Building a skiff

[Maple Syrup Actual]

It was only a matter of time before I screwed up something that couldn't be unscrewed, and today it happened. I was running a grinder on the surface of the hull, just taking off a little bit of epoxy to give the surface some grip, and that's when I did it. I snagged the power cord and stumbled a little bit and just from the sound, I knew I'd screwed up, bad.



That can was full, god damn it. The cord caught it and pulled it off the bench it was sitting on and by the time I grabbed it it was half gone, and the remainder was all foam. Anyway I'm soldiering on, and I did have another one in the fridge. Plus they're on sale right now at the local liquor store so the only real victim here is my pride. Still, though.


It's been busy with Christmas and all, but I have gotten a couple of things done. I shaped the end of the keel, or skeg or however you want to describe it:



It's not going to be a perfectly smooth transition from skeg to no skeg, but I want to have some durability there, while at the same time reducing the amount of cavitation on the trailing end, so I just gave it a bit of an ensmoothening.

And the keel is on:



Or at least the latter 3/4 is glued down; I wanted that to cure before I start hauling it down to follow the hull lines. I've extended the reverse chine forward, and am just letting things cure before I finish it out with a tapered forward section.

And I also stuck down the port reverse chine, or, again, since I'm doing it in sections, the rear 8'. I'll probably get the rest of it handled tomorrow.



The transition sections I slopped layers of glass and peanut butter into are shaped but need a skim coat of fairing mix; the side lighting makes them look really rough but they're not too bad and the hollows they've filled are now about right; I just need to handle the cosmetics there now. But I'm about to begin fairing the whole hull, so that's no big deal. I'll skim coat the whole thing in the next while, although I'm heading off to my cabin in a couple of days for some relaxation, so the next update might be a bit of a wait. I'm hoping to get all the trimmy bits glued on before I go, but hard to say. I only work on it an hour or two here and there, so progress is pretty slow. But the important part is that I keep moving ahead, a bit at a time.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I had a couple of hours yesterday and a few more today so I continue to chip away at things.

Yesterday I got the stem glued on and the keel mostly sorted:



I needed to make a template to fill this little triangular section so I found a piece of paper I knew I couldn't possibly benefit from reading and scratched the inner lines with my thumbnail to get the dimensions, then cut it out and chopped up a bit of scrap fir to fill the space.





Then it was finishing off the reverse chines:



Which I have also begun to blend in with a bit of filler.







Seeing the hull with the trim bits on the bottom is pretty exciting. I am looking forward to rub and spray rails; then I'll really feel like it's a boat that needs to get smoother, not a half-built project in the garage.

[Cory]

This is one of my favorite threads on the forum at the moment.

I've grown up without much boating in my life. I now live in Florida, and boating is large part of the culture. I know nothimg of it. I was looking at rudimentry boat info when you first started the thread. I'm pretty much resolved that I need to build a boat at some point in my life. Maybe not even soon, but eventually.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Well, I'm hardly impartial but I think it's super rewarding...you can't really build a car from scratch, or at least, not on the same level that you build a boat. But there is something so satisfying about starting with a pile of wood, and ending up just stepping off a dock into a vessel that never existed until you picked up a saw and began to shape it...it's as close as turning dreams to reality as I have experienced, personally. You travel in a vessel that is the product of your own hands; it's really magical. Sailing my little wooden dinghy that I build a couple of years ago is really incredible feeling...the first breeze I caught after I hauled up the sail I stitched together on the mast I cut out of a tree on my island property...I mean it it just puts you in touch with a different layer of reality, somehow.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Squaring off chines, blending surfaces, cutting rub rails.





I just cut some poster board into strips and mashed it up against the wall of epoxy to use as a dam. It's quick and easy and keeps the epoxy in place until it kicks. I know a lot of guys clamp boards with packing tape against the hull to achieve this effect but this is a quick and dirty version and it'll all be sanded so I don't bother with anything fancier.

Here's one after I peeled off most of the poster paper, which took about 15 seconds:



The rest will get sanded off at some point, which will take about a minute.

Here's my beloved Hitachi worm drive with a block clamped to it so I can make 1 3/4" strips off the hull ply remainder. More bedroom work, which always makes me smile.



And a stack of rubrails and inwales on the hull.



About the only other stuff going on is me blending in the chines and the stem to smooth that all out. Still a ways to go there and the pics don't really look like anything.

Off to the cabin on the island for a bit; may not be any updates for a little while. First trip there since my kid learned to walk; should be interesting. I will have to figure out a way to keep him away from the wood stove.

[AKDoug]

Sexy lines that you aren't going to get in aluminum. Bouncing this thread back to page one where it belongs. Happy New Year !!

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Well I'm glad you find it bumpworthy!

I'm up at my cabin for a few days but of course there's a boat component: Alaric received his first command as Acting Captain.

I put him in charge of the dinghy while I snapped down the canvas on the big boat before rowing to shore.



He handled the responsibility with aplomb.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Well, as I used to occasionally shout after a short breather between songs back when I was the singer for a hardcore band...enough rest, it's runtime.

I spent a bit of time up at my cabin, just unwinding. The kid, who's about to turn one, was pretty into the whole experience. I think this is the first time he's really grasped that we were in a house, that's different than our usual house. Previously he got really blown away by the forest but now he's starting to get used to it.

Anyway one handy gadget I was very excited to get and try out was this pair of bluetooth-enabled ear pro.



I'm a frequent listener of podcasts and now I can lean on a sander while listening to something interesting...really relieves the boredom of power tool usage.

Other than that it's just pictures of incremental sanding progress:





Chines are squared up, couple of voids to fill but nothing too dire.

Oh, test fitting rub rails:







The side lighting makes all the surfaces look really rough, but they aren't, particularly. Better get a skim coat of filler on there so I don't look like I'm making a mess of it.

[Coyotesfan97]

It’s coming along great. This is one of my favorite threads here. Thanks for the update.

ETA Did you use a dog pen for the stove?

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I'm really glad you're enjoying it.

To be honest...we just piled a couple of adirondack chairs in the way and it was just barely enough. We use a couple of dog pens for the rabbits and talked about taking one up but they're a PAIN to haul and we thought we'd get away without one and we did...barely. Now that you mention it, I think we should buy another and keep it up there.

Man, there's so much we have to do to be real parents. The cabin has a huge loft area and stairs with no railing; the stairs I'll have to put a railing on but the loft I think I'll take old fishing nets and turn the open area into a giant hammock. The storage room has to get emptied out and turned into a bedroom. I need to get CO detectors. Fuck, I woke up every half hour just thinking about carbon monoxide poisoning him. The deck railings, jesus. The 56 stairs up the cliff to get to the cabin...the various axes and mauls lying around, the bow saws, the jerry cans of gas and kerosene...it might be less cumbersome to just duct tape the kid to me.

I'll say this, I'm gettin an air horn and putting it on a cord for him to wear when he's wandering around the island as a five year old or whatever. You fall in the pond, you fall off a rock, you have a tree fall on you...lean on the horn, I will find you.

Being a parent is like having your heart permanently relocated to the outside of your body...you are just giving the universe a bit mallet to beat you with.

But it's worth it, of course.