31 replies to this topic

[hokeyhydro]

Pics coming soon, I promise. The Diva went together so fast the hull was done before I took a break to grab a camera. The 4mm ply was Joubert and it is nice wood. From Graham's plans I lofted the lines and used a strip of cypress as a batten to sketch the curved lines. Then I sawed out the parts with a Japanese pull saw - easy, quiet, and remarkably fast. On previous S&G builds wiring the parts up and getting the boat into shape usually involved a degree of forceful persuasion and a few garage words, but not this time. The Diva wired up on target. Butt joining the side panels required a touch up with a low angle plane but nothing more than a pencil line width trim. I tacked the hull together with a loose mix of resin and fumed silica, let that cure, then pulled all those copper wire stitches which had tormented me with pin prick stabs for a day or so. Filleted, taped, inwales installed, ends blocked with western red cedar scraps where I plan to put painter line holes, small scrap ply blocking for a future rudder gudgeon install, on to fitting the deck.

Ah, the deck - this is where I deviate from the plan. I will try to sketch and scan a few mods to upload, one of which is the tabs that support the sling seat. I had to trim them because they stuck out into the cockpit area. No biggie, trim to fit as Graham says.

[hokeyhydro]

Pictures! One of hull, interior coated and deck framing. At this point weighs 24 lbs.  Diva 030.JPG   195.63KB   26 downloads


Non-spec framing. Has an additional mini-frame aft of hatch (same deal on front hatch) and a pair of short frames under hatch. Most likely gross overkill.  Diva 032.JPG   218.39KB   29 downloads


The sling seat frame. Clamp holds support as taken from plan. HINT! Plan template shows two holes but you only need one - use high hole for front seat frame, low hole for aft one. Ol' feeble brain here didn't figure that out until frames were made. Also, the support intruded into the cockpit area so as you can see it has been trimmed to fit. The wider support would be handy if you decided to narrow the cockpit for petite users.

Attached Files

•  Diva 033.JPG   101.76KB   21 downloads

[hokeyhydro]

About the deck . . . It became apparent that coercing 4mm panels over the curves would involve soaking, strapping, and a lot of garage words. During a dry fit test yesterday the front panel began to crack. Buggers. My default plan was go to 3mm which I used for my Daughter's 14' stand up paddleboards and also used on the decks of the outboard hydroplane race boats I use to build, but alas my nearby supplier has been out of 3mm for weeks and no pallet in sight. Double buggers. So I'm going hybrid. The cedar planks are drying to a reasonable moisture content as I type, and then I will plane, rip strips, bead & cove same, and slap a deck together.

I doubt a hybrid deck will be lighter. Roughed out 4mm panels weigh 11 lbs. I figure 3mm would go about 8 lbs. Cedar is light but will have fiberglass on both sides. We shall see how much weight that adds.

[Gordy Hill]

Just a thought...
Is the deck necessary for strength, or could you use stringers and aircraft Dacron and dope?

[hokeyhydro]

Yeah, one could do a fabric deck I'm sure. But . . . sooner or later it will be "wet exit" time and then one has to reboard. I'm no kayaker and I am old as dirt, so reviewing boarding methods I think straddling the stern and scooching forward to the cockpit is the most workable solution - hard to do a cloth deck. Another reason for the stubby frames where the hatch goes - flush hatch with inside hold down. Don't want to be dragging "the boys" over a raised hatch.

[hokeyhydro]

As usual, life has cut down on build time, but I'm making progress. Ripped and routed bead & cove WRC strips, fashioned temp molds to do the strip thing, and used small birds mouth strips to fashion a paddle shaft. Those were left over from the stand up paddleboard paddles I made for the boards I build for my daughter. 4mm paddle blades and shaft now weigh in at 30 oz. Shaft will lose weight when I plane and sand it round, then gain weight when I attach the blades and add finish, but I figure somewhere around 30 oz is fine. Birds mouth shafts are way cool. My daughter's SUP paddle came in at 21.5 oz, which is only 1.5 oz heavier than the $400 carbon paddle at the paddleboard store. Would it break? Maybe, but SUP tales are full of stories about carbon shafts self destructing.

