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Jessy 15’ build log - Philadelphia, PA


Justin C

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I’ve spent a good part of my life near or on the water, primarily fishing the New Jersey coasts and bays. For a number of years, I’ve wanted a 28’-34’ custom Carolina center console. IMO, the center consoles being built by Shearline Boatworks are some of the prettiest out there.  Over the course of my browsing the internet, I came across the Ocracoke kits being produced by B and B and the idea to actually build one of these first entered my mind.   It’s not as though I’m looking for something to do at this point in my life - I have a wife and three young children (and all their associated sports/activities), a demanding job, very amateur bicycle racing, etc.  I don’t have the space to build a larger boat, so the size of one bay of my three car garage would have to do and determine the boat size. I figured the biggest hurdle to overcome would actually be purchasing the boat; after all, if it’s in my garage, I would have no excuse not to work on it.  After speaking to some kit builders and boatyards, I was happy to hand B and B my money for the Jessy 15’ kit.  I started working with Alan in August 2018 and decided to have everything CNC cut for simplicity.  I received the crate in February, however, I would have to wait until my schedule was freed my before I committed to starting it.  I brought the epoxy bottles indoors and having never used it before, decided to try and mend some broken kid toys and garden tools to get used to working with it. The B and B 2:1 and metered pumps are pretty foolproof. 

 

Well, I began this past weekend gluing up the side and bottom panels. I added casters to the B and B cradle. I also aligned the side stringers and will get them tapered before gluing to the side panels. 

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I made the decision to just make sure the teeth were all meshed and no angles were formed. I dryfit prior and made some pencil marks across the teeth that would also ensure alignment. Checked fit after and all good. Thanks Walt.

 

BTW, your build thread was immensely helpful as I've been reading and re-reading it the past few month.  Thanks for taking the time to contribute as much as you did. 

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Justin, 

Looking good. Glad to see you post some pictures and that you were able to get started on the boat finally. I like your casters on the support frames i'm sure you will enjoy being able to slide the boat around the garage. For cleaning up that epoxy squeeze out, a "mini-grinder" with a heavy grit sandpaper disk like 36 grit is an essential tool at our shop. It will make quick work of the majority of those cured epoxy blobs just be real careful not to gouge the panel and do the final 1/16" with a block of sandpaper or a flat machine sander like a 1/2" sheet sander or random orbit. Looking forward to seeing her folded up! 

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Good advice, Alan - thank you. I have a grinder with some brass and steel abrasive disks that may be able to do the job.  The power planer certainly did and took off large slices that didn't turn into dust and cleanup was easy.  I like the CAD of the boat you included - thanks and it certainly helps me with visuals.  I'll take any other you'd be willing to provide.  

 

It's nearly 100deg with high humidity today and will be for the remainder of the weekend. I'll do what I can and try and make some additional progress. 

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13 hours ago, Justin C said:

Does it make sense to fabricate a control console to go midship? Possibly, some of it can rest on the center bulkhead and the forward floor and I would stand just behind the midship seating shown above? Your thoughts?

Yeah that is a good idea and probably what i would do for a remote steering station. Weve also thought of putting a little side station like on a whaler which could go just ahead of the bench. FN9SM8BISCC4QIK.LARGE.jpg

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"Damned because it's all connected"

 

Two questions i would answer before deciding:

1. How often would I use the boat solo, and how? (follow up could be where to locate battery and fuel tank to counter the first person in the boat, others can move)

2. How important is moving around in the boat, under way and at rest? (do you fish, or some such distraction from boating)

 

Then I would flip a coin.

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56 minutes ago, Alan Stewart said:

Yeah that is a good idea and probably what i would do for a remote steering station. Weve also thought of putting a little side station like on a whaler which could go just ahead of the bench. FN9SM8BISCC4QIK.LARGE.jpg

The side station is certainly a simpler option. Though, being 6’2”, I have concerns about fitting there. I guess I could angle myself inwards while seated. Thanks for the idea.

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48 minutes ago, Hirilonde said:

"Damned because it's all connected"

 

Two questions i would answer before deciding:

1. How often would I use the boat solo, and how? (follow up could be where to locate battery and fuel tank to counter the first person in the boat, others can move)

2. How important is moving around in the boat, under way and at rest? (do you fish, or some such distraction from boating)

 

Then I would flip a coin.

1. Solo quite often. But I’m sure I’d have the kids latched onto me when I said I’m going out on the water... Battery low on centerline in the console possibly. Fuel aft midship probably seems best.

2. I do fish, however, with a boat this size I’m not sure mobility would be a top priority. The console would not stretch from gunwale to gunwale, so I could step forward (or the kids could).

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1 hour ago, Chick Ludwig said:

Justin, welcome to the happy BandB family. I'm very happy with my "modified" Jessy 15, Old Codger.

Chick, Alan identified your build thread as a good one (among others) for me to read up on. Thanks for your contributions to my learning. 

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Side stringers are tapered and I may try and get them fitted tomorrow. 

 

I’m thinking the next thing I should do is get the transom assembled. Is the general process to just epoxy everything together in a big sandwich? If so, wet out each piece in un-thickened epoxy first, then add thickened for squeeze out? 

 

Should I also attach the center frame doublers to the hull sides?

