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Jessy 15’ build log - Philadelphia, PA


Justin C

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Looking good. The center frame should be just slightly proud of the bottom because the inside face of the bottom contacts the outboard edge of the side panel so if the bottom of the frame was flush there would be a small gap. One thing to watch out for is "fishtail" in both the keel and sides. On the sides this will show up as an inward curvature just when the sides get to the transom usually caused by tightening the screws into the transom too tight or the angle of the transom stiffener being off a bit. On the keel check to make sure the center keel edgea of the 2 bottom halves come fully together all the way to the stern. If you have a gap at the stern that will result in an s curve or fishtail in the keel line. Its easier to close a gap there with the boat right side up so that gravity is working with you. Then lfting at the transom and tightening the sternmost wires should do it. 

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Alan, the port side of the center frame is flush with the hull sides and the starboard side is proud an 1/8th+.  I think this is due to a slight variation where I attached the side stringer. Should I trim the cutout of the centerboard to allow it to sit slightly proud or leave as is? 

 

I think I understand what you are saying about fishtail.  I actually have the bottom panels installed in the gears but un-wired.  Does the outboard panel on the transom fit over the aft-most section where the keel meets it? I'll have to get a picture to show you.  I have some squeeze out there I didn't clean up and it prevents the bottom panels from sitting properly.  In the plans, it mentions possibly needing to bevel the bottom transom to fit the bottom. It would seem this is just the interior transom pieces. 

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an 1/8" might be a bit much. You can easily remove the center frame from the boat to make that adjustment in the notches after you wire the bottom on and flip the boat upright. As long as the transom and fwd bulkhead are in the boat will mostly remain in shape. 

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Well, I got her looking 3D. The gears are all meshed in nicely. The aft-most section of the bottom panels sit proud of the transom bottom because of epoxy squeeze out I did not clean up. 6E743987-1AD1-47D8-A626-1B002C04D015.thumb.jpeg.f9bb05dd66fccdc8bdf0f298f47a206d.jpeg

Does the outboard transom panel sit in front of the keel? See above.

 

Below is a shot of the bow keel. I may see if gravity of flipping it over and/or wiring with the hull sides pulls this area inward.

C9927CA5-5222-46A4-A08C-1406E7DB8565.thumb.jpeg.f4b6bd87473b068904c6f6f428855f0f.jpeg

 

Here she is in 3D form:

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I’m not sure if the outboard pad also needs to be trimmed. This will allow the 1/4 gap in the gears to move aft and will fix the bow keel issue. The transom should be flat to convex - if the bottom panels are moved aft, it’ll either draw the transom inward or I’ll have to trim the aft bottom panels. Or, just plane/trim the bow section. Your thoughts?2485D087-A629-4D56-80A8-2E2C388EFEF3.thumb.jpeg.d21ff25540059e61c8d6e74813947238.jpeg

37D4B265-0075-433D-A606-C60F3B01B4AF.thumb.jpeg.c7f9f0c452295f467014afe1f30ac5fb.jpeg

 

I placed an additional wire tie forward in the bottom panels to help draw this area together. 

49142419-C467-4A25-845B-7F199B9F859A.thumb.jpeg.61b23ecaeb0a4db15055754efdb3ec1e.jpeg

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Pictures look good to me. I can't see both sides of the gear chine joint but there should be an equal gap on either side of each gear which is approximately 3/16". These gaps will get filled in when glassing the outside of the chine. The overhang of the bottom at the bow just gets cut off. It's an artifact of the bottom panel being larger than needed around the edges for the gears to slightly overlap the side panel so just cut/round it off when shaping the chines and rounding the stem later. The outboard pad will get radiused on the outside along with the chines to allow for glass reinforcing the bottom-transom joint on the outside. Then that joint will be built back up with thickened epoxy to a sharp corner with ~1/16" radius for a clean breakaway when planing. So basically as long as the transom is flat you are good to go. 

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Here is a better picture of the gears:

3909B32A-22EE-40F9-A3C0-1E0A6E651F8B.thumb.jpeg.afb972fb7dffed3f651bf33a9af17eca.jpeg

The gap moves from forward to aft around midship, just forward of the centerboard. It’s pretty consistent on both sides. 

