New Photos! Still making good progress too.

Things have still been going steady, I received word that I will not be heading out of town until the first of next week (that is if my bid gets the job) so that gives me more time to work on the boat.

I took some needed photos of my progress today, I think they turned out great!

Yesterday afternoon I coated the dagger board with one coat of epoxy, put a second coat on the inside of the dagger board trunk and glued the two pieces together. Everything went smoothly and they both looked great this morning.

(Click the photos for a larger image)



First thing this morning I started sanding the boat down. On the inside of the boat, the fiber glassed seams had two coats of epoxy on them and they were still pretty rough so I gave them a good sanding with my orbital sander (witch doesn't have as much since I knocked it off on the floor yesterday) and it is ready for another coat. I sanded the outside of the hull good also so it is ready for another coat of epoxy and then paint.

Since I put the dagger board trunk and the dagger board together I figured it was time to take the big step and cut a hole in the boat. It really wasn't that big of a deal once I trusted all of my measurements and marks. I cut it out with a jig saw with no problem and it was correct!




Since it has been cool here I have been sitting my epoxy resin and hardener in a large window in the mornings so that the sun will heat them up. Today I think I left them there a little to long and they heated up pretty good, which isn't always what you want. When I mixed the putty up I could tell the cup was already warm in my hand and since heat speeds up the curing time I knew that I didn't have long so I started applying the putty pretty fast. All went well up until the end when the putty was getting hard on me. I still slapped it all on and it didn't look to pretty.

I decided to go ahead and fiberglass it in. I cut the glass to fit and then mixed my already warm epoxy resin and started to wet out the fiberglass. I got about half way done when my cup started melting from the heat (the epoxy was getting hard!). I quickly dumped it out on the boat where I needed another coat of epoxy and spread it out. I decided not to do anymore epoxy the rest of the day, but that doesn't mean I was finished.

Throughout the day I had been gluing the strips of wood to my oar shafts that make up the wide part of the paddle. Once I had them glued on I started to shape my paddle down and I finished up one and then called it a day and went running.

Here is a photo of the paddle being glued together, I didn't think to snap one of the hand-planed oar, but I will tomorrow.

Making good progress is exciting, I can't wait until tomorrow to get back to work!

PK 87: I'm making good progress!

I have been working on the boat the past few days, waiting to go out of town to work. I have the dagerboard cut and shaped and will probably epoxy it over today sometime. The trunk for the daggerboard is cut out and I have one coat of epoxy on the inside of it and I plan on putting another coat on the inside and epoxying the two pieces together when I epoxy the daggerboard this afternoon.

Yestarday, I had the boat turned upside down and I puttied the seams, glassed the seams over, then I put fiberglass over the two bottom panels of the hull. I decided not to glass the entire hull because....... well I'm not sure why not, but I figured I only needed it on the bottom panels because they will be seeing the abuse when I beach the boat. The fiberglass sheets went on pretty easy using a squigee and pouring the resin on. I was pretty surprised how easy it was, and this morning it looked fantastic and is pretty stiff. Just a few more coats of epoxy on the outside of the hull and it will be finished except for the rubrail and paint.

The epoxy/fiberglass it that I ordered with the boat wasn't quite enough. The kit from bateau.com that was for the PK87 dinghy is for the rowing version and you need more resin for the sailing version. I oreded more epoxy Monday and it arrived just a while ago before lunch on Webnesday, and its a good thing because I am almost completely out of the first 1 gallon of resin and 1/2 gallon of hardener. I ordered the same amount and it should easily be enough, especially since I do not have to do much more puttying (if any) which is where I ended up mixing to much putty and it would harden before I could get it all on the boat.

So now I just got back from lunch and about to get back to work (on the dinghy). I have been videoing the building process but I am having a little trouble with the quality of the video so I have been discouraged and slow at putting them online. Maybe I will get off my but and do them right.

Ive Been Busy!

Well, if you are wondering why I haven't posted any progress on the dinghy its because I have been busy. I managed to get some out of town jobs (small carpentry contracts) that are paying pretty well so I have been putting my attention into them. Work is hard to find these days so you have to do whatever you can whenever you can.

Anyways, as for the dinghy I have been doing a little bit but I just haven't been posting about it or taking photos.

I have cut and shaped the daggerboard and it is ready for epoxy.

Since it has been so cold my epoxy wouldn't dry so I purchased a small heater and closed in a small portion of my shop to heat.

I need to order another batch of epoxy because I am running low. The epoxy "kit" that I bought was stated to be enough to build the dinghy but I now have found out that it is only enough to build the rowing version and not the sailing one. Oh well...

I also need to order a few pieces of hardware for the running rigging and the tiller.

Other than that I really haven't done all to much, but hopefully I will have some spare time next week to get back on it and finish it up!

PK87 Dinghy- Today, Stitched and Glued the Hull

Lots of progress today! What a great day it was, this being my first boat, seeing the pieces some together and start to look like a boat was great!

As I said in my last post, I took some photos!



The frames do not look level because, well that aren't. They aren't glassed in place although they are close to where they should be. The main reason they look out of whack is because the boat itself isn't level.





I think today went pretty well in all, even though I did make one pretty big mistake... When I was cutting out the plywood pieces I somehow got confused and cut the certain panels out of the wrong pieces of plywood. (There are two thicknesses of plywood and I cut the panels that were supposed to be out of the thinner piece from the thicker piece and vice versa. But! I now have a set of stencils so I guess I will probably be making another PK 87.

I realized this mistake once I had stitched the two bottom panels and the bow and transom panels together. When I was about to put the side panels on, I said to myself, "Self, how in the world are you going to bend this thick plywood like it is supposed to be????". Then I checked the plans and realized my mistake and felt pretty dumb. Oh well, maybe that will be my "big mistake" in this project.