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Two passes with unthickened epoxyon each piece to be glued then thicken the third coat with cabosil to mayonnaise consistency. To spread the thickened epoxy, You can make a notched spreader with an adhesive spreader or buy one: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Devil-2430-Multi-Notch-Adhesive/dp/B00004YNMN?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ipad-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00004YNMN

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Justin, 

You are correct on assembling the transom, you will need that assembly and the center frame assembly done before you fold the boat up. Glue the transom stiffeners to the transom and the center frame doublers to the center frame. For lamination like that (the technical term for making a wood sandwich) I like to assemble all the parts dry and use drywall screws to hold everything together then I disassemble it all and apply glue and then re-assemble with the screws. Without some type of alignment pins or screws it's practically impossible to get the parts in the right place with slimy epoxy on them. The screws don't have to be all the way in in fact it's better to leave the heads proud a bit. Then I add clamps, as many as I can fit on there but not so many that I don't make it impossible to clean up most of the epoxy squeeze out.  Sometimes, I'll clamp it up then remove the clamps one at a time or at least rotate them so that i can get most of the squeeze out. If needed, i'll back out one of the screws so the wood can pull together more (with clamping pressure) then re-insert it. 2 screws per part is minimum but 3 allows any one to be taken out at the time after it's assembled. After about 6 hours the epoxy is like dried up chewing gum, nothing is going anywhere now but the glue up is still not fully strong. At this point it is safe to take off the clamps IF there was not a lot of stress in the wood. For example you wouldn't want to do that it it was a gunwale you were gluing since it was under tension. It's important to take the screws out at this point because if you wait until the next day they are likely to snap right off if you forget to heat them up. If you do wait until the next day you just need to hit the heads with a torch for a second and they will instantly release and come right out. This is easier to do if you left the heads proud! The final step would be cleaning up any remaining squeeze out and puttying in the screw heads. Sometimes it's easier to drill the screw hole out larger say 1/4" hole and fill it in with epoxy than to try and putty in a 1/8" hole where you can't get much epoxy in the hole before it seals itself off and you get the air plunger effect. Some cheap plastic syringes are great for filling small holes like this but a putty knife pulled slowly over the hole does the job. 

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I have been laminating (thanks Alan) the transom parts together a piece or two at a time the last few nights.  I have read about working with epoxy in hot weather but man did I have to work quick on some of the smaller pieces. I had a few ounces in a cup in upper 90s heat that started to get thick within 10minutes.  Luckily, we had a cooler night last night and I had quite a bit more working time.  

 

I also assembled the center frame.  Thinking a bit ahead, I'm going to temporarily screw together the side panels to the transom and center frame.  Then wire the bow together? I assume I then dryfit and wire in the bottom panels then flip it over and start with some epoxy welds on the seams? I assume I have to spend a good deal of time leveling the boat before epoxy welds on the interior joints?  

 

I'll get some pictures of recent work up soon. 

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I’ve been making some progress:

- tapered and glued up the side stringers.

- laid out the transom and worked in small epoxy batches glueing up pieces individually over the last week.

 

Going to assemble the center frame and affix the side stringers to the hull sides. 

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Once the transom was fully laminated, I removed the clamps and screws (holes later filled with thickened epoxy) and sanded it all down. I think I’m doing a decent job getting the epoxy to the right consistency but I could be a little more diligent on the clean up. It’s amazing how many little drips and drops I find hardened and wish I would have spent the time to clean before it hardened. I also tried my hand at applying fillets to the transom and side stringers. On this application, I did spend the time to clean up and it certainly made sanding much easier. I used drywall screws and fender washers to attach the side stringers over neat,  then thickened-to-mayonnaise-consistency epoxy.

 

Im using 80 grit on the orbital and belt sander and 60 grit by hand to smooth out the fillets.  Things are coming along nicely.

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I still had more in me, so why not start assembly of the side and hull sections?  I mainly decided to do this so I could get the garage area cleaned up and get the pieces laying around into their permanent places. First was attaching the hull sides to the transom. I initially forgot fender washers for the two screws in each

side. The transom stiffener needed a small trimming on the edge as it pushed the aft hull side slightly proud of the transom edge. I eased this off by backing out a screw and using a handsaw to trim off a blade width.43A7AC72-A5ED-48F6-9A45-92B11E5F2082.thumb.jpeg.610aec417d54a33c6c774728a01199fe.jpeg

 

Center frame assembly was next. I dry fitted and then needed a jigsaw to trim a few mms around the cutout for fitting over the side stringers. Interestingly, the starboard center frame sits proud of the bottom hull side. What to do - Leave it as is or trim it off a bit? 

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I have plenty of extra 12g copper wire here from other projects and stripped a few feet up for wiring. The bow came together nicely but boy, the center frame needs it’s longitudinals for stiffening.

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Finally, bottom panels were laid on top of each other with the interior sides facing each other. I then drilled out the pilot holes for the wiring and eased the longitudinal edge with the belt sander. Copper wire ties were added and loosely twisted. 

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Next up is getting the bottom panels attached to the sides.

 

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This is the aft starboard corner, two fender washer screws below the picture and this wire tie was added to the top (bottom as it's upside down). 

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