That's a Whole Lotta 'Glass - Cockpit Fiberglass

The last few days were industrious, to the say the least. On the sailing front, I got out on the water three days in a row, all with good boats and great people.  Alas, I have but one picture to share as I left my phone in the car twice and ran out of batteries the third time.  On Thursday, I tooled around on a 30 year old M class racer on White Bear Lake. My host, Bob, knows a ton about sailboats and is very (very) picky about whom he sails with. This is partly because one wrong move in the right conditions and we're swimming, and partly because Bob's a talkative fella and expects talking in return. I'm glad to oblige.

Friday, I got out with Sailor Beth on Lake Pepin.  What a spectacular fall day that was.  Her 30' sloop cut through the water like a champ; the fall colors along the Wisconsin and Minnesota bluffs were truly stunning.  You don't hear much about Chrysler TMI's, but you should.  They are fine vessels.

But my favorite sail of the weekend was with none other than Garage Sail, by way of California Sean. Sean moved here to follow his work and took PocketShip (and his wife) with him, with a little nudging from the two other builders here in the area.  We wound up on Lake Independence, an 844 acre lake about 30 minutes NW of the Twin Cities.  This was a much nicer lake than I expected, and Garage Sail took advantage of the open waters.  With the mainsail only, she tooled along at 3 knots in light winds and kicked up a little past four with a gentle, steady breeze.  I was a kid in a candy store peering under the floorboards and into the electronics.

As we were waiting on the dock for the truck, many folks stopped to appreciate PocketShip bobbing freely in the water as I held the line. Kudos to JCH at CLC for designing a classic, and to Sean for putting it all together in amazing fashion.

Lake Independence - picture perfect cruising grounds..

I knew, however, that I would pay for these exploits with housework, which includes my own shipbuilding exercise.  I've been working diligently, short of continuously, preparing for the flip.  My wife plans to host a party this weekend and now I have a deadline to meet.

I spent a full day preparing all of the fiberglass areas. This included a lot of filling, fairing, sanding, and "just so-ing".  To get in and around the boat, I worked with the garage door mostly open. Here's a shot of how close the bow is to the garage door.  There's about 2 feet behind the boat where I can skirt behind and get in.  For those of you working in big, heated barns, seriously...

Missed it by that much.

Finally satisfied, I laid out the green tape and started on the port seating area.  One thing I wanted to do, though, was ensure good overlap in stressed areas, as well as being economical with the fiberglass. I think I'm going to run out, and I'm not going without a fight to use every square inch first.  To that end, I cut the 'glass in half leaving about 25 inches across.  This gave just enough coverage a couple inches above the port fillet and a couple inches into the footwell.  I then mixed up some epoxy and let that cure overnight.  By the way, it is so nice just to mix epoxy and not thicken it.  The small things in life, I tell you.

Laying out the fiberglass tape pattern.

Dry fitting the 'glass.  This is a sheet cut exactly in half.

Wet down and curing.  It overlaps both the footwell and up the sides, too.

While that cured, I figured I'd work kitty corner and do the starboard cabin decking. I like setting up the 'glass first, getting it just right, and then adding the frog tape to fit the 'glass.  Works very well this way. It looked a bit like a ghost ship with the fiberglass. 

The ghost ship, Lollipop...

Wet down.  As I write this, it has 2 layers of epoxy.  I am still hoping to keep the side bright, so we'll see.

Once the port side cured, I then moved onto the starboard cockpit seating area.  I figured I'd need to sit in the boat to do this right, and I did, so glad I waited.  Using the other half of the sheet, I was pleased to see I cut it pretty much exactly in half, no small feat on a sheet of 'glass that large.  This got wetted down and allowed to cure.  Meanwhile, I mixed up some more unthickened and put a second coat on the port cockpit seats.

Starboard gets laid.  I'll have a patch in the middle that will complete the decking.

Working kitty corner again, I then did the port side cabin decking.

This also went on well.  I was able to get some down the front, too.

A note about the frogtape.  With a couple years of experience now, I've got a good handle on the frogtape plus fiberglass technique.  The key to it, at least for me, is to wait until it's cured.  If it hasn't set yet, it will be difficult to cut.  And when it's cured, it doesn't even need to be cut.  Gripping just under the frogtape and lifting it decidedly will snap the fiberglass right along the tape.

I started doing it this way because I didn't want to cut the boat with the razor.  Instead, I have a thin score just outside the tape in case the snap doesn't happen smoothly.  When done right, you will have a thin, jagged edge that can be quickly sanded down, unlike those long threads of 'glass that never go away.  Being decent at frogtape 'glassing allows me the freedom to assemble the fiberglass in parts and reduces waste.  It's a win for all (but perhaps none moreso than the Big Box Store because I use a lot of the stuff).

