Fishman38

The washer head screw mentioned with cutter tip; I am familiar with one such which is basically a sheet metal screw with a hex drive head. They also come with a sharp tip. They're very tough and the hex drive would facilitate removal better maybe than other drive types certain better than slot or phillip drives. Dave is this the screw you're refering to?

Regarding the inverted pic; My bad-- I assumed it was inverted umm inadvertently.............

Thanks Dave. I too am concerned about clamping on such angles as well as spliting the wood with screws and obviously whether if screws were used they could be left in place. Thanks again for the info. Jerry

If you want a low maintenance, small fresh water lake (pond maybe) or river fishing boat, flat bottom aluminum is the way to go. In large high mountain lakes when those fast moving mountain squalls come through, not so much. Therefore I'll be saying goodbye to my 32 year old flat bottom after this fishing season and hoping to have my Ocracoke 20 ready for spring 2014! BTW, if I had known I was going to need the picture in front of the house because the one in the workshop turned out so dark, I'd have moved the garbage bag out of the way, closed the garage door and asked my lovely wife to dress and fix her hair! Also BTW, I realize not many of you are interested in my old fishing boat; I'm just trying to learn how to post pictures so I can do it right when I get started building OK20

Fine looking work! Tell me please, in the middle picture where the chines join the stem, do you use any screws and if so are they temporary or permanent and if permanent what type of screw? I'm speaking of the middle picture in the 3:24 posting. Looks like the middle one in the 3:27 posting got inverted.

Scott, I now have the Devlin book. Good source I agree.

Oops, forgot about the picture of the john boat. Running short on time but will try to do it before heading south. I've studied the plans and ordered the frame kit to be delivered around March 20, got most of the prep work done in my workshop, so I will be starting the build toward April first. Now if I can just find a source to buy decent lumber for jig, stringers etc. Hard to find a straight piece of lumber at Home Depot, Lowes and the like. Most of the good lumber stores are no more in these parts, thanks to Lowes, Home Depot and the like.

"I took poles from a Wal-mart 4 person dome tent, and shortened them by one piece, about 2-3 feet)." ecgossett said in a previous post. I can't help with the camping issue, but I'm wondering if anyone here would know where one could buy the type of stock (fiberglass tubing I think) mentioned here, as well as the ferrels etc that are used to make the tent frames. I've tried to find them before to make a poor man's boat cover with no luck. Sorry I can't figure out to make highlight the quote as it should appear.

Tom I saw that post and doing the coating and glassing when temps are falling shouldn't be a problem for me. I live in the afternoon shadow of Pikes Peak. The sun dips behind PP around 3 or 4 in the afternoon even in the summer and when it does the temperature drops rapidly. So I will have 6 or 8 hours of falling temperatures to work and still get to bed by around midnight. Also I will be working in a well insulated, heated garage/workshop in which the temperature can be made to remain fairly stable. Given that the outgassing process is as you describe it should not be much of a problem. BTW, due to prior commitments I will not be starting building 'til toward the end of March but when I do there will be pictures if I can figure out how to post them on here. In fact I may practice by posting a picture of the thirty-two year old aluminum john boat the OK20 will be replacing.

Thanks for the input Scot. Your's too Hokiehydro. Scot, I'm trying to follow your 28' thread but since my only experience is with power boats the sailing lingo stumps me at times. I have to keep a boating glossary handy You almost had me with "tabernacle"! Your tips are well taken, especially about counting pump strokes and forgetting the pump for larger batches. (with my ADD and all) Just joking about the ADD but I know that can be a problem. I always wondered how anyone could make the card counting scheme work for them in blackjack.

Hokeyhydro, I had the Gougeon book on order and it arrived yesterday about the same time as your post. It is going to be my "bible" for boat building. I visited the West Systems website and it too will be will be an invaluable source, especially the videos. The guy who said "a picture is worth a thousand words" had it right and he didn't even know about videos! Make it ten thousand words. The answer is probably in there somewhere but I haven't stumbled on it yet: one is advised to work with small batches of epoxy. One question that comes to mind is: When applying FG fabric to a large area such as the bottom, must I plan to finish the stem to stern and chine to keel area for example in one continuous operation i.e. don't let one small area of epoxy cure before overlapping the next and continue until a natural boundary such as transom, keel, stem and/or chine? I hope this makes sense it's a little hard to put in words.

Thanks Miyot. I'm enjoying "watching" you build your OK24.

I am in the late stages of deciding whether or not to build Ocracoke 20 and am presently about 95% sure that I will (build it) or at least make the attempt. I will receive the OK20 plans in a few days. Although I've owned one boat or another most of my life, most of which were aluminum, all outboard powered, I've never built one of any type and wanting to build one I guess you could say is sort of a "bucket list" thing. I did work a little with fiberglass way back in the day not long after the stuff was invented. Many changes(improvements?) since then I imagine? Anyway, I'm sure the reader can guess that I've got a lot to learn about the craft of boat building. My reason for starting this thread is to pose the questions that come to mind as I follow the other threads, read the books (Chappelle, and Gorgeon Brothers), study the plans and proceed with the project. I realize that Graham makes himself available to help his builders and will go to him when necessary but maybe this way will save him a few emails and phone calls. A couple of such questions follow: I suspect that most of you folks active in these forums live at or near sea level. I live at 6500 ft elevation. Does anyone know whether there are altitude issues that should be taken into account when working with fiberglass. In one of the comments today in another thread there was a mention of "outgassing". If that's a problem at sea level it must be a bigger problem at this altitude. Is there an Ideal temperature or temperature range for FG/ epoxy work? I imagine the instructions that come with the products will cover this but any comments would be welcome and helpful. (I realize that I'm a long way from needing answers to these particular questions but am thinking that maybe when the question comes up down the road I'll have a go-to reference for a quick easy answer) Jerry

Thanks! Hard to tell from the pics but it looks like you're maybe 2/3 done, with the console and other interior issues? Which would make it 3 or 4 months of 8 hour days total? Even though I'm retired would probably take me more like a year or so. 4 or 5 hours a day of real work is a pretty good day for me. It's a gorgeous boat and looks to be well worth the effort and expense. It's those hours and hours of sanding that that scare me. The rest I think will be fun. Thanks again for your input.

Beautiful work Rusty!! I am "considering" building this boat. "Considering" because among other things I'm getting a little long in the tooth to take on such a project. Would you hazard a guess as to the number of man hours you've invested in your build?