Another day, another trip. I'm off to Chicago for a bagpipe competition in about an hour, but am aiming to come back late Saturday (tomorrow) night. That means I'll miss the post-event festivities, but I've been away a lot lately, and I just want to be home with the wife and puppies and boat. Sort of in that order. I'll be at the Apostles on a charter next weekend so that's 3 weekends in a row I won't be home. It's nice to be busy but not this busy.
I did manage to do another bay in the meantime, and prepped another. Prepping is really what's taking all the time. Step one: pull out all the wires. Two: sand down the globs of epoxy that were the original tack welds. Three: mix up some new epoxy and lay it in carefully. It doesn't sound like a lot, but each nook and cranny takes 5-10 minutes and there are, I don't know, 100 nooks and crannies. The wood under the limber holes needs epoxy and a fillet. And that needs to cure. And then needs to be sanded. It's all a time suck, really, and I can't wait to get back to boatbuilding instead of this ongoing chemical romance. That of course doesn't include laying out the 'glass. The upside is I'm getting better at this so by the time I reach the bow, I'll be truly an expert.
One technique I've utilized with some success is to sand or chisel down the really big globs that were the tack welds, apply the fillet, and then pour in some mildly thickened epoxy. Some of the tack welds, because of the way I had to hang over the side panels and stretch into the boat are, let's say, imperfect. A fatty fillet goes over these which is then allowed to cure. After a couple hours, I'm able to poke around with some denatured alcohol to smooth the fillet. Even with that, inevitably, there are peaks and valleys in the fillet which also need to be sanded and chiseled down. The remaining fillet should be smooth as butter to provide a surface on which to lay the 'glass. In some areas, like around the keelson, they're not exactly butter.
Thinking back to high school science class, I remembered that water will seek its own level. This explains why it runs off the table and onto the floor and doesn't shoot to the ceiling. It's also the rationale behind cool new liquid telescope mirrors which are basically large vats of liquid mercury. What I did here was mix up and then pour some mildly thickened epoxy to smooth it out. The slightly thickened epoxy fills the gaps and valleys so that the end result is a smooth(er) surface on which to lay the 'glass. This is working pretty well, as the photos below demonstrate. Perhaps it goes without saying, but this won't work on vertical fillets, so please no angry emails when you tried this on the ceiling and epoxy'd your eyes shut.
I've also been busy getting the electronics as I'll soon need to build the dashboard, fish the wires, and build the speaker boxes. I want to do this before I put the floors down so that I know it'll fit and which floors I'll build to be lifts. I have my eye on a Lowrance fishfinder/GPS that's about to go on an incredible sale at the Marine store, so that means I'll be putting a hole in the hull - on purpose.
I also plan to run a couple speakers aft to the cockpit, in the side panel storage lockers. The smallest, reasonable value, waterproof speakers I could find are 4" Pyramids. The plan is to build a small speaker box in that side locker to act as a frame. I thought about installing the speakers right into the seatback frame, but I don't want to mess too much with a structural part of the boat. So if I need to pull these out or whatever, I'll have relatively easy access. This little panel will also have a 12v cigarette lighter (not for cigarettes) but as a power source for cockpit electronics. Finally, I want to run a LED strip in there for night sailing and cockpit lighting. Obviously, this will reduce the storage volume in that area, but the benefits far outweigh the costs.
The receiver itself is on backorder. Once I get that, I'll dummy up the electronics panel and see where that gets me. Few other times in this boat's life will it be this easy to install stuff, so I plan to take full advantage of that.
With that, I'm packed and off to Chicago.
I did manage to do another bay in the meantime, and prepped another. Prepping is really what's taking all the time. Step one: pull out all the wires. Two: sand down the globs of epoxy that were the original tack welds. Three: mix up some new epoxy and lay it in carefully. It doesn't sound like a lot, but each nook and cranny takes 5-10 minutes and there are, I don't know, 100 nooks and crannies. The wood under the limber holes needs epoxy and a fillet. And that needs to cure. And then needs to be sanded. It's all a time suck, really, and I can't wait to get back to boatbuilding instead of this ongoing chemical romance. That of course doesn't include laying out the 'glass. The upside is I'm getting better at this so by the time I reach the bow, I'll be truly an expert.
One technique I've utilized with some success is to sand or chisel down the really big globs that were the tack welds, apply the fillet, and then pour in some mildly thickened epoxy. Some of the tack welds, because of the way I had to hang over the side panels and stretch into the boat are, let's say, imperfect. A fatty fillet goes over these which is then allowed to cure. After a couple hours, I'm able to poke around with some denatured alcohol to smooth the fillet. Even with that, inevitably, there are peaks and valleys in the fillet which also need to be sanded and chiseled down. The remaining fillet should be smooth as butter to provide a surface on which to lay the 'glass. In some areas, like around the keelson, they're not exactly butter.
Thinking back to high school science class, I remembered that water will seek its own level. This explains why it runs off the table and onto the floor and doesn't shoot to the ceiling. It's also the rationale behind cool new liquid telescope mirrors which are basically large vats of liquid mercury. What I did here was mix up and then pour some mildly thickened epoxy to smooth it out. The slightly thickened epoxy fills the gaps and valleys so that the end result is a smooth(er) surface on which to lay the 'glass. This is working pretty well, as the photos below demonstrate. Perhaps it goes without saying, but this won't work on vertical fillets, so please no angry emails when you tried this on the ceiling and epoxy'd your eyes shut.
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| Tack welds forward of floor 4. It's a mess. |
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| Between 4 and 5, with slightly thickened epoxy used to smooth it out. This looked a lot like the one above. |
I also plan to run a couple speakers aft to the cockpit, in the side panel storage lockers. The smallest, reasonable value, waterproof speakers I could find are 4" Pyramids. The plan is to build a small speaker box in that side locker to act as a frame. I thought about installing the speakers right into the seatback frame, but I don't want to mess too much with a structural part of the boat. So if I need to pull these out or whatever, I'll have relatively easy access. This little panel will also have a 12v cigarette lighter (not for cigarettes) but as a power source for cockpit electronics. Finally, I want to run a LED strip in there for night sailing and cockpit lighting. Obviously, this will reduce the storage volume in that area, but the benefits far outweigh the costs.
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| Speakers for the install at the staging area. Also in view is a sushi kit. |
With that, I'm packed and off to Chicago.
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