Peeps, Ahoy! - Fixing the Gap and Other Fillets

My neighbor works at Target and knows of my fondness for peeps. The result is, come Easter season, I can get pretty much as many as I want, and I often eat most of the ones I get. The only catch is I have to make a diorama of whatever little buggers get left over from the gorging. I haven't been very good about this the last couple years, but this year I committed to doing something. So, here it is: Peeps, Ahoy!

The boat is a little wooden replica of a fishing boat. My father in law picked it up somewhere in his travels. It's a cool little model. Rudder, oars, even some cleats. The photo is some tropical island somewhere on my laptop. A productive evening, indeed.

Alas, there's a much bigger wooden boat that needs tending to. I installed the inwales* today (the manual calls them "sheer clamps"). Now, a bit about these because I haven't seen much written up on them, though I tried. These are meant to provide some lateral stability, form a profile, and give a place for the cabin deck to fasten against. They look good in the anchor well and also run along the inside of the cabin, so it should be some of the best work. What isn't clear is how it fits into the notch in bulkhead 2 and how it's used as a connection point for the cabin deck.

I first assumed that the inwale should run even with the topsides. When it wouldn't fit in the notch, I thought I miscut something here, so I actually cut the notch in bulkhead 2 lower so the inwale could be even with the top of the topside panel, or about 1/2" lower than the notch in bulkhead 2.

I even glued up port that way and clamped it shut, then headed for the manual and the blogs to see what was next. Something, however, kept nagging at me. If this is meant to be the cleats for the cabin deck, how is that going to happen if the cleat isn't angled? Meaning, this bit of timber should actually sit above the topsides along the cabin area, shaved down to match the sloping profile of the bulkheads, and then even with the topside in the anchor well. Only then could it serve as a proper cleat for the cabin deck. Sure enough, I went back and studied the photos closely. Clearly, these sit above the topsides most of the way around and gently slope down towards the bow.

Starboard curing.

I was/am a little annoyed that this isn't very clear in the manual. I could be totally off base here but I don't think so. I pulled the port inwale out, raised them about 1/2" proud of the topsides, and reglued them.  That will be enough to shave down on the angle to mate with the cabin deck. Worst case, I can file them down, even them up with the topsides, and be no worse than I was before. After a couple days, I put the starboard ones down, too - correctly this time. I didn't quite get the right length to meet at the bow so will craft some scrap wood, blend it with some epoxy, and it'll be good as new up there. Once that's done, I'll sand it down and 'glass the anchor well. There will be lots of extra treatment where the tabernacle goes.

Speaking of good as new, I addressed the gap in the bridgedeck/aft cabin wall tonight. The plan was to cut a bit of scrap to match the profile of the gap, epoxy that in place, then epoxy over it again. worked pretty well.

Cut a bit of ash to fit the gap.

Dry fit.

Epoxy'd in place. Left to cure.

Cabin view.

Regular fillet goes over the spot some time later. Good as new.

It's still visible from inside the cabin as a 'sandwich' but it looks 100x better from the cockpit. I haven't decided if I want to address the cabin view now or wait until the flip.

Getting the fillets in the cockpit is slow going. I'm glad I'm using the drill to help me mix because my wrists would be cramped by now. The goal is to get the fillets done this weekend, take my usual break as the semester winds down, and get the seatbacks in by next week.

* I'm fairly up on boatbuilding lingo but had to look up "sheer clamp." Per Wikipedia, a sheer clamp is "the upper, inner longitudinal structural member of the hull, to which topside panels are fixed. Outside the US. these are called inwales." I know them as inwales so will call them that here. I also call policeman "bobbies," go to the "loo," and sing God Save the Queen in the shower every morning.

More Fridays, More Progress - Topsides

We finally caught a break in the weather last Monday night, just enough for myself and two crazy buddies to stand out on my lawn at 2 in the morning to watch the eclipse. I'm sure houses up and down the block were wondering what the nutty neighbor was doing now. Most of them already think I'm crazy - I'm the one with a half-built sailboat in the garage, after all - but no cops came and no one shushed us as we ooh'd and ahh'd over the Blood Moon. I caught a few nice pictures of the event, too.

Blood Moon with Spica photobombing.

Alas, that was about all I had the energy and time to do until today. The last stitches to hold the topsides to the hull went in.  As expected, there was a fuss at the bow and certain areas here and there.

Slightly off at the bow area. This is the closest I could get it. From the front, it looks good. Epoxy to the rescue eventually. I'm not too concerned because the bowsprit runs through here.

