Crazer

Hey that's pretty cool! I stored my Catspaw under the boom on my Cape Dory 28 and found that to be a huge pain. You have more space to play with than I did but I found the dinghy arrangement so frustrating while cruising that I actually sold the mothership and bought a Morgan 364 that could carry the dinghy on the foredeck (among other things - I also got a shower and an aft cabin...) I found it frustrating to try and wrestle the thing up onto the cabin top when I was getting underway and most often just towed it. Your mileage, of course, may vary. I am not a particularly patient person!

Don is spot on with the Loxx fasteners. They are excellent, expensive, but excellent. They're also relatively simple to install for a DIYer, just need the right size hole punch. I would use Sunbrella over Top Notch, but it's a matter of personal preference.

I'll be there with my Cape Dory and hopefully my B&B Catspaw, although it's under repair after being damaged in a microburst a couple months ago. Looking forward to it!

Bon voyage Graham! Hoping we might yet see you out there. Also hoping your luck is better than ours! (We're currently laid up in Belhaven with a wrecked prop)

I did this trip with my Cape Dory 28 last year and had a lot of fun. The Delaware Bay wasn't too bad, of course we have the diesel so we just slogged it out against the tide which was slow but otherwise no trouble. You're right about it being mostly wind against tide. With a small boat I think you have options for stopping and waiting out the tide cycle that we didn't have. I'm jealous you'll get to explore the coastal waterways we didn't get to see. I do dream of building a smaller boat to do that kind of exploration because there is just so much exploring to do here. I think we might pass you going the other way. We're taking the Cape Dory (and our B&B Two-paw) down to North Carolina on May 14th for a couple weeks of cruising.

When? I'm up in Baltimore but have contacts in the Annapolis area so I can ask around.

Great work! This build is flying along about as fast as that boat will. I too like carpentry because wood is forgiving and it really doesn't feel like work so even if I have to start something over it's not that bad.

Our plans are very fluid at the moment, so I'll say no more about it until we a better idea of when and where we'll be. I've finally moved onto the painting stage of this project. First coat of primer went on the hull today. I have to say I'm very pleased with how it's turned out. Aside from a latent void in the plywood and a handful of pinholes there will be almost no additional filling needed before progressing to final finishing. All those hours of sanding paid off. I do have a little more filling and sanding on the interior, plus a final sealer coat of epoxy, but I'm waiting on a shipment of filler right now. I'm hoping to be moving onto hardware early next month with sea trials soon after.

Thanks for the encouragement Don. I am very much looking forward to sailing her in the spring. If all goes according to plan she'll travel with me to North Carolina next season on my Cape Dory. Maybe I'll run into some of you guys down there. I would love to see some other B&B boats in person.

Not much to show yet, but I just spent four straight hours sanding the interior. Soon I'll actually have to buy paint. I'll be glad to have the sanding behind me. The noise and dust is hard on the senses. My wife bought me a nice pair of noise canceling headphones but even they have a hard time keeping up with the sound of a sander on a plywood hull. I actually made myself a longboard and used that on the outside because I find longboarding fairly pleasant and more intuitive than the orbital. One more coat of epoxy all around to seal up some areas I burned through while sanding and I'm calling it good. Then it'll be onto hardware, building the spars, and making a nice cover-all much more pleasant tasks!

Well I'm still grinding away on this project, quite literally. As expected progress came to a near halt once I went back to work and with the boat not being finished for our trip in June I didn't manage to do much over the summer. I changed jobs and didn't use my Cape Dory much so I didn't have much motivation. Now I'm pushing to get the thing done and out of my shop so I can focus on some carpentry for the big boat and getting started on our garden for next season. Still more epoxying and sanding to do but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

This is fabulous. Really looking forward to this build! Welcome aboard!!

No calls to my wife but I'm sure my neighbors were watching since they're always outside and have commented (positively) on progress several times. I have to say, I expected it to be fun but I was genuinely unnerved seeing the two halves separated for the first time. I felt better once I bolted it back together. She's structurally complete, I added the quarter knees, the keel and deadwood, and extended the gunwales around onto the transoms (not pictured.) Now it's on to epoxy, and then sanding and painting. There's a push to finish by the end of June for a planned sailing trip so I'm putting off the sailing hardware for now, although I have everything I need to finish.

I almost did the same thing, Don, but then I realized since she'll spend most of her life upside down anyways it's probably not necessary. I am concerned with getting some paint down in there since I don't want the epoxy exposed to UV. Either that or make some kind of cap for when I'm not sailing which will realistically be most of the time I'm using the boat.

