Randy C.

Gordy, It's funny how a 2 car garage becomes a no car garage when you start building a boat.

Seat stringers...the morning after. The joint let go in one place. I checked the glue tonight and it is very hard, so the mix should have been O.K. I still feel I didn't put enough filler in the mix. I tried prying the stringers off to see if it was all bad or just one spot. It's only one piece, the rest of the stringers seem to be tight, it pulls the wood apart when pryed on. Greg, I'm used Hemlock fir for the stringers. No, I didn't wet before brushing on the epoxy. I didn't because I felt it was thin enough. As it turns out it must have been too thin.

The Grand Opening!! These were all taken shortly after opening the butterfly. I now have the stitches about half done.

Hull Parts... The sides are in the first picture. The second picture is the butterfly. The third picture is the bow with the fiberglass joint, and a block of wood for support while opening the butterfly.

Greg, I meant the thickener. I'm sure it was mixed. When mixing I clean the edges, mix, clean edges, etc. for at least a minute. Then I add the thickener and mix some more. I think I just didn't have the mixture thick enough. I will pry a little like Graham said and see if anymore comes loose, then reglue and hope for the best.

I will post some pictures tonight. When I glued up the stringers I glued both the stringer and the hull to make sure I had enough glue. It did squeeze out, so I should have had enough glue. I will have to check when I get home to see how hard the glue is. It seemed pretty hard this morning, but I will check again. When I mixed the epoxy I used a measuring cup, so I think that part should be O.K. I'm thinking I didn't use enough filler.

They cured for probably a week, so I must have squeezed too much epoxy from the joint. I did use the filler that Carla sent, maybe not enough. At this point should I do anything??

This morning the seat stringers are loose from the starboard side between the temporary and the forward bulkhead. I don't know what went wrong. I used screws to attach until the epoxy dried. I'm wondering if I screwed the stringer down too much squeezing out the epoxy. I'm starting to wonder how much more is going to pop loose, if any. Can I just put epoxy under the stringer and reattach, or do I have to prepare(sand) the wood somehow? Should I put a fillet under the stringer to help strenghten?

Ray, I unfolded the butterfly today. Even though it had been 48 hours since I did the joint I still put the block of wood just aft of the tape. Everything went as planned. It's pretty amazing how it just unfolds and shazam, there's a boat sitting in your garage. Seeing is believing. In about 3 hours I got stitched back to the temporary bulkhead. Everything looks centered and even so far. I will post some pictures from work tomorrow.

Sukie, I think I saw this on this forum somewhere. A man put a stepladder on each side the boat and a board between the ladders(it may have been bow to stern), then he layed on his stomach on the board to reach the middle. It looked like it worked pretty good.

I was done doing the epoxy at 3:00PM today. So, if I do the blocks, I should be able to open it tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

Charlie, I would have been surprised if you didn't have a plan. I was just curious. Have you thought of putting a temporary hitch on one of the boat trailers to pull two boats behind one vehicle(if it's legal in Texas) for delivering your boats for the Texas 200. I've seen two trailers behind one truck lots of time. It would save some gas money. I'm fiberglassing the sides to the bottom this afternoon, let it setup until Sunday afternoon, open the butterfly, and hopefully I will have something that resembles a boat.

Looks like you had a GREAT day on the water! The boat looks nice.

It's a lot of driving, but still sounds like a lot of fun. Will you have to take your boat apart to tow on the highway?? Sounds like it's too wide to legally tow.

Sukie, FYI. I bought 10 cups and haven't thrown any away yet. I just let the leftover epoxy dry, then I squeeze the sides and the epoxy flakes right off. Also, I always leave the stir stick in the leftover to dry. When it's dry the stick pulls out the hard epoxy. I don't know how many times I will be able to do this, but so far I've done it several times.

Man, I'm glad you said you were just joking!! As I was reading your reply I was thinking how the heck am I going to get under the seat to fillet and tape. That was a good one.

Is it neccesary to do a fillet on the bottom side of the seat stringer? Charlie, I looked up google, looks like a good time. I assume you'll sail both ways, since it's in your backyard, why wouldn't you? Lucky!! (Maybe not, I guess you did pick where to live).

Sukie, If you look at the site that Ken suggests, I bought the cups at an automotive paint supply store. If you go to page 3 of the same site Howard posted a picture of some cups he made up. They look pretty easy.

I got the seat stringers glued and screwed in place tonight. The plans said to cut the stringers 18'6". That would have put them past the hull sides on both ends. I ended up cutting them just under 15'. It seemed like it turned out like the plans show??? I hope to have it 3-D by next week. I've been pretty busy at work lately and haven't had much time or energy to work on it in the evenings. Charlie, I looked up the Texas 200 web site today. It looks like FUN!!! It always better to go somewhere than to go in circles on a lake. How wide are the water lanes, I can't really tell by the pictures? They look pretty narrow in places, are they?

This is one of the measuring cups I picked up for 47 cents.

These are pictures of doing the scarf joints.

OK. Here is a picture of the bottom. I had to load from a different computer. For some reason pictures won't load from mine. I used Picasa to downsize to 37kb, but still wouldn't load.

My weekend was much busier than I had planned. I finally got the bottom cutout and planed to the lines. I made a 20' lofting stick to draw the lines by scarfing 2 - 10' pieces together. It seemed to work pretty good. The curves all look like they're supposed to, I guess. I'm taking pictures and will post(I promise) when I get some help. I really did try to load last night, but no luck. I did get Picasa loaded, but?? I just learned how to use the camera. I'll be OK after I actually watch somebody do it. I can't seem to keep up with technology.

Wes, I sanded and cleaned up my scarf joints. I know exactly what you mean about sanding the epoxy. I will be very careful and clean up as I go so as not to create a BUNCH of extra work.

Graham, Thanks for setting me straight on scarfs. After thinking about it, it makes total sense. I would have done it wrong.