For areas where I couldn't get things lined up quite right, I figured I'd use the techniques from the hull. This is where you drill a hole, put some blocking on the other side, and draw the two together. I couldn't get that to work because the relatively sharp angles kept breaking the wood, so I resorted to cannibalizing my table saw and co-opting the stainless steel clamps. This actually worked really well. In fact, it worked so well that if these ever go on sale for a few bucks, I'd recommend people go out and buy a dozen or so to use as stitch and glue clamps.

Cabin view of the clamp screw.

Hull view of the clamp screw. This allowed the joint to close perfectly.

Once the clamps secured the alignment, I mixed up some thickened epoxy and applied the tack welds. I learned from earlier that you don't need a lot of epoxy here, just enough to cover the joint and a little bit on each side. More importantly, you need to be sure you set an alarm or some other reminder to get in there with the gloved finger. It goes much easier when the tack welds are thin and out of the way for the proper fillet later.

Tack welds running along the cockpit decking. These will harden up a little bit and I'll finger them down.

I'm a little concerned that parts of the topsides 'bulge' out a little bit. For a fair curve, I'll have to grind it down. With epoxy (what else) and some paint, it'll be little noticed, but I don't want to slough off more wood than absolutely necessary. These are somewhat structural and will certainly take some abuse, so I'll have to figure out a balance.

I also picked up a couple clam thru-hulls. These will sit between the standard seat back support and the dashboard one. It's a nice set up. You drill a hole through the middle of the plastic, puck-like piece, then cut "outboard", insert the wires, and screw it all shut. The result is a waterproof, safe way to run wires from one area of a boat to another.

Cable Clam - sounds like something Godzilla would fight.

Sizing before topsides went on.

As mentioned elsewhere, I'll lose about 4" from the cockpit locker. I spent so much time prepping the laz area electronics for these there's no turning back now.

One downside to progress is that it's hard to get in and out of the boat now. My step stool is too low so unless I want to build a swing rope that hangs from the garage ceiling to get in there, I'll need to get a taller one.

The long planks on the bottom are the 16' select pine boards for the mast. I cleaned up a bit after this picture. It's embarrassing, really.

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.

And Now for the Front - Bow and Forward Locker Prep

There is a chapter in "The Book Thief" when Hans Hubermann, the girl's father, mixes paint to help his fellow citizens paint their windows black. This is to prevent anyone from being able to easily spy in their windows. Apparently, painting in 1940's Germany was a skill much more involved than schlepping down to the local Sherwin Williams to buy a gallon of primer.

I mention this because one of my goals today was to paint the first layers of primer in the forward locker. I dutifully cracked open the can of primer that sat in my basement and behold, it was complete muck. Runny, oily liquid with a thick middle not unlike meringue but thicker and far less delicious. If I were Hans Hubermann, I might have mixed up some magical concoction and saved the day (much like the book). But alas, I am not, so, onward to Sherwin Williams I went to plop down another $30 towards their revenues for the year. About an hour later, I had the first layer down where it now sits drying.

First layer of primer. I'm not sure I want to paint the xylophone/battery holder. I got a little paint on the electrical conduit so figured I'd paint the whole thing. It looks terrible. Not sure what to do about that now.

View through the locker holes. I had the vacuum in here as I prepped the area for painting.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I cut the two additional 'seatback supports' with my bandsaw that will serve as mini dashboards in the cockpit lockers. These will sit about 3 inches aft of the structural ones and will contain the 12V outlets among other things. Since the real support backer sits right along bulkhead 8, a hole drilled just aft of that will allow access to the laz areas. A thru-hull here or similar thing will keep the area watertight. I'll be able to access this through the speaker hole. I'll lose about 3-4 inches of locker area but it will be worth it to be able to run electronics into the cockpit easily. I only wish I'd run a stereo input cable forward. Oh well, next boat.

New seat backer dashboards.

I also put the 2nd coat of epoxy onto the aft cabin wall. I put a seat backer there to give an idea of how big this thing actually is. One more coat tonight and then sanding tomorrow and this can get stitched in after painting and stuffing the bow with foam. I decided I'm going to try to keep a couple 'bright' windows on the side that faces the cockpit. I've seen this in other boats and it looks terrific. To that end, I carefully inspected both sides and this epoxy side is the one that will face inside and will be painted white. This is mainly due to the football-like shape on the left side of the cabin wall. Not sure what this is but it'll go away soon enough.

Aft cabin 2nd layer of epoxy.

I'm told things accelerate pretty quickly from here. With lots of hard work, I've seen people go from this point to launch in about 4 months. I don't think I can dedicate that much time but will keep on going.