Bryan Rolfe

Still blown away by how quickly you guys are making progress on this project, and doing it all in a room of a sailing club to boot.

Very exciting when you see the boat actually nests, isn't it? I also cut a little into one of the bulkheads while saw in half, but it wasn't the end of the world and just epoxied it like you did.

I ended up just buying the aluminum tubes from B&B as well. Cheaper than any supplier I could easily find. I think the weight savings are more important for me than the marginal cost savings, depending on how you can source your lumber. That said, if I was using this as a show boat, or wanted another fun wood working project, I'd probably enjoy making a wooden mast.

We used graphite powder mixed with epoxy as a barrier coat on our Albin Vega 27: https://www.instagram.com/p/BoCa8pvh9ET/ (if that link doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll post a picture later). It was purely for aesthetics in our case and didn't serve any other purpose. The idea was that if/when our ablative bottom paint started to fail/scrape-off, then at least the boat would still look reasonably nice below the water line. I think you could also make the argument that the graphite offers marginal UV protection, but at the surface, the epoxy would still be susceptible to damage.

Might be okay given that the forward bulkhead is relatively flexible. When I built my hollow wooden surfboard, I installed a gortex type vent that allows air to escape/equalize but prevents water from entering: https://shapersupply.com/collections/eps-vents but I also think the board was probably strong enough to handle the pressure changes. I decided not to paint any of my compartments because they wouldn't be exposed to UV, and I figured that they were going to get abused a little with use from storage, and things sliding around in there, and if I ever had to touch up the paint, I wasn't going to want to be doing it through the inspection port. But, yours do look great!

Great to hear! I thought I remembered seeing them on Matt and Amy's dinghy, I think that's actually what gave me the idea. if they end up interfering with the nesting, I can plane/sand them off pretty easily.

You guys are making fast progress! At this rate, you're going to beat me on my 10N build, and I started mine in September (but I also work way too much). It's also impressive that you transferred all the plans yourself to CNC . Have you guys decided on a paint you want to use?

Got the slot cut, which was pretty easy with a flush trim router bit. Only difficulting was on the side where the box is angled, as the angle prevents the flush trim bit from cutting all the way to the edge, so I had to file/sand that side down the rest of the way. Gaps were filled with thicken epoxy. Also glued on the keel -- I used a lot of ratchet straps to achieve the required bend. I also applied a light fill coat of epoxy to one side of the boat to try and smooth out the surface -- it was peel plied, but there were defects that I wanted to correct to make for a nicer finish. Unfortunately this coat didn't go on very well, as my cleaning was not completely adequate, possibly residue from the acetone or lacquer thinner I used. Now I have started to use a scoth-brite type pad with RO water as my last step before coating with epoxy (in addition to cleaning with a solvent and removing all dust), and following up with a tack cloth. If the water beads up at all, then it's not clean enough. After sanding this semi-failed coat down, I decided to add epoxy fairing compound to all outer surfaces, and have got about 2/3rds of the boat sanded fair. Might go back and hit a few spots again. This has greatly improved the surface smoothness, but I think I would have been happy either way in the end. In the photo below, the transom has not yet been sanded. I also decided to add 2 extra "strakes" or mini keels on either side of the hull. I couldn't really find photos of anyone else doing this, but I'm sure someone has. The reason I added these is because the boat will be our primary tender, and hauled out on shores of various conditions. It probably wouldn't take very long for the paint to get scratched up. These additional keels are tall enough to prevent any part of the hull from touching the grand when hauled out onto a relatively flat surface. The only thing I stupidly didn't think about is how this will affect the nesting. There's only about 1' protruding into the forward half of the boat, and the keel height is only 0.62", but it might be enough to interfere. Guess we'll find out! I also don't know how this is going to affect sailing performance, but honestly, I think I'll be able to live with it.

