Oyster

Both the 24 and the 26 involves the same steps, just a few more pieces of wood and will handle the same. We never seem to have enough room inside, the more we use one. But after going back and forth between the two sizes, the difference for me would be a bit more room for a head and shower in the 26 if you create a decent layout inside the cabin with about the same creature comforts for cruising and overnighting. Now to speak about Ken and esteem builder of the Bluejacket, both are hard to live up to in their standards of excellence, creation and execution of boat building skills. I haven't updated my thread since I have been in the stage of laminating the sides, which is like building two boats in one with the cold molding process. So if you go this route be prepared to have plenty of patience as you see the boat take shape,,,,,,,,slowly. That's my recommendation to anyone that's never bit off a project with shape before. And I recommend going with a slower harder for your larger glue ups. And be patient and let things dry enough before moving along to your next step if its related to your last step. Wet out properly all mating parts.

Nice work,, You are not far from launching, just a few more details. Its amazing how much work you end up with after the flip. But at least you have a helper to speed things up.

I don't read anything that your should worry about. Airplane pilots gets tested all the time in simulators so they can sharpen up their skills and response times when abnormal stuff happens. And you do need some battle scars on the next paint, to get this behind you. Now you can relax and just enjoy your boat without a worry.

Well not a lot to show in this stage, but I found the whisky plank. :<} and ready for the edges to be trimmed. I capped the stem ends with solid mahogany and will wrap a couple of tabs around the stem front before doing the chine tabs. Silently in the middle of the night I can hear " Prepare to ram" hehe I plan to rough block the sides before I glass to eliminate a lot of the ever present dimples thats generated by screws and washers in the soft plywood faces . The bow eye plate will lay perfectly flat on the face of the solid wood.

I don't see boat building as being foolish. Some people blow their money away on drugs, cigarettes and wild wimmin and have nothing to show for the spending but medical bills sometimes. I think we are some of the smartest people on the planet. Boat builders are carpenters that turns straight wood into round objects. They are electrical engineers, world navigators, and many have a way to keep wimmin happy as they spend their money on the boat building addiction, and some even smile at you in the process. Now that takes a genius to pull some of this boat building off. On a side note there is real artistry on display by so many of your guys. Maybe staple them to the wall and call it art and put a price tag on them for a half million bucks. Some of us foolish folks try to sell them as floating toys, which brings us a return of about half the materials, you know. :<}}

Thanks fellows. Well work has been proceeding along. Next week we plan on starting to plank the opposing sides. I did manage to purchase a pretty substantial u-bolt bow eye and it came a set of two. I will only be using one. So if anyone else finds a need for one with a long threaded shank, feel free to send a pm and you can have it. This is the link to the specs. The defender ones required a shipping cost of half the price of the bow eye u bolt. And I don't see any problems with this one having it in hand. I will dry fit it and will have the holes in place when I finish the planking and glass work to clean up and install in place. NovelBee 2 Pack of Stainless Steel Stern Bow Eye Tie Down U Bolt with Hex Nuts and washers,Stock Dia. 5/8",Thread Length 5-7/16",Overall Length 8"

Thanks for the link. I would like to use the two threaded shank set up, which most have a small plate in which assists in sealing the region in and around the drilled holes. In the past the single shank has had the tendency to spin , which means there is a potential overtime for the water to wick around the shaft and into the underside of the glass region of the stems. All of the Simmons used single shank eye bolts, even though the use of beading compounds was absent. But I just want to hopefully remove this possible problem. Check in sometime and give me an update on your shed facility for your own yacht.

Did you mistype this description? Or are you saying that purely wet resin does not pull any cotton fibers away when touching it?

Thanks for the interest in watching grass grow and the replies. It was a pleasure to work along side of the new hire. The price was right, a piece of baloney with one piece of white bread per day. I have been busy making progress with some additional details between finishing up the second layer. Of course the new shot does not show the detail of the team care of getting the first layer as fair as possible for the second layer, which deals with how much work you will need in the glassing and fairing process before paint. So for anyone considering a cold mold hull, while you want to get the hull planked up, spend time in the set up phase and when you are installing your battens that they are fair the entire running length. Then as you are gluing up the thinner first layer don't attempt to screw your layers right at the butt seams, which will create deeper areas to fill when you are applying the thickened glue for the second layer before you want to install the second layer. And of course you really do not want to grind down the any humps a way back from the seams if you tighten down too close to the edge. Figure your second layer that they will land middle way of the first layer, which will further make the outer laminate fairer by the natural tendency in the first layer to not be so flat to the battens. Hope this will help someone watching. Will be grinding all the edges to shape at the sheer and reverse chine flats and clean up all the excess seam resin this week. At this point in time I will figure out what I think will be the location of the bow eye for the trailer, since we have one for it to fit on before I work on the opposing side and get it ready for planking. I like to do this because its much easier with the access when standing along side of the area. Since the stem back is open I can do what I need to counter bore and recess any coupler for an extension since I have not been able to access 1/2" bow eyes with the threaded shafts long enough to fasten to the back side with its nuts on the original ends. More to follow on my process, unless someone can tell me where I can find approx 5 inch stainless steel eyebolts. And yes as you can see my moaning chair has filled up a bit too. Okay now

Merry Christmas to everyone. I have been making progress, just haven't gotten to the point of posting some of the boring progress of planking. The big guy came for a bit and sped up the progress with assembly line precision, operating the sharpie for the cuts and the kept the screw gun smoking. Luckily the screw gun had a protective coating of epoxy to cool down the heat transfer to the hands. Will provide pictures in the next couple of days when I get things cleaned up on the one side.

Okay, without pictures or videos, it did not happen. Must have been a classified gathering in some remote region of Area 51 with no leakers? You guys are slacking off.

I have searched for the build photos that used to be on the local community college web page but I cannot find it anymore. That was a fairly decent tutorial for any beginner or for someone deciding if the boat would work for them. Maybe Alan has more information on the old files. I did speak to the fellow thats doing their boatbuilding program now. But he states the files are missing from the inner workings of the college.

You continue to amaze me with your continued work, workmanship and the desire to continue to build after your "retirement age". Maybe we will get up that way sometime for the fall colors and get to see your creation in person.

These are my go to roller heads. The candy stripe i s your typical Mohair head and the Epoxy Glue is a blend of what appears to be a synthetic blend hair, which is a bit shorter. I also cut them in half and use them on the smaller frames instead of buying the smaller ones. You get almost two for one for the price. I trim any fuzz off the edges before rolling with the cut ones. I have never had them come apart.

I think Ken was being sarcastic at the time since his boat was yellow and did find himself on an occasion in an "Unorthodox " position. I wish he would check in and give us an update.