I cut the boat in half this week. It was nerve wracking and I had a couple of problems with saw runout but otherwise it went okay. Nothing a little glass and epoxy can't fix. I think I used cardboard spacers that were too heavy and maybe installed with too much glue because that's where I had problems. I got the centerboard case installed, installed the forward tank top, and cut the hole for a Whale TC4 access hatch. It's not as clean as a flush mount hatch but it's rated for lifeboat use and comes on the recommendation of Paul Gartside who claims it's the most watertight screw hatch on the market. I kind of like its heavy purposefulness. I made the center seat which was intimidating but ultimately not that difficult. I left a little extra room to account for the coats of epoxy yet to come.

I got the mast tube installed. I deviated from the plans slightly in installing it. Instead of a mast step, I glassed the tube in using I technique I was taught for repairing Lasers when I was in college. I set the tube in thickened epoxy and made a filet top and bottom. Then I ran six pieces of ten ounce fiberglass vertically down the mast tube fanning out onto the hull. Should be plenty of strength for this boat. I made up the top of the forward tank and got everything coated in epoxy. Didn't quite manage to get the centerboard case installed but I did get it all glued up.

Been working away steadily on the boat. Got the foredeck frame made up and installed and made a mast tube out of a few layers of 1708 I had left over from a repair project a few boats ago. I ordered way more than I needed for that project and pieces of that roll have made it into repairs and construction on four boats and counting! I laminated the king post from three layers of plywood and took the boat outside for final shaping and fiberglassing. I'm pretty pleased with the shape of the boat, and I feel like I'm over the half way mark on construction. The centerboard case and mast tube will go in tomorrow and she'll be structurally complete. Then epoxying, final shaping and fairing and paint and hardware!

Thanks for all the responses, I'm solidly convinced of the benefits of two part paints. It sounds like Interlux Perfection is the way to go.

I asked this question in my build thread but didn't get much of a response so I thought I'd create a separate topic. I'm trying to make a decision about the type of finish to use on my Two-paw and am having trouble with the different options. It looks like it comes down to basically either one part or two part finishes. I see some pros and cons for both. I'd like to use a one part paint for all the obvious reasons-it's cheaper, easier to apply, etc. On the other hand, two part finishes are harder and more durable and this boat will be a working tender for my Cape Dory so I expect it to get knocked around. On the other hand, it might be easier to fix (and accept) the inevitable bumps and scrapes with a one part paint-less prep and complication. I think my default would be Interlux Brightsides but I don't have any first hand experience with it. I can easily overthink myself in circles with this kind of thing, so I'd really like to hear from some of you, what you chose and how it's worked out for you so far.

Thanks Alan! And don't worry guys, I managed to sneak in a few hours on the boat today! I finished filleting and taping the hull, and got the centerboard case ready to glue up tomorrow. I've also got to go and wash and wax the big boat and put some bottom paint on while the weather is good but I've got a lot of momentum on the dinghy.

I templated and cut the forward bulkhead today and got started on filleting and taping the hull. I forgot how grueling of a process it was, and I only got halfway before calling it quits for the day. Having to lean down the whole time is incredibly taxing, and since I don't have disposable gloves I've been using the same pair of dishwashing gloves the whole time which makes the process incredibly messy. I'm getting married tomorrow so I won't be working on the boat again until Tuesday, but I'm pretty pleased with progress so far.

That would be great! Thanks for the tip. I think I'll be using the table saw haha. We do have granite countertops but not much square footage and since I do the cooking it'd just be shooting myself in the foot! I leveled and straightened the boat today and cleaned up the nesting bulkhead one last time before installing it. I'm going to get the gunwales on tonight and start glassing tomorrow. Trying to stay on schedule to get her done by June for a planned trip around the DelMarVa peninsula.

Milled the gunwales yesterday and dry fitted them today. Very exciting, since using my table saw that way was a new experience and a little intimidating. I didn't have too much trouble. I was finally able to glue up the nesting bulkheads and fast curing hardener will be here Friday so I can install the gunwales and start glassing this weekend. Anxious to get her done and on the water because the ban on recreational boating in Maryland is being lifted tomorrow, which means that I get to use her and my Cape Dory as soon as I get them in the water, and also that I'll probably be going back to work soon which will cut into my building time dramatically.

Looking really good Ben! I hope mine turns out as cleanly as yours.

I screwed one of the nesting bulkheads in and stitched the bottom on today, taking advantage of the nice weather we had here. I'm aware I did things a little out of order (not gluing the two bulkheads together before installing) but my ongoing issues with epoxy curing kept me from being able to install the forward nesting bulkhead at the moment. Over all, everything fit really well and I'm quite happy. I do have some wrestling to do at the bow to get everything to line up, but I think it'll work out fine. I also cut out the framing for the centerboard case so I can glue that up once my faster epoxy hardener arrives in a few days.