Spindrift 9N #1579 build

Aphers · January 30

You're resisting the temptation to leave anything bright, then?

I couldn't quite bring myself to cover every last bit of wood, so I left the dagger board case capping varnished. And it's a bit of a pain trying to keep on top of it .

Sometimes I think it would have been nice to have left the transom varnished. Maybe on the next boat...

Lille Ø · January 30

6 hours ago, Aphers said:

You're resisting the temptation to leave anything bright, then?

I couldn't quite bring myself to cover every last bit of wood, so I left the dagger board case capping varnished. And it's a bit of a pain trying to keep on top of it .

Sometimes I think it would have been nice to have left the transom varnished. Maybe on the next boat...

While leaving things bright would be pretty, this is going to be a working dinghy. So the easier maintenance, the better.

We also replaced the (old, leaky) teak deck on our boat with paint, so I guess we're just savages.

Here's the first coat of Perfection. Second will go on soon:

Bryan Rolfe · January 30

Looking great! Seeing the paint go one makes me excited to get to that step.

I'm still trying to decide between a two-part paint like Perfection, or an easier 1-part paint like Brightsides. I understand that the 1-part paints are easier to touch-up and repair, and I painted my last full-sized boat with a 1 -part paint, but I also understand they'll potentially need more frequent maintenance.

Do you know how much paint you're going to need to get the coverage and coats you're looking for?

Lille Ø · January 30

3 minutes ago, Bryan Rolfe said:

Looking great! Seeing the paint go one makes me excited to get to that step.

I'm still trying to decide between a two-part paint like Perfection, or an easier 1-part paint like Brightsides. I understand that the 1-part paints are easier to touch-up and repair, and I painted my last full-sized boat with a 1 -part paint, but I also understand they'll potentially need more frequent maintenance.

Do you know how much paint you're going to need to get the coverage and coats you're looking for?

We went with Perfection because we’ve used it successfully before, and had some spares left from the deck project. It appears however that it is being taken off the market.

The outside hulls are still to be painted, but looks like:

2+ cans of InterProtect primer (we had to extend a bit from what we had leftovers)
1+ can of Perfection Undercoat (again, extended a bit from our leftovers)
2.5 cans of Perfection

(with 750ml cans)

Don Silsbe · January 31

You made the right choice. Nesting boats see a lot of abrasion between the hull halves and in general use. Britesides is simply too soft for this application, in my humble opinion. Just allow the hull a full week (or more) to get hard before using her.

Aphers · January 31

I used a two pack paint called Lustre, from a company called SML in the UK. It was brilliant. They recommended that I could use it directly on to the epoxy without an undercoat, and a 2.5l can easily did the whole boat with a bit left over.

Two pack is fantastic compared to single. Far more durable.

Since leaving the UK I've had to switch to Perfection, as that's what is available. I generally touch up every 3-6 months depending on how badly the dinghy has been treated, and about once a year I've ended up doing a full recoat. The boat is in daily use and bumps happen.

Perfection is a good product but the hardener is highly hygroscopic. Once you've opened it, you've got a few weeks to use it before it goes to jelly. It's particularly bad out here in the Caribbean with the heat and humidity. International do not sell the hardener separately. I now have three tins of the 'A' part and have just opened my third and final 'B'. I've heard that the Awlgrip 'Awlcat #3' hardener is the same chemical, and is available separately, but it's wickedly expensive. And presumably it has the same problems with going off after opening.

Interestingly, the tiny bit of Lustre hardener that I still have remains liquid in the can, so whatever they are using is more suitable for long term storage.

Despite the drawbacks of two pack, I would not use single pack on a tender.

Lille Ø · January 31

1 hour ago, Aphers said:

Perfection is a good product but the hardener is highly hygroscopic. Once you've opened it, you've got a few weeks to use it before it goes to jelly. It's particularly bad out here in the Caribbean with the heat and humidity. International do not sell the hardener separately. I now have three tins of the 'A' part and have just opened my third and final 'B'.

I was at a chandlery yesterday to pick up the rudder gudgeons. They had a row of A part Perfection cans on the shelf, so we chatted a bit. They said that the product has been a bit of a nightmare for them due to the B part going bad so easily - lots of warehousing losses. So they're not sad to see the product go away.

In other news, we flipped the boat this morning and started on the bottom hulls.

Bryan Rolfe · January 31

Interesting. Are there other 2-part paints that you guys recommend available in the US? I'm leaning towards Awlgrip since I know it won't be going away any time soon given its popularity, but I also know it's finnicky (not sure if it's any more finnicky than the other two part paints).

Boat looks great!

Don Silsbe · January 31

@Bryan Rolfe— There are several brands to choose from, but first let me tell you a story.

When I built my Bay River Skiff 15 back in 2016, I used Epifanes 2-part poly for tje exterior, because I knew that it would take a lot of abuse getting on and off the trailer. The interior was painted with Britesides for economics and because it is easy to work with. Since then, I have repainted the interior, and have started to do that again for a third time. The exterior is still the original paint job! I have touched up the exterior in small places, but I’m here to say that it wears like iron.