With the four areas cured, I turned my attention to the footwell. I had grand designs on how to tackle this, but in the end wimped out and used a pretty straightforward approach.  The sides stretch out about 8 inches, overlapping the 'glass that's already here.  For the most part, it came out OK.  The corners and whatnot caused typical issues which I'll address after it cures.

The reason for the issues is that this is a fairly large area requiring large darts and a good deal of finesse (to get the alignment right), balance (to not fall into the footwell), efficiency (to work quickly so things don't gum up), and artistry (to ensure it doesn't look like shYte when done).  It's such a highly visible area I really wanted this to be near perfect.  I'll settle for OK.

This wasn't easy.  Good luck out there.

Done, after a couple hours and a couple aspirins.

Looking down the trench.  The dark areas are low spots where I tried to sand away the fillet issues.  This will of course be heavily painted so won't show.

View aft.  Note the transom doesn't have much treatment yet. I'll run a wide strip side to side to finish that up.

When walking around, I noticed that the whole boat feels much stronger.  It no longer flexes when I walk on it and it's very clearly able to hold my weight.  This is a good thing!  Over the next couple days, I'll add a couple extra epoxy applications, do the sides (aft and forward) and clean up the transom.  Then it's adding the rubrails onward to the flip.

The Worst Is Yet to Come - Prepping for Topsides

Another Friday night in the boatshop made for one happy boatbuilder. The session started out well enough: I poured enough epoxy to gum up Hoover Dam as I filled in the gaps between the cockpit deck and the hull sides. Not sure what went wrong here, probably nothing, but I was between 1/4" and 1/2" off from the sides. Given the most important thing (to me) was to line up the centerboard trunk and the footwell with the cockpit deck, and I knew I could just fill and fair whatever didn't look right, this went as planned. I also filled in the couple hundred temporary screw holes that peppered the deck and the bow deck, too.

Bow deck gets holes filled.

First laydown of epoxy to fill the gaps. These came out great after some work.

As I let that cure, I reviewed the manual to see what was next. I was really keen on getting the topsides screwed down, but before that, had to fillet the forward locker from the inside. To prep for that, I put some frogtape along the outside of the deck, mixed up some epoxy, and started squeezing from the pastry bag. This was, however, the worst part of the build so far. For the first time, I felt the size of the boat, how small it really is. I'm not a large person, but to squeeze in this area to epoxy such a highly visible and important glue up was not anywhere near fun. It just wasn't. I laid down the first layer, applied the spoon, and let it sit for 90 minutes as I turned my attention to the aft cabin wall.

This was prepped a couple weeks ago with fiberglass with the inside-facing wall sanded down to 120 grit, paint-ready perfection. That part was OK. What wasn't OK is the 1/2" gap between the centerboard trunk ("the bridgedeck" area) and the aft cabin wall. Did I not put the side cleats on right, lifting the corners up? Did the centerboard sag? Unsure of what to do, I pulled it up as much as I could until I couldn't strain anymore and tied off best I could. In the morning, I'll stack some things in here to bring this up as much as possible for the fillet and 'glass and maybe use a clamp or two. Once that's applied, it won't be as visible, but the afternoon that started with so much promise and vigor ended in disappointment, worry, and a strained neck.

View from inside - about 1/2" gap at the widest point. I'll probably clamp them together as I did on the hull.

View from outside. I can get this to 1/4" but it's still a lot.

By the time this was done, the epoxy in the forward locker was set enough to apply the alcohol. Over the next 30 minutes, I carefully and methodically retraced the epoxy and smoothed it out. The corners are better; the forward part looks almost good. The areas behind the speaker boxes need some work, but won't be visible, so aren't as critical. Still, it was really hard to get back there and I'm now a little concerned about how the electrical is going to go.

Before epoxy on the inside. Light coming in from outside. These were the toughest fillets yet.

Wide angle doesn't look so bad.

What to do? Well, work on something else, of course. I've been 'glassing the cabin deck (not sure what to call these things anymore -- this is the cabin 'roof') and the MacGregor rudder at the same time since they both use fiberglass and unthickened epoxy. Makes sense to me. The rudder looks great, so does the cabin deck/roof. I've gotten the fiberglass thing down, which is good because I have to lay down about a mile of the stuff in the next few weeks. I also for the first time had a successful "frogtape-fiberglass" experience. I cut a nice clean line for the rudder and will do the same on the other side.