[hokeyhydro]

Update. Paddle needs one more finish coat and weighs 32 oz - perfect. Hybrid WRC strip deck with glass on underside was a tad lighter than the bare ply 4mm deck panels = cool. I hot glued a couple temp frames in the hull, blue taped the frames and chines, and glued a mess of cedar strips together. Then I popped the one piece WRC strip deck off, flipped, scraped & sanded, and added a layer of 4 oz fiberglass. Then pop temp frames out, final clean up of glue surfaces on hull, gluie deck on. Then comes scraping, sanding and more sanding before laminating a layer of glass cloth to the WRC deck.

Pic of deck awaiting final sand and epoxy coat. And pic of cut out hatches which need to be cleaned up and finished - one upside down so you can see the frame. Also pic of paddle built to Graham's plan. Not a "feathered" version, were all novices. Birdsmouth shaft and 4mm blades - blades sheathed with 1.45 oz glass.

Attached Files

•  Diva 033.JPG   188.4KB   24 downloads
•  Diva 034.JPG   110.79KB   28 downloads
•  Diva 035.JPG   111.83KB   20 downloads

[hokeyhydro]

Oh, almost forgot. Dive as in pics lacking final finish, fabric seat and seat back and rudder assembly weighs in at 37#. Deck is glassed both sides, and hull is sheathed with 4 oz cloth. I figured hull glassing added between a shade over 3#.

[hokeyhydro]

Almost ready to launch! Well, getting closer anyway. Hull & deck have enough epoxy on them, time to wet sand and paint/varnish soon as I finish rudder install. Today I will punch holes in the deck to rig the Spectra steering lines and rudder uphaul line which run through small nylon tubing. Flush hatches with internal bungees to hold them down. The seat backrest is done and installed - sling seat also done. Sanding & painting next up.

Oh yeah - 4mm hull panels and bulkheads for #2 are already cut out.

[hokeyhydro]

Oops - forgot photo . . .

Attached Files

•  Diva 053.JPG   220.63KB   52 downloads

[Chick Ludwig]

Lookin' good. Noticed the old outboard in the background. Looks like a Merc clamp bracket from a KG-4 or 7 , is that a shift lever? Maybe a Mk-15, 20, or???, but can't tell about the rest of the motor. What is it? I'm just nosey---used to mess with stock o.b. racing years ago.

[hokeyhydro]

A stocker! From about `83 to mid-90s I raced stocks and occasionally MOD and PRO. Friend had me driving a 250ccH - what a hoot! My fav classes were 15ssH and BSH with my Hot Rod engines. The Mercury in the garage is a 1956 Mark 25 Hurricane. A previous owner sprayed it flat black but it is Sunset Orange and Sand Tan, the exact color scheme of my Mark 25 back in my youth = on the water at age 11, and the 25 was my fourth engine as I moved up the HP range.One of these years I'll get her back in one piece and running.

Racing was my boat building addiction grew - built all our race boats. Back then to meet the get `er done time squeeze our shop motto was hammer to fit, file to shape, paint to hide.

[Chick Ludwig]

Great days. I raced in the late 60's and into mid 70's. B stock runabout with an occasional BSH. They used to call me "flipper" 'cause I rolled the runabout going into the first turn so often---had "If you can read this, turn me over" painted on the bottom. This was in Florida when we raced every weekend during the early spring, and at least once a month the rest of the year. Probably around 20 races. There are only about 3-4 here in region 4 now. Not worth doing. Building my race boats is what really got me started in boat building too: became a professional builder later--nasty fiberglass boats--but I always loved wood for my own personal boats. I quit racing after the 20H gave way to the 25ss. Couldn't afford the switch.

Shop motto---"If it don't fit, don't force it---get a bigger hammer!"

Still like those little boats with 25hp motors. I have an 11 ft. glass boat with a 25 John-rude on it now that seats two. Would like to find some guys with these little "personal runabouts" to mess around the rivers with.

[hokeyhydro]

Get ready! This summer after the offshore race in Morehead City they had a poker run. Couple of our local racers asked if they could enter a C runabout. Green light, so they installed a fuel pump on the Yamato (OEM gravity feed) and a portable tank in the boat, and then dropped in a J driver, Johnny, who was about 13 at the time. Morehead through the inlet up the Neuse to Oriental and back = 50 miles. Johnny finished and instantly acquired the nickname "Captain Cajones." The race committee liked the show and wants MORE CLAMP ONS next year, so get your stuff ready!