Got the trunk box situation fixed. I had to switch it to the starboard side, which also meant, because I had already glued on the spacer pieces to the stbd piece of plywood, that I had to cut and laminate new port piece so that I could properly match the hull shape. I decided to approach the trunk installation a little different than the manual, because I think it will be easier to trim the top of the trunk flush as needed once installed plumb and straight, than trying to iteratively go back and forth with my block plane. So instead of assembling the trunk completely, I kept one side open. I then fit this to the nesting bulkheads and hull the best I could, using a long piece of straight plywood, a machinist square, and a digital level to make sure the one half of the trunk was aligned to the boat axis, and plumb relative to the gunwales at the center of the boat. Only after that did I clamp on the other half of the trunk box to "close it" and ensure everything fit correctly. Then, I tack welded in the starboard side of the trunk so that I could remove most of the clamps/braces. After that cured, I drilled a hole through the hull inside of the trunk box, taking a lot of the guess work out of cutting the slot later. Now I can just use my router and flush trim out the slot. I then glued on the port half of the box with some thickened epoxy. And clamped it all up and clamped on a piece of hardwood at the front of the box that is clamped to the gunwales, this was to correct a slight tilt out of plumb at the front of the trunk box (since the tack welding really only makes the back, where it's welded to the nesting bulkheads, plumb). I had to use one screw through a piece of plywood to apply clamping force on the nesting bulkhead side of the box. Once that was cured, I went around and added fillets, glass tape, and peel ply to complete the job. Peel ply on over the glass tape: Peel ply removed: I complete most of the glueing of the trunk assembly today, and then flip the boat over tomorrow probably to cut the slut and add the keel.

One other thing I'll share is that I discovered you can iron peel-ply with no consequences -- at least as long as you don't over do it and turn the steam off your iron. A lot of the peel ply I've bought online has shipped folded, and then you get pronounced crease lines in the fabric that absolutely will show up in the resin, somewhat defeating the purpose of peel ply in this application (e.g. to reduce sanding time). Since I learned this, my results with peel ply have come out worlds better.

Yeah I'm very curious to see how things go with the the dinghy on deck, as well as launching and retrieving. On my last cruise I had a small inflatable, which honestly was its own hassle to inflate on deck and then try to lift over the lifelines, but at least it stowed away nicely when deflated. In terms of the build, now that Christmas wood working projects are behind me, I've had some more time to continue the build. This week I: Glassed the inside surfaces of the dagger board trunk (4oz cloth) and glued in the spacer pieces to one side. Glassed the rudder, also with 4oz cloth -- primary purpose of using the lightweight cloth was an alternative to applying 3 layers of epoxy. But the cloth probably does provide some strength. Glued on the aft seat tops and glass taped these edges (I don't know if the plans call for this exactly, but I figured why not). Glued in the bow seat and its support. Had to fill some gaps as things aren't perfectly symmetric there with the way the wood bent during the unfolding. Began sanding the bottom of the boat (still need to fit the keel on). Gluing the spacer pieces for the daggerboard box (though I wish I hadn't, see below): Test fit: Had to get creative when glueing down the aft seats: Glueing in the bow seat/mast support: Starboard side had more of a gap than the port side: Glueing down the seat top: All done: Now here's the bad news. When I installed the nesting bulkheads, I didn't pay careful attention to which one was which (I mean they're the same size and shape) and as a result, they are rotated 180 degrees from how they should be. The only consequence is that the bolt hole and associated epoxy bushing is on the PORT side of the keel, rather than the STARBOARD side of the keel. This means it's right where the daggerboard trunk is meant to go. I think the best solution is to just fit the daggerboard trunk on the starboard side of the keel instead of the port side, as shown below: However, because I already glued the spacers onto what was meant to to be the starboard side of the daggerboard box, the box when glued together will not match the slope of the hull and the box will not fit correctly . I think what I'll do is use the starboard side of the box (the larger of the two sides) as a template to cut a new piece of plywood. Then I'll use the intended port side of the box (the smaller of the two box sides) as a template to trim the already glued up starboard side of the box down, thus making it the new port side of the box. I don't have the right thickness of marine plywood for this, but I do have some high quality birch plywood that's the right thickness, and given the small size and that it will be glassed, I think that should be ok. Is there any reason why I can't switch the daggerboard from port to starboard?

