Two Coats of Sea Foam Green

I let the first coat of Aquagard 190 primer cure overnight, then rolled on a second coat. After a little more than the 4-hour recommended drying time, I opened my can of Aqua Gloss Sea Foam Green.

I havent gotten so excited at the sight of a color since I was 4 years old & opening a big, brand-new box of Crayola® Crayons. The Sea Foam Green paint just seemed to glow inside that black-lined can!

I rolled on the first coat, and let it cure overnight. Then I rolled on the second coat this morning.

So far, so good.

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winter update

No progress due to work and weather.  Good news is the winter tarp on the clam skiff survived Snowmagedon.  21" of snow in 18 hours, 45 mph wind with higher gusts. The ridge pole is the mast I built for a Birdwatcher II,  decided to abandon that idea after the mast weighed more than I care to lift as a static load.

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centerboard shaping

The Centerboard has been roughed out to its approximate final shape and I have become a tad obsessive compulsive regarding the final shape.  The photo shows the NACA 0008 shape as it seemed to fit the final shape of the tip of the foil the best.  the NACA 0009 might be better.  My plan is to set a dado router bit to the depth indicated by the template and then  set a guide for the router to follow.  I will set the guides as expanded lines up the foil at several stations as the template can be expanded to fit the width at each point.  I used the plotter at http://airfoiltools.com/plotter/index  be sure to select "no margins" on the printer or things get compressed.  I can generate a NACA foil for several points along the board and then connect the points to expand the lines through the taper.  The router would then follow the lines to cut the lines to be planed to.

 Area that will be inside the trunk is clearly marked.  router will be used to go vertically up and strike marks to plane to.

 I have no idea how I will shape the tip, other than just rounding it off.

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Planking progress stalled by need to encapsulate stem

As January keeps winding on, it seems as though I’ve had a million things to juggle or deal with that keep interfering with my boatbuilding progress.

I am making progress, however.

I’ve gotten the forward starboard plank screwed into position. It is not epoxied on yet, however. The simple reason is the fact that I have not yet encapsulated the stem, which is still bare plywood all the way around. Once the planking is on, it will be very difficult to reach certain parts of the stem in order to coat it with epoxy, (or “encapsulate” it), as protection against moisture. So, I need to encapsulate the stem before I permanently attach the planking.

The forward plank on the starboard side is screwed into position.

Detail view at the stem

In this detail view, you can see the how the added chine strips got blended into the shape of the forward bend in the chine.

Unfortunately, I don’t have on-hand the proper type of epoxy for encapsulation. What I have on-hand is System Three Silvertip Gel Magic. VERY viscous stuff that is great to work with to glue parts together. However, I need something much thinner for encapsulation. I liked the Gel Magic enough that I decided I’d try another System Three product, so I ordered the regular Silvertip epoxy. It should be here early this week.

In the meantime, I have fitted, glued and screwed the butt block into position on the port side of the boat. 

Fitting the butt joint on the port side. Without the butt block in place, the forward plank does not match the curvature of the aft plank.

By comparison, here is the butt joint on the starboard side. The butt block allows the forward planking to match the curvature of the aft planking.

The port side butt block, before being epoxied into place.

The butt block epoxied into position against the aft planking on the port side.

The next step will be to encapsulate the stem & a few other parts with 2 or 3 layers of the Silvertip epoxy. Then, I can permanently attach the starboard planking. After that, the rest of the port side planking.

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Almost

One more cycle of fill and sand, and the fairing should be done.

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The Camping Yurt

I built a ten foot diameter yurt suitable for camping.  The ten foot diameter seemed suitably large for comfort but not so large as to provide a transportation problem and also not so large as to overflow available camping spots. Our intent was to give it a good workout in Kings Canyon National Park.  By and large, it worked out with minor problems.  Pictures and comment below.

This shot was meant to show how small the yurt looks in a natural setting.  It looked much larger when I first set it up in the driveway of our house. We left the roof cover off so we could look at the stars at night.

Here is a picture of the yurt in the afternoon when the sun is hitting it.  We peeled back the wall for better air circulation.

Here is the yurt with the roof cover on.  We may still sew darts into the overhanging portion of the roof to take up the wrinkles.

After we got kicked out of Kings Canyon due to government shutdown, we found a camping spot in Sequoia National Forest right next to a Jeffrey pine.

Here is a longer shot of the yurt to show its size in proportion to the pines.

And then it snowed.  Clouds moved in in the morning and we put the roof cover on.  I had not yet made a smoke hole cover so a plastic tarp had to do the job.  The snow all melted once the sun came out.

A closeup on the tension band that holds the top of the wall in against the pressure of the roof poles.

And a closeup of the roof pole to wall junction.

The tarp leaked a little since laid flat over the smokehole ring to which I had not yet added any arch.  Here I have added some willow twigs to remedy that problem.

All in all, we were pretty happy with how the yurt behaved.  Next addition, some flooring to isolate the bedding from the ground and a small wood stove for heat.

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Next stop Transom

The side planking is all on now. So, the next step is to cover the transom with Meranti so that it will match the deck.

First, I made a posterboard template of the transom. Then I positioned the template over an attractive grain pattern on the Meranti plywood. I traced the template, then drew a secondary line extended 3/4” outward from the tracing. I cut to this secondary line so that my transom cover would be oversized sufficiently for me to fit and position it as needed.

Posterboard template & oversized transom cover.

The next step will be to attach it.

To help with this, I have ordered a Raptor stapler and some 9/16” Raptor staples. The Raptor staples are plastic. So, you can simply sand off the extraneous end of the staple once the stapled piece of wood is bonded to the sub-layer. This should leave little or no evidence of fasteners, as would be the case with screw heads, etc.

That’s the idea, anyway. The stapler should be here early this week. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

 Side planking trimmed at the bow.

Side planking trimmed at the bow.

 

Fairing progress on the side planking.

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