At least this stuff came out OK. Cabin deck gets 'glass.

First half of rudder gets 'glass.

Tomorrow should prove to be productive as the hope/plan is to get the screw tops sanded down, holes drilled for the topside wires, and the fillets ready to epoxy and paint. With luck, I'll get the aft cabin wall figured out, too. The final shape is coming together, though these last pieces are trying my patience and my flexibility.

Scrapes A'hoy - Cockpit Decking

Another busy day at the boatyard. Fantasies started again of getting this thing in the water by June 30, my original sort of deadline. The sailing club has a large gathering over July 4th weekend and it would be something special to be able to bring PocketShip to that event. If not, I'll still have the MacGregor, but I want to bring PocketShip. And to that end, I made some progress towards that goal.

I finished stuffing foam under the laz decks in the transom. I'd been calling these things "lazarette floors" but they're really "lazarette decks."  Same purpose, different nautical terminology. It's nice and firm back there, with very little give on the decking. The wires remain protected and the added foam brings a little more peace of mind. I fully expect this area to be submerged, but hopefully with the planning, it won't be as bad as it could've been. One minor task was to ensure that the wires I still need to connect later were accessible. These include the three from the bilge pump, the RAM cable, and the lights/electronics wiring that'll run to the locker.

Now you see the foam...

Now you don't...

I then cut a few pieces for the bow compartment but got bored of that so put that away for now. I'd like to get a decorative deck plate here since it's so visible. We'll see. Next steps will likely be to paint the forward locker so I can get the bow deck down. 

Cut a couple pieces for the bow area.

Done with that area for now, I pulled out the long-built cleats that will support the cockpit deck (I'd been calling this a "cockpit sole"). Hard to believe I built these, I don't know, maybe 8 months ago at this point. I tried to cover up the exposed areas with green frogtape, and for the most part it worked, but not nearly as well as the effort would've implied.

The manual makes a big deal of the decking to be exactly on the centerline. This took a little finagling but nothing too bad. I put a random piece of frogtape across the centerboard trunk, marked the middle, and ensured that the decking lined up on the line. I found I got some overhang on the footwell which I'll need to trim just before that area gets 'glassed.

Line marks the middle where the two halves should meet. Good view of the clear tape that protects the hollow area of the centerboard trunk. Removed the frog tape right after this photo.

Alignment of the two decking halves.

As described, I ran a pencil underneath where I could reach and marked the support lines. Once marked, I drilled holes through this to pop up the other side. The purpose of that is to re-drill into the cleats and then secure it with drywall screws. It was a little frightening; images of having to redo all the cleats because of drywall screw destruction ran through my head. In the end, not a single screw went awry. Believe me, I'm surprised as anyone.

Marking the cleats on the underside. The decking was fiberglassed underneath long ago, waiting for this moment.

Taped and ready for epoxy.

The meeting of the decks screwed down.

As an aside, it was neat to this part come together. The mainsheet block sits right there. This would be called the "bridge deck" on the finished boat. Long passages will be spent staring at this spot. And it's a pretty comfy place to sit, too.

 

All screwed down. I neglected to mark the port side cleat which would be bulkhead 7, so I set about 50 pounds on it to get a good contact. The amount of squeeze out I scraped from here let me know this technique worked just fine.

After screwing it all down, I set my timer for 30 minutes for squeeze out duty. This was one time I could absolutely, positively, not forget about cleaning up. Luckily, the alarm went off in between homework chapters, so I wormed my way under the decking and scraped off what I could, best I could.

With the temperature hitting 62 degrees today, the garage was plenty warm, accelerating curing. By the time I was at the back of the other side of the boat, things were beginning to set. I got there in time, though. I'll sand these areas down after the flip and paint. I'm glad I didn't put deck plates back there. By the time I crawled back, I could've been out of the cockpit and into the laz area. I am, however, thrilled that I have speakers there as well as a plan to run some LED's along the outboard cleats. I found a neat remote control for the LED and can't wait to see that go in. As an aside, some people kept the decking bright under here. Kudos to them - no way I could keep the finish to do that.

Squeeze out clean out. One of the more interesting contortions.

A couple major projects need to be done before I can make anymore transformational progress. The first is epoxy on the aft cabin wall. I don't see this called for in the manual but I'm sure it's gotta be done, so better get on with it. The second is 'glassing the underside of the cabin decking. These large, unusual pieces take a pounding. Having been on Chris' boat, this is where you stand to raise the main, hand lines to people, find your anchor, and get your butt in the bow seat. Just like the cockpit decking, it'll take a beating over time. A little extra work goes a long way.