B5A45F3A-1EDC-43F8-A2D0-E288949A2592.thumb.jpeg.c651ba0c434a8234b8e744e8e208a3b3.jpeg

The bow/keel is centered and the bottom sits evenly along the back/bottom of the transom. Good enough to live with?

 

Next up is to flip and straighten the hull. I’ll then tighten up the wires running along the chines. Gunwales temporarily screwed/clamped in? Install the longitudinal bulkheads and start glassing? Should the centerboard be removed for glassing the two bottom panels together?

Thanks for all the help!

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I have the boat flipped. This past weekend, I glued up the gunwales and have them clamped on.  I know I should start to install them at the bow, but do they extend all the way back to the transom? From pictures, it looks like they do not form a point at the bow. Rather, they come to form a 'flat front'.  

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I have also been tack-welding with epoxy along the outboard gears and up the stem.  I wired the boat with copper and with the acute angle formed at the stem, I'm going to leave a little of the wire in there.  The wire ties elsewhere will be removed.  

 

Once I have the gunwales glued up, I'm going to install a temporary 1x to keep the hull shape and remove the centerboard for glassing the bottom panels together.  I believe the plans call for an overlap of the glass tape and will confirm before doing it. 

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I need some advice. The forward upper bulkhead has a 1/2” gap from the casting platform. Is this acceptable? If not, I can:

 

A.) Simply lower it 1/4” and split the difference when the foredeck is placed on top. Lowering it will push the bow sides out a bit.

B.) Raise the casting platform a bit to narrow the gap. It’s temporarily supported by the side stringers. 

C.) Do nothing and just fill the gap with a larger fillet of thickened epoxy. 

 

I need this addressed prior to gluing up the gunwales as they will both tighten up the upper part of the hull.

BE733CA1-E2A5-4156-BBB3-DEE271FE2BF7.thumb.jpeg.26ae26ed0e0406a825c9be04cc18ecce.jpeg

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31CD3C9B-7711-4A35-9745-6C774C8A9200.thumb.jpeg.79ace9ac6e72a5110113239291192b8c.jpeg

 

Casting platform up snuggly to the inside stem. (I also drilled holes for the bow eye that will be reinforced)

FD14F502-CD8E-4A7C-B69B-60EAA668D0EA.thumb.jpeg.f05cf4d0d12109f9c3adf7dc44b4c4d0.jpeg

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Justin, 

Looking good. I have an easy solution for that one. See attached. The Upper forward bulkhead does not sit flush with the sheer but actually down about 1/2". The foredeck is 3/4" plywood with a rabbet cut into the aft edge of the bottom into which the top of that bulkhead notches. The foredeck then ends up flush with the sheer. The idea of using the heavier ply for the foredeck was to make it more straightforward to install a trolling motor mount without having to fuss with backing plates and additional reinforcement. I am adding a small detail about that into the construction plan as shown below. 

 

So I would set that bulkhead down onto the casting plarform and then do a dry fit of the foredeck which may need a little tweaking. You can also use the fordeck to set the exact location fore and aft of the upper fwd bulkhead. 

 

Also, regarding the gunwales. You are correct we typically install them just up to the tip of the bow of the plywood panels and then round them off so the stem is smooth all the way up. Any remaining voids or gaps where the plywood comes together is filled in with thickened epoxy. Be sure to run your glass all the way up the stem on the inside to help tie that all together. The fore deck really strengthens the bow up.

 

Let us know how it works out.

 

upper fwd blkhead detail.jpg

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"Also, regarding the gunwales. You are correct we typically install them just up to the tip of the bow of the plywood panels and then round them off so the stem is smooth all the way up."

 

Just to be clear, I'm going to slide the gunwales up to a point at the bow, which will leave an approx. 2" gap at the stern. The gunwales will be installed 1/4" proud of the plywood sides near the bow, then planed down to match the height of the sides. 

 

The diagram is very helpful. Thanks and I think this bit of detail will be useful moving forward. Generally, I'm in favor of diagrams with less words/instructions. There is a risk in being too wordy. 

 

I'm going to get the gunwales glued in this weekend and start to glass the interior. 

 

BTW, the copper wire ties pulled out of the bow area. Some force was needed, but I was able to get them out.  