Thanks for including the photos! I think I made the same face when I started sawing too. It's been a little while since I've updated. I lost a week to COVID, work has been busy, and I've also been using my time work on Christmas gifts, and with such a small workshop, it's a huge hassle to re-arrange everything for other wood working projects, and back to boat work. In any case, I did manage to get a few things done. I've started glueing up the rudder pieces, filling holes with epoxy, making repairs from my clumsy sawing, and I glassed over the nesting bulkhead faces just to provide surface protection. I also started using a fast curing epoxy (TotalBoat), the slow curing one I was using is just not suitable for the cooler climate I am in. I still have some glass I laid up a month ago that is not fully cured (if I start sanding it it gums up the sand paper). Which doesn't surprise me since the garage is rarely above 60F this time of year. Here's the face that require the most significant repair: Glassed and peel-plyed: Tight working conditions: I also created a 3D CAD model of the dinghy to go along with the 3D model I created of our Westsail. Should be roughly to scale, and the main purpose was to let us experiment with where we want to stow the dinghy on the boat. I'm leaning towards under the boom, behind the mast.

Yeah cutting from the outside would have been a smart move so that I could use the full length of the saw to cut with. I'll probably end up glassing the outside faces of the nesting bulkheads just for added impact protection. I'm pretty paranoid about busting one of those by accident while the dinghy is overturned on deck and people/hardware are moving/flying around.

I ended up not using any of the redwood and instead went with a combination of pine for the inner strips and ash for the outer strips. There will be a sacrificial rub rail outside of this too like fire hose or similar. Beautiful boat! For the sail I'm planning on doing a lacing, but we'll see how much we like it. Today I cut the boat in half! I did this before attaching the keel or finishing shaping and sanding the gunwales, but that's ok. I can still complete those tasks, and just use my Japanese pull saw to get a thin kerf when I cut the keel. The only hiccup I had was when I first started cutting, the blade engaged into the plywood of one of the nesting bulkheads and I didn't notice it until I cut about 3-4 inches down, so I'll need to come back and epoxy that up. Additionally -- should I glass the outer faces of the bulkheads? It seems like I should, but it would also introduce a small gap between the bulkheads that may not be aesthetically pleasing (e.g. at the gunwales). The other thing I'll note is that cutting the boat in half from the top was more work than I thought it would be, mostly along the sole portion. I think this is primarily a result of my saw being only about 2 inches long enough to cut through the bottom, meaning I was only working with a 2-inch stroke for this length, and the fact that the blade is cutting through a long thing channel with lots of surface area and room for the saw dust to collect and jam beneath the blade. I think a longer saw would have helped a lot, or flipping the boat once the cuts were started on either end (I spent some time laying under the boat putting the saw through and this was a lot easier). Here's the part where I cut into the plywood a bit: Did a test fit (I haven't added the blocks for the middle thwart yet):

I'm not actually sure, but I think the polyurethanes can blister/bubble not unlike how a GRP hull can blister. I don't know the exact chemistry but it's probably a form of osmosis driving water molecules into the polymer network. I think you're probably right that, if reasonable care is taken not to leave the dinghy immersed in the water for days on end, then the 2-pack poly will probably last a long time still.

Just wanted to hijack this thread as I'm also deciding what paint to buy for our Spindrift 10. Our case is a very different use-case where the tender will spend considerable time in the water and live on deck. It will also be living in tropical climates. I was leaning towards something durable like a 2-part LPU paint, but a comment above that 2-part polyurethane paints don't do well under constant immersion has me second-guessing. I think we'll try to be good about pulling our tender out of the water overnight while at anchor, but we won't have davits, so it will have to be done using our mast or boom against the hull -- which is a long way of saying we probably won't always do it. Second, there's almost always some sitting water in a tender whether it be from rain, splashing, wet gear, etc. Edit: I did some more homework and confirmed that indeed polyurethane paints will not perform well immersed. It seems like the recommendation below the waterline is to just use an anti-fouling paint, which is kind of a bummer as they don't look nice, and when the boat is strapped down nest on deck, we'll be leaning up against and handling the bottom of the dinghy frequently -- and many of these paints are not the nicest things on our skin.