So I had to run out and get new plywood and cut out all of the panels again. But this time I had stencils so it wasn't as time consuming marking them out. I finished cutting the correct panels out at around 11 o'clock, nearly half a day wasted. But once I had the new panels the hull went together in no time!

Stitching the hull together was simple and quick. Then, one of my friends, Jarrod Davis, decided to come check out my project and ended up helping me until we left at 6:20 this evening, what great help he was too.

With Jarrod's help, we flipped the hull (it was extremely light weight) and applied the duct tape on the outside so that when we puddied the seems from the inside it wouldn't seap through. I am a little worried about how hard it will be to get this stuff off in the morning. I think the way I put the zip-ties on wasn't the best way. I had them where the bulky connection part was on the outside of the hull so that made taping it up a little tricky. We ended up having to cut slices in the tape beside each zip-tie so that the tape wouldn't let the puddy dry around the bulkyness of the tie leaving hardened epoxy bumps all over the hull. I think we solved the problem but I will see in the morning how it all worked out.

But, when I think about it, the bulkyness of the tie on the inside of the hull could have been more trouble on the outside. Because puttying around what little bit of the tie that was showing was pretty thick, so maybe the bulkyness on the outside is the best way.

So, we brushed on epoxy resin everywhere that the fiberglass would be touching and then we puddied the seems. This went pretty quickly with the two of us working simutaneously.

One we finished applying the puddy we immediately began cutting and wetting out the fiberglass on the seams. This wasn't very difficult and I think it's easier to do it right after puddying so that the glass has something to stick to and hold it in position. Brushing the resin onto the fiberglass, "wetting it out", was pretty slow until one person started pouring the resin and the other quickly brushed it out. Once we started this method it really went fast.

Since I didn't put the frames in before I glassed the seems, I didn't want the hull to dry out of shape so we temporarily put the frames in place so that the hull will dry in the correct shape. Not sure if this makes a difference, but I didn't want it drying out of shape and then the frames not fit or the seems crack or fail when I forced the frames in.

That was it for the day and I think we got alot accomplished. With Jarrod there things spend up a good bit. Thanks man.

PK87 Dinghy- Today's Progress, Plywood Frames Cut.

I am going to post a kind of daily thoughts and progress journal of the building progress. Mainly for a reference to look back on when I write up the "How To" guide for the stitch and glue dinghy construction. Here are my reflections on the first day.

UPS delivered the plans right before lunch today so I didn't get to start until around one o'clock in the afternoon. First I looked the plans over for a few minutes and read everthing. I tried to make sense of the diagrams for the plywood cutouts.

Reading the plans wasn't very difficult and I started making some progress, putting some marks onto the plywood. It doesn't take a genius, just some basic geometry skills and careful measuring. The cutting went smoothly and I have all of the frames and hull peices cut out. Best of all, I didn't have to cut anything twice (but that may change when I start fitting the peices together in the morning) so no wasted lumber!

Once I had the pieces cut out I was preparing to start drilling the holes for the "stitching" and I couldn't find the Assembly Page that is mentioned in the instructions to figure out which way the pieces go together, and I looked through everything carefully at least three times. I ended up figuring it out on my own and I realized I didn't have my drill bits! So decided to call it a day a few minutes before 6 o'clock in the evening.

Overall it was good day I think and I enjoyed the work. I cant wait until tomorrow, I hope to get the pieces stitched together so that the boat will take shape! I will have some pictures at least to post tomorrow too.

Started Building My Oars Today

Since I ordered the plans for the Pram 8'7" I have to wait for them to arrive before I can begin building the boat. So until they arrive tomorrow (I can't wait) I have started working on the oars. I scoured the internet for a while in search of a simple oar design that would work for me. I found one and I began building them today, making a few minor changes in the design.

I was recording the process and have edited all of today's footage, I have done everything I can till the epoxy and fiberglass come in with the plans tomorrow.

It was pretty fun making the videos for a type of "How To" guide that I plan on sharing with everyone. Being my first time, I really didn't know exactly how to get good shots and what all exactly to say, but I think I made the best of it and the video clips were looking pretty good when I was editing them earlier today.

I am not sure when I will have the video up for the "How To Make Your Own Oars" guide but it should be soon. I plan on starting tomorrow cutting out the plywood panels for the dinghy and stitching them together. Once that is done, I will put on the first bit of epoxy and fiberglass and while it is drying I will finish up with the oars.

Not sure exactly how long it will take me to cut out the panels and stitch and glue them together but I should be pretty quick. Hopefully I will at least get as far as having the hull stitched together tomorrow, if the plans arrive early instead of late......

Im Building a Sailing Dinghy!

Thats right, I have ordered the plans and the fiberglass/epoxy kit from Bateau.com. It should arrive sometime later this week I hope.

The design that I chose was the Prameke 7'-8". It has a beam of 4'8" and a overall length (LOA) of almost 8'. I am going to be building it using the simple stitch and glue method, I think it's simple at least, this will be my first time building a boat.



It is constructed out of plywood and the seams are fiberglassed and the entire boat is covered with epoxy and it can be painted. I think I am going to paint mine white but leave some of the wood grain pieces showing. I am also going to be building a sail kit for it (the sprit type rig), and some rowing oars because I don't plan on having an outboard on it.

I am going to go ahead and start on the oars, cutting the pieces out and having them ready to epoxy together when the plans and fiberglass/epoxy kit arrives.

I plan on documenting the entire process with my video camera and posting on the web. I hope to start the oars today, so maybe I will have some videos up soon!