[Chick Ludwig]

Don't think my little 11' with the 25 will impress anyone , I think at my age I'll just stick to sailing and pokin' around in my little power boats. How 'bout you? But it DOES sound like fun...

By the way, Hot Rod engines? I heard that someone had bought the tooling for the old Champion Hot Rod. Are these what you had?

[hokeyhydro]

Convoluted history on Hot Rods. Don't know squat about the original Champion - guy named Tom Moulder built the Champ & created the early Hot Rods, main upgrade was the Lectron Carb. The Lectrons were fiddly to set up but after original set up were sweet - about 10 seconds to change the main jet. Moulder sold out to Dave Little who was the guy I dealt with. Little made numerous changes: Changed the twin row of 64 rice size needle bearings on the rods to caged rollers, OMC fuel pump & ignition,and later Motoplat ignition and on one of my newer 20 c.i. engines had a "full circle" crank and no flywheel, just a rope plate. Without the flywheel weight that sucker had instant throttle response. Now a new company has the Hot Rod and they have dumped rotary induction and went to reeds. Easy to start, but lost top end horsepower. They also dumped the Lectron but after their third or maybe fourth carb change I heard a rumor the Lectron is back.

American Hot Rod acquired the nickname "American Hand Grenade" because the high revving engine was known to come apart. It was the only race engine with "head catchers" which were supposed to keep most of the engine sort of in the same place when they went. It was about revs - with rotary induction you could tune it to run close to 10 thousand RPM. I had mine tuned to run around 8,600 and ran her about 10 years before getting out - never had a grenade, and it was fast, So fast one of our inspectors was convinced I was running a 20 block instead of a 15. I love Hot Rods, love the sound, and really loved the heft = 54 lbs. No hernias for me.

Like you I like slow now. Dive #1 almost done, Diva #2 ready for stitches, and one of these days I hope to assemble a CS-15 before the paper plans turn all yellow.

[Chick Ludwig]

Been fun remenissing (how ya spell that?) with you. I'm sure we'll meet up out on the water. If you ever want to build a "personal runabout", get in touch--I have some thoughts about a "Super-dink".

[hokeyhydro]

Yeah, I will try to make your planned Spring messabout for sure and thyen we can swap racing lies. Guy on WB forum who goes by Wizbang 13 has a cool little runabout design. If I built one I would attempt to reproduce from memory, since A.N.A. has no drawings or info from the `50s, the runabout upon which I misspent my youth. It was a plywood 14' boat manufactured by A.N.A. - Associated Naval Architects. But for now I will stick to paddles and sails - more my speed since my aging speedometer doesn't go very high anymore :-)

[Chick Ludwig]

The Superdink is about 8 Ft. long with a pram bow and semi-v hull form. Seating is for 2 just ahead of the midpoint. Power is 10 hp-25-hp. Intent is for running creeks and small rivers and general messing about. She has remote steering/controls and hopefully electric starting(for us older guys anyhow. Lots of fun in a small package. The MOST fun is when two or more explore the creeks together.

I wonder if anyone else would be interested in doing this---or has the world gone to jet skis? If there is some interest, I may start a new topic. I also still have the molds for the 11 ft. sport boat, but have no interest in building fiberglass boats anymore. Anyone interested in the molds?

I guess it's time to give you back your topic and get back to your Diva build.

[hokeyhydro]

Launch day! Diva got wet and I took her for a cruise. Impressions - tender when sitting still but settles down in motion. When I first boarded her I'm thinking wow, I'm gonna get wet, but since Graham designed it I decided to trust the boat and took off on a paddle. No problems, not even busting through a large cruiser wake.

Rudder: I believe one could do without it. Rudder rig added about 4#. Going upwind It seemed so-so and I retracted it, but downwind the kayak got the wanders so I dropped the rudder and it tracked. Also seemed more responsive to input. Then Daughter tried her out. She liked the rudder.

Pics: B&B logo and hull number I printed on rice paper and buried under resin. Me embarking on maiden voyage - pic shot a few seconds before I realized the paddle was oriented left/right incorrectly = opps. Diva on the beach alongside the SUP I built my daughter.

Attached Files

•  diva launch 1.jpg   110.39KB   52 downloads
•  diva launch 2.jpg   81.51KB   63 downloads
•  diva launch 3.jpg   141.4KB   51 downloads