That's a great idea! I've done the much less efficient version of that where I just have one jar, and slowly the solvent becomes un-useable.

Very nice job!

Yup! The way I do it is to rotate the brush 90-degrees so it's almost perpendicular to your surface and just use bristles at the end of the brush to lift out the offending fiber.

On the topic of chip brushes, I know they're cheap and more or less designed to be used and disposed of, but do you guys have any tips on getting more use out of them when working epoxy (e.g. cleaning tips)? I always feel bad about how much waste I'm producing when working fiberglass and epoxy.

Definitely seems that way. I decided to forego using it on the transom, and instead did a fill coat, But maybe I'll need to do a few of these fill coats, we'll see. Either way, it was a lot faster and a lot less hassle then having to deal with the peel ply. I also glassed the dagger board, though I didn't specifically see this called out anywhere in the directions. I used a 6oz cloth I had from a surfboard I made. I did use peel ply for this as it was a small enough surface for me to easily control.

Both sides of the hull are now glassed. I spent a lot more time trying to wet out the peel ply this time. In fact, I probably spent twice as long on the peel ply as I did on the glass, which just seems wrong. The issue is that I can see the tiny bubbles under the peel ply and getting them out requires a lot of pressure from the spreader and extra resin. Even then, I still can't get them all out. I suspect maybe it's a viscosity issue with the resin I'm using, or the temperature is too low. Another possibility is that, even though I'm working with a slow hardener, at the end of the day, I could be taking too long to get the glass wetted out and the peel ply down, meaning by the time the peel ply goes on, the underlying resin has gelled a little and is struggling to bridge the peaks in the glass beneath. I might do some experiments playing with different time intervals later. In any case, all that extra resin led to wrinkling in some locations as the resin soaked through the fabric and cured. I also still have pinholes in places so I will need to do sand and do a fill coat. Glass laid out and peel ply cut to right lengths and ready to go on the right: Glass and peel ply down: Close up of one of the locations where I I wasn't able to get all the bubbles out (before cure): Close up of a location that turned out good: Close up of some of the wrinkles that formed after I was hands-down:

I took some close-up shots of what the pinholes look like under a macro lens. Definitely seems like the holes exactly line up with the weave of the glass, and are probably from not having enough resin for the peel ply. How it should look: How it looks in some places: In any case, I applied a very thin fill coat (it really didn't take much since these holes are so tiny). Sort of defeats the point of using the peel ply since I'll need to sand the whole surface now, but given it's already very smooth and even from the peel ply, it won't be too bad.

I put on a layer of glass on the starboard side last night, and will likely do the other side tonight, with the transom as well. I used peel-ply for this job, but it was a different fabric that I have been using. One thing I noticed is that the peel ply left tiny holes in the surface in certain places. I'm thinking maybe these are places where the peel ply didn't fully wet out (although it appeared pretty well wetted out). Should I come back to these later when I'm fairing the hull (e.g. with fairing compound or epoxy), or deal with it now while the epoxy is still in it's chemical-bonding window? Presumably the surface will need to be cleaned for amine blush in these cavities. Corners rounded: 10oz plaineweave cloth laid out and cut with a ~2" overlap on the keel. I used painters tape to protect the gunwales. Wetted out with peel ply applied: Removing the peel ply: Result: Pinholes/voids at the surface (above the glass I believe):

I ended up ordering some plaineweave and will sell the woven fabric. I'm still going to glass the bottom entirely though -- weight does matter to us, but durability of the hull will ultimately be more important for cruising plans. Luckily it's shipping fast and will arrive in time for me to get this job done next week!