You have three choices for “two pack” paint in the USA (aside from Awlgrip). Epifanes, Alexseal, and Devoe Devthane 379.

You can buy Awlgrip and Epifanes from Jamestown Distributors.

Alexseal is very interesting to me, because they have this magic additive you can buy. Here’s a video about it:

It is available from Fisheriessupply.com. I have not used it.

What I do use is Devoe 379. It is not a “marine paint”, it is an industrial two-part polyurethane. It was recommended to me by Alan at B&B. It is just as hard, & pretty darned glossy. The advantage is that i stead of costing $100/quart, it costs $100/Gallon! My third coat on my skiff is going to be the Devoe. It is available through Norkan in the Detroit suburbs. That’s the only place I’ve found it. They do ship. Devoe, by the way, is a subsidiary of AzkoNobil, as is Interlux. Their website is: https://www.norkan.com/index.php. If it says they’re out of stock, call them, and talk to George Spiteri. Sometimes they can mix up what you want. Yes, they do ship. B&B recommends using the T0031 thinner by Awlgrip. They believe it levels out better than the Devoe product. Finally, with all these products, keep an eye on the thickness of your paint. It should go on thin, and in several coats. As you use the thinned product, the thinner will evaporate off. You might need to add more thinner halfway through a batch.

Lille Ø · February 1

On 1/31/2024 at 3:46 AM, Don Silsbe said:

You made the right choice. Nesting boats see a lot of abrasion between the hull halves and in general use. Britesides is simply too soft for this application, in my humble opinion. Just allow the hull a full week (or more) to get hard before using her.

We’ll try to give the paint as much time as we can. The primary problem is that we’ll have to get out of the workspace by Monday, and the fire hose needs to go on before that (since we need epoxy temperature for filling the nail holes).

Looks like next week is pretty nasty weather. Forecast has heavy rain and 6-8bft. Not the weather for trying the dinghy for the first time! So we’ll try to find a place to stash the boat without nesting it for the time.

Anyway, first coat of Perfection went on the outer hulls this morning.

Bryan Rolfe · February 1

I'm drooling over here. I've decided to go with Epifanes (which I just learned is pronounced epi-fawn-ase) based on the advice above, availability, and ease of ordering.

Are you guys planning on building the rudder and dagger board later?

Lille Ø · February 1

18 minutes ago, Bryan Rolfe said:

Are you guys planning on building the rudder and dagger board later?

Due to time constraints, we’ve had to race ahead getting the hull ready, at the expense of all the detachable parts.

We have access to the woodworking workshop at the c-base hackerspace. It is about an hour away with public transport, so not really viable for transporting the entire hull, but we can build smaller stuff like the daggerboard there.

For rudder, we have a garage find kick-up rudder from some long-gone dinghy. Seems to be about the right size, so at least in the beginning we’ll go with that. Needs a tiller, though.

We still also need to finish the thwart, and start figuring out how to get the Europe dinghy mast cut in two and fitted with the boat.

Perfection is now fully on.

We also ordered a stainless steel strip to be mounted on the keel. It looks like the hardware will be two-tone: bronze on the inside, steel on the outside.

Lille Ø · February 2

The build is now also documented on our blog.

Today we added Kiwigrip to the inside bottoms:

There are some spots on the nesting bulkheads where we went over the side when painting the outsides. We'll fix the paint on those today, so fire hose will have to wait.

Lille Ø · February 3

Fire hose went on today. Quite a hassle with pre-drilling the holes, putting some epoxy in, and then hammering the copper nail on.

Captain Tim · February 3

Love the color. What is the spacing between the nails? How long are the nails? Why nails instead of screws with finish washers?

Lille Ø · February 3

41 minutes ago, Captain Tim said:

Love the color. What is the spacing between the nails? How long are the nails? Why nails instead of screws with finish washers?

The Spindrift plans recommended using nails.

Spacing is one nail every 10cm.

Lille Ø · February 6

It's been very windy this last few days, but also quite warm. This meant that we could do some projects on the big boat while waiting for the paint to harden on the Spindrift.

Today we decided to finally install some of the hardware. The oar locks went on.

We also installed the rudder gudgeons.

The inspection hatches went on with some Sikaflex.

It looks like we can finally splash the boat on Thursday. The wind should quiet before then.

We didn't receive our new oars yet, so we'll have to start with the tiny aluminium ones from our banana-boot. But that'll be enough for some first sea trials.

Bryan Rolfe · February 6

Those are some shiny oar locks!

With nails and other hardware going into the boat, is there a concern about water ingress into the wood? Does it make sense to use a sealant when installing hardware?

Lille Ø · February 6

26 minutes ago, Bryan Rolfe said:

Those are some shiny oar locks!

With nails and other hardware going into the boat, is there a concern about water ingress into the wood? Does it make sense to use a sealant when installing hardware?

Absolutely. Everything was first dry fitted, and then installed with Sikaflex as the sealant.