers like I do with normal dust masks.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BH2MXYT/re ... XCbZX441PX

 

April 28th, 2019

Dummied up a cardboard console to see how it looked.


I was mostly happy with it and confidant I can box in the case boxes.

I want the rear face forward about 2 inches, it was comfortable to stand at with my feet against the seat bottom, but the seat will will sit over the edge a little.

The front angle for the windscreen isnt right yet, too sharp an angle..... maybe drop the front corner down a little to adjust the angle of the windshield up more.

Will probably slightly angle the side panels in.

 

April 29th, 2019

Wife just told me we leave for vacation in one week......... I thought I still had 2 weeks :/

Hope was (is?) to get launched by beginning of July....

Good thing is I feel like I can start pounding away at progress now that I'm not worried about the consoles as much. Bad thing is 2 weeks away will probably get me back into stagnation again :/

Steel for my trailer hasn't gotten here yet, the joy of working for the air taxi and employee rates being 'space available', so I wont worry about it till after vacation.

'Dream' Checklist for what to do before leaving in 7 days of evenings.

1. Overdrill and fill mounting holes for the bow and transom hooks, and engine mounting.
2. Make some fiberglass tie down brackets for the fuel tank (copy some I saw here on the forum I need to find it again)
3. Frame in the tops of the console base boxes, seat access hatch on the right one, hatches for the bow and transom compartments.
4. Finish light fairing inside all compartments.
5. Frame up the gunnals
6. Cut and install the Inner Gunnal walls including compartment openings and hatch reinforcements for the forward area.
5. Fit fuel tank and install the tank tie down brackets.
8. Prime and paint in all compartments and inner faces of gunnals.

I am not sure if I can do all of that in a week but hopefuly having a list will help. I am usually good at 'doing' but not so good at 'thinking' so there are a couple of complications.
1. Seat hatch access for the right seat box.
2. forward gunnal hatches.
3. The strip lighting for under the gunnals..... I think I will embed them in the bottom frame baton, but need to finalize that decision.

I will purchase the engine either at the beginning or end of vacation while traveling through Anchorage.

Here is the rough changes I will make to my console prototype... Is there any problem with leaving the lower curved section open for access?

 

I have a multi tool, should look into better sanding attachments for it.
I destroyed one of those little palm corner sanders, maybe I should get another or higher quality one.
I also have a new (for christmas) dremal with a lot of attachments, was just using the round barrel sanding attachment on it to clean out the drain holes in the side bulkheads a couple days ago.

 

April 29th, 2019

Drilled the holes for the bow hook, transom hooks, motor mounting bolts, motorwell drains and transom compartment drains.

Wasnt sure what I wanted to overdrill them to, but realized the half inch holes I drilled fit the router bearings I have so used a 1 inch router bit to overdrill the holes. 3/4 would have been better I think and what I ended up using on the bow.







All went ok till I heard a loud hissing sound when over sizing one of the motorwell drain holes..........

I cut into the sealed compartment under the motorwell

The picture looks sideways on my phone but the gap is in the bottom of the hole.

The bottom of the motorwell hits right at 5he bottom of the clamping board, so I'm pretty sure I hit the edge of the clamping board. At first I was worried I had gaps in the transom/clamping board but all the rest of the holes are clean all the way through, it's just the one I hit too low that went off the clamping board and broke the seal on the compartment.

I drilled at a sharper angle than I realized, so once I have it filled and sealed again I just need to be careful to drill it in the upper part of the filled area.

Was frustrated and didnt get as much done as I wanted, but progress is progress

 

Same here.... sometimes I just stand frozen looking at it for 1, 5 ,15.... minutes unable to progress due to intimidation and indecision.
I dont copy all my conversations here from the boating forum but just a couple days ago I mentioned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis and how much I struggle with it.

Truth is nothing on this is difficult or requiring great thought..... a common saying on the builders forum is "epoxy fixes everything"
It's much more productive to just put my head down and do than over think things. Any mistakes I make are easily and quickly fixed with epoxy, much quicker than preventing the error in the first place. (Within reason of course)


Just imagine once we start building our first plane :)

 

April 30th 2019

Jeff wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 30, 2019 3:48 am
Narfi, good to hear from you!! I hope Spring has brought you and Fuzz some nice weather!!! Jeff

Rained a little today, but the last of the snow melted off our lawn last night.

I sanded a bit in the transom compartment corners using the triangle sanding attachment on a multitool.

Cleaned out the last of the over drilled holes in the transom and compartments with the little drum sander on the dremel tool pencile attachment.

Got some of the gunnel batons cut and preliminary fit.
If I lived near a store I would go buy one of those carpenters adjustable angle tools(not sure the name)
Might make one out of .040 aluminum at coffee break tomorow if I remember. Will help me see the inwall angle.

The inwall is broke up on both sides by the transom and seat boxes so I'm not to worried about precision, but do want it to be fairly uniform.