JetStream

I had a pile of mice in my shed this year and they make a mess of everything. I got tired of setting traps. Then I found this really cool product called the "Maine Mouse -ah" http://mainemouse-ah.com/. Once you set it, you don't have to look at it until spring.

Looks to me like you are doing OK. When I got to that stage, I kept breaking the small wires I was using and had to get a roll of iron tie wire like they use to hold rebar together in concrete forms. By using that, going slow and adding more stitches, it came together. Pulling the nesting bulkhead down was a challenge. The picture looks like fir plywood and I'd guess that might be just a little stiffer than Okoume.

For all those sawhorse afficionados, I made this pair for my 11n. They were pretty simple and I can use them for a lot of other boat projects.

I was so certain that it had to be wrong that I set up the level and laser all over again so I could measure the midship bulkheads and the bow bulkhead for vertical before I cut it. Somehow they magically came out vertical through no fault or merit of mine. Garry- That is a superb idea. I thank you for that and think I will do it just like you said. The first several are like "All the time to get this far and then wreck the whole thing in 5 minutes!!" I spent a lot of time on the laminated gunwales (spruce, mahogany ash) and I could just see the whole thing turning into a pile of scrap materials. Thank you all for the support!!

It was scary. My handsaw doesn't have enough set and wanders a little. As it turned out, there was a very slight chaffing in a few areas but all cleaned up with the finish sander. Right now I'm trying to decide on whether to rout a 1/8" radius or a 3/16" radius on the assembled ends, before I tape the outsides. I still have a lot of sanding to do as I used biax at the bulkhead (one layer across the bottom and two layers near the top) instead of 3 layers of cloth. The biax has great strength but it doesn't finish as nicely as the cloth. When I put in the bow reinforcement block, I used a piece of biax, covered with one layer of cloth and that surface came out nice.

About time!

I had the same question and asked Graham. He said it was from the top the transom where it meets the gunwale. When you hear that and then look again at the plan, it makes sense. I put a level across mine to get that part lined up, then used a laser level from the bow to set the boat level to his dimension. Then I was able to insure that everything was in line before taping the inside seams so I didn't get any twist. With the boat dead level, it also makes it easier to set the bulkheads for vertical with a regular level.

I have never seen a source for the tapered sections but found a nice company that sells lengths of regular fiberglass tube. I found it helpful for a few projects. http://www.mgs4u.com/fiberglass-tube-rod.htm good luck

Not a very far drive from Gainesville. I can vouch for the oyster omelet. It's ultra yummy. I have never seen one on a menu before or since my visit to Cedar Key.

Just to add a few lines to the great comments already offered: I needed to add about 400 pounds of internal ballast in my keel. (The boat already has about 4,000 pounds of external lead ballast.) I wanted to add the lead to the bottom of the internal water tank and then glass it into place. In order to make it fit properly, I lined the internal cavity with low density poly (plastic sheet), and poured in some Part A - Part B urethane foam. Once the "plug" hardened, I removed it and sawed a nice plane for the top of the intended lead area. Now I had a male representation of what I wanted. Since there is no way I could handle 400 pounds of lead and get it back in the boat, I used my band saw to cut the urethane foam into 8 blocks of nearly the same volume and with no negative angles (undercut). Then I carefully coated each piece with duct tape to make it slippery. I bought a few 5 gallon buckets of foundry sand from a local foundry and built plain wooden frames with no bottom or top. I filled the "molds" with moistened foundry sand and pounded it pretty tight with one of the 8 male molds in place. The top of the form was even with one surface of my desired part. I dried the sand with my propane torch until the surface was nice and light colored. I found like Charley, that in a sample part I tried, moisture was a BIG problem. Fortunately I had a small sample and it was only slightly moist. Besides the danger aspect, the lead continues to boil longer with moisture coming through and the surface comes out kind of uneven. I heated lead in a cast iron pot over a propane turkey roaster and poured the lead until it was just proud of the surface (making sure to level the mold before the pour). The pieces only required a very minor planing or rasping to fit into the boat very tightly. I put them in with a very small amout of lead shot to fill any small voids and cracks, then poured epoxy between the pieces. It came out very tight and was easy to glass over with a couple layers of heavy roving.

Just another "Row Dylander" checking in from sunny Jamestown (about 30 minutes from Wellington Ave, Cranston) where it was over 50 degrees F today. Was thinking about uncovering the boats for Spring commissioning. Lots of flowers starting to bud. Be glad to pick something up for you if you need.

I promised to report on the success or failure of a scarfing jig that I built for joining 1/4" plywood sheets to build a B&B Spindrift. I built a fixture to mount my Porter Cable router to my radial arm saw. I then built a 12:1 table that mounts on top of the original table and has clamps to hold the sheets down as I feed the sheets across the table. A 1 x 3 clamped to the sheets, becomes the edge guide. The router is then moved out about 3/4" and I make another pass, etc. Here are some images of the setup: The device was easy to build and set up but I found the results to only so so. The radial arm saw is not as stiff as you might think it is for a close tolerance operation and the plywood should be kept in one place rather than feeding it for a better scarf. The sheets are too limp to hold their location, even with good downpressure, while feeding. Here is a photo of the reulting scarf on two stacked sheets. (Note the sheets are narrow as I only needed to scarf the sides and bottoms, rather than the full sheet widths.) If I had it to do over, I would probably just hand plane it.

Thanks Howard. That sounds like good advice. One thing I learned from the kayak project, was to tape off areas when you do the epoxy work. I coated the deck and deck to shear joint on the kayak and let the drips run down the hull. After spending about 4 hours cleaning up that mess, I decided not to make the same mistake again. I made a simple fixture to allow me to scarf the plywood sheets with my router mounted to the radial arm saw. I'll post whether or not that works out.

In the old days of some of the first fiberglass boats, (like the Bermuda 40 and other boats of that era), they put scupper drains inside the toerail. The drains were placed in 3 places (lowest point and then about 3 feet fore and aft). The drains were glassed to tubes below deck that drained through the hull just below the water line. The tubes and through holes were heavily glassed to the hull to make them part of that structure and not require a through hull seacock. They were nice in that they kept the shear looking unbroken and topsides paint clean. You never saw those ugly "drain streaks" down the topsides. One of the difficulties is keeping them clear. If mud wasps build nests in them over the winter, they can fill with water and blow out when it freezes.

Just went up to Boulter Plywood in Boston today and brought back a stack of lumber. 5 sheets of Okoume, Mahogany, Ash and a big hunk of Sitka spruce to make a boom and other stuff. So it looks like I'll have to start that Spindrift 11N and try to have it ready for Spring. Boulter is a pretty neat place. I think the whole place is no bigger than my house but has a lot of stuff. The staff is very pleasant and you can be sure you are not paying for some fancy overhead. I just finished a 17' kayak for my son so I guess I'm ready to have at it. Thanks for providing all the nice photos from the boats that you folks have finished.