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10N progress pics and a few questions


Mike H.

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I've got a boat now! Taped inside and out, it's a good thing it won't fit out of the room I'm building it in until it's cut in half or I may already be floating around my apartment complex's pool!

A few first time builder questions now:

What kind of paint and primer have people had long term success with? This is going to be a working tender (as soon as I get a boat big enough to tend :D ) and as such will likely see it's fair share of knocks and dings. For this reason I'm not going to be spending loads of time on a "furniture finish". Clean and strong is my motto. I think I may want something that's not ultra glossy so as not to show it's slight "character flaws" and war wounds.

After looking high and low for 1x10's I can't seem to find much of anything that isn't white pine. Would this suffice for the seats or will it be too soft?

I'm planning on finishing some parts bright and am not certain if I should epoxy coat prior to applying the polyurethane. I've heard that with age and UV exposure epoxy can turn a yellowish color.

Until next time,

Mike H.

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Looks great Mike. I'm a first time builder and by no means an expert, but I'm about 4 months ahead of you. I had a heck of a time with paints nor curing on my epoxy. By all means try a sample spot before committing to the painting the boat. I used Systems Three epoxy and ended up buying their two part polyurethane paint. I am sold on the stuff ... It's water based so clean up is easy and it's tough as nails.

You mentioned polyurethane for your bright finish. Make sure it's a spar varnish with UV inhibitors. The epoxy work your doing needs to be protected.

Good luck on your journy!

Tom

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The boat looks great, Mike! I haven't even started on my hull yet; I have a centerboard made for my Spindrift 10, but that's as far as I've gotten!

After looking high and low for 1x10's I can't seem to find much of anything that isn't white pine. Would this suffice for the seats or will it be too soft?

I think the white pine may be too soft. Douglas fir' date=' southern yellow pine and poplar are all a bit harder and would work. Or a true hardwood. If you can't get the wider width, you might consider edge gluing some together (borrow a biscuit joiner for this if you've never done it before ... it will make it much easier to get the boards aligned.)

I'm planning on finishing some parts bright and am not certain if I should epoxy coat prior to applying the polyurethane. I've heard that with age and UV exposure epoxy can turn a yellowish color.

Epoxy deteriorates in sunlight. So much so that System Three says a single season in an area with a lot of UV, like Florida, can compromise the epoxy. It will chalk and then crack, allowing water to seep through. You can finish it bright by putting on a good varnish, but you have to remember to re-varnish it and keep the coating on it (once a year in mild areas, and probably twice a year in areas with a lot of UV). Because of this, I would forgo the epoxy and just finish the bright areas with a high quality marine varnish like Epifanes (my favorite, but there are others).

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Mike,

Good to see you are making progress. I suspect you are getting more time than I did to work on it, so you are moving faster. Your work looks pretty nice. Don't be in too much of a hurry to cut the thing in half. Make sure you have all of the work done on the main structure before you take the saw to it.

As far as the paint goes, I used 2 part Interlux white paint on the hull inside and out. On the inside I used their non-skid additive and it worked great! The Interlux appears to be able to stand up to the abuse that tenders seem to get.

I left the seats, gunwales and the small foredeck bright. I put at least two coats of epoxy on all of that and then used a high quality spar varnish over the epoxy. You can't tell it has epoxy on it and the finish is really nice. I plan to re-varnish as needed to protect the epoxy.

I bit the bullet and used mahogony for the seats. It was a little expensive, but the boat looks so much better. It draws a lot of comments because of the bright work. I couldn't get the mahogony in 1x10 dimensions, so I epoxied two pieces together and ripped the finished piece down to 1x10. I was careful to rip on one side so the joint was off center and then strategically planned to put the joint in as low a stress area as I could. I have seen no ill effects and really have to look closely to see the joint. Most people have no idea that the seats are made from two pieces of wood.

Keep up the good work. You will enjoy the boat.

Steve

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I have gotten System three WR-LPU paint for my CS17. No problem so far. All I have applied is the primer but I figure if the primer is stuck good (it is) and the paint is made to work with the primer, the paint had better stick. The primer went on easily even though it is 2 part. I found I liked rolling better than brushing. It seemed to go on easier.

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Sounds like UV protective spar varnish and two-part polyurethane is the way to go. I imagine it's longevity will more than offset the cost.

After a lengthy drive today I found some beautiful spruce 1x10's so it looks like I won't have to go the joining route. I may still go with mahogany for the knees, breasthook, and center seat as they look very sharp with a bright finish.

I'd guess I've been putting in somewhere between 25-30 hours a week on my boat. A lot of that has been getting my workshop in order and aquiring materials and tools. Out of curiosity, how long did it take some of you guys who've built one?

Cheers all,

Mike H.

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Mike,

I have a log at the house and will take a look to give you the number of hours I have in the 10N. I'll try to get the number to you over the weekend.

I will share this number with you if I can have one caveat. This is the number of hours it took me to build my boat under the conditions I encountered. I'm sure the number of hours would have been different in a different shop that was heated and/or in warmer weather.

After building my boat, I now know why Graham is reluctant to give build hours for these boats. Everyone's experience is different and the shop conditions and environment vary considerably.

Steve

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Thanks Steve,

I've started in on the smaller projects now. Rudder parts, centerboard, foredeck pieces. The centerboard has came out beautifully from Honduran mahogany and fir. They contrast nicely. I do have a bit of a challenge ahead of me with it. My wife is a bit of a hippy at heart (albeit born too late!) so I've decided to do a hollowed out 5" peace sign where the boring old 4" lightening hole would've been. The empty places between the inner "arms" has been cut away altogether and the outer perimeter is going to be deep groove. The arms and inner portion of the perimeter are going to be rounded off to match the outer groove, making it 3D. No worries if it was all mahogany but the difference in hardness between the light and dark veins in the fir is suprising. On the plus side it gave me the reason to buy the Dremel I've been wanting as the X-acto router blade knife just wasn't cutting it (pun intended). Of course my wife has been given free reign to paint the symbol as "groovy" as she likes when I finish.

Steve, I was curious how you like the midship seat setup on your 10N. I was thinking of doing something similar as it seems it would result in a stronger centerboard and one less piece to toe around is always nice too.

Til next time,

Mike

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Mike,

I put the stock midships seat (removable) and it worked just fine for everything but sailing. I found the gap between the floatation box seat and the midship seat to be just at about exactly where my butt should be when sailing the boat solo. That caused me to build the additional removable seats that roughly approximate the location of the seats on the standard Spindrift. Those have worked out just fine.

Steve

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Oops!

That's right, you have the white Spindrift. I was thinking that the green one with the red sails was yours. That's the guy with the modified midship's seat. I'm thinking of going with that and side seats like yours.

Cheers,

Mike

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