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I decided to increase the length of the gunwales and I cut down some pine stock I had to match the dimensions of the gunwales supplied with the kit. I scarfed on about 4inches aft to each side as this area does not have the bending stress as does the bow.  I decided to form a point at the bow with the gunwales as this just looks better.  I'm going to plane the tops and the inside 16inches (that face to the hull) so the gunwales are 'less" near the front.  I took off about 4feet of clamps I had holding it to the hull sides from forward to aft to allow the gunwales to flex open as I wanted to use a belt sander to remove just a bit of the interior material.  As I was bending the gunwales back on, the clamp stress popped the upper most fillet on the inside of the stem.  I chipped out the thickened epoxy with a chisel down to where it separated, sanded it up, put a copper tie back in and reapplied a thickened bead to the interior stem.  At the same time I was cutting the small gunwale sections, I cut a small piece of stock to fit as a back plate for the bow eye. This fit nicely inside the stem and I just need to drill through the outside holes that will act as my guides.  However, I just realized during writing this that I never cleaned out the holes when I applied the second fillet to the inside of the stem and those holes are now closed with hardened epoxy.  

 

About the fillet popping, I should have know there would be too much stress there.  They will go on bow first. I have the holes drilled and stainless screws ready to go. This week's goal is to get them on there so that I can place a temporary support over the centerboard for it's removal for glassing the interior keel and up the stem. 

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Justin, 

We usually have a breasthook (little corner piece in the tip of the bow) that reinforces the tip of the bow) which helps hold the sides together at the stem. With this kit we wanted to do a solid foredeck of 3/4 ply so no breasthook. It couldn't hurt to put a little fiberglass over the fillet at the very top of the stem to help prevent it opening. Or just fire a drywall screw through the top of the stem just below the gunwales to hold it all together until you get the inside of the stem glassed. Heating up the screw will release it for any epoxy and allow it to come out easily. 

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Alan, I thought of wrapping the glass interior of the stem right over to the outside - I think this is what I will do.  It was just the stress of having the wood clamped in aft to mid-ship, then me forcing it in with clamps up to the stem.

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You can see the small crack just to the left at the tip of the bow.  It goes down 4 inches or so. Should be set up nice by the time I get home later.

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Gunwales glued and screwed in.

 

I had them clamped in place for a little over a week. I drilled pilot holes at the bow to accept the stainless screws. I sunk the screws just so the point was through the hull side that could act to catch the epoxied (slippery) gunwale. 

 

I removed them and applied neat, then thickened epoxy to both the inside of the gunwales and the outside of the hull. 

 

Started to install at the bow and used the screws to position the gunwales. A whole lot of clamping later...

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oh, bought 48 3” clamps from amazon for about $60. Much higher quality than I anticipated.

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I mentioned above that I measured and drilled out the holes for the bow eye. When installing the gunwales, I had the aft clamped in first and when I clamped in the bow, I broke the epoxy joint slight the the top of the stem (picture above).  I have since filled in the bow eye holes with another layer of thickened epoxy. This got me thinking that I inadvertently did something good - I drilled the holes larger in the wood, then filled back in with epoxy and am now going to drill the proper size for the bow eye bolts.  This way, no water will ever get to the wood through the stem/bow. 

 

I'm going to do the same thing when I install the boat plug. 

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Indeed. Epoxy bushings are a great method to isolate hardware from the wood in epoxy encapsulated construction like this. You'll get more good ideas like that from the Gougeon Brothers book on epoxy boat construction. Hardware bonding is covered in chapter 14!

 https://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/GougeonBook-061205-1.pdf

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Alan, thanks for the reminder about that resource. It got me thinking - to me, it's somewhat funny. I was reading through that book well prior to purchasing the kit simply to give myself 'some' education about boat-building.  It's a wonderful resource but I can't say I learned a lot as I had nothing to practice on. I had never used thickened epoxy and could not yet perform a fillet.  I was doing what expectant parents who purchase books on how to raise children do.  You can only absorb so much through a book and really need the actual experience to learn.  Also, I think the fact that those who are the types that would read through a book like that are the one's who will become good parents...err boat builders.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that this boat feels (and acts) like a baby to me. 

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