Trimmed and Epoxied side Panels

Over the weekend I was able to trim the side panels for the plywood on the sides. I was working by myself and getting the longer piece of plywood on and off of the frame was quite a challenge until I was able to get my hands on a drill. Most builder just use a few screws for placement and are able to take the plywood on and off a lot easier, which eventually I was able to do. I also epoxied the butt-joint which was good because it's not suppose to be above 65 F for a while and the epoxy needs to set at about 75 F. With that said, I'm not sure what I will be doing next weekend if I'm not able to epoxy the panels to the frame. Anyways, here are a few pictures of the weekend progress.

 This shows the panels fitted a bit more and screwed in. I still need to do a but on the front but that'll have to wait.

I used some 20 pound weights to hold down the square piece of wood used to join the butt-joints.

Dry Fitting Plywood

Today I dry fitted the plywood and was pleased with the results. Taking my time fairing paid off as everything went together pretty well. The only trouble I had was making the bend around the transom. I really had to shove it into place to make it bend around the curve of the transom. I went to the Glen-L forum and through past posts found that working your way toward the bend with slow progression is a good way to do it. I gave it a shot and it seemed to work pretty well. I did have to do a little bit more fairing on the transom curve but that didn't take long. I wont be working on the boat for about 4 or 5 days so I put all the plywood wood on with clamps, not screws yet, and left it so the wood can get use to the bend. Next weekend I plan on screwing everything into place and fiberglassing the butt-joints where the plywood meets.The first picture shows the gap I had between the plywood and the sheer. The second shows the plywood clamp fitted.

Finally Back

First day back working on the Squirt and couldn't be more excited. I took about an hour just going over my work from last summer and trying to get an idea of what all needs to be done. To my surprise, my fairing from summer was better than I had thought and looks like there is only some around the stem and breast-hook area that needs to be done. My main focus today was on the sheer to chine and chine to stem section for fairing as well as trying to figure out where I want to place the plywood on the chine. There seems to be about a full days worth of work left on fairing touch ups before I start to plank. Before I do any of this though I still need to epoxy the new batten I have attached after my last one broke.

Above shows me taking a piece of plywood that will be used for the side/transom and seeing how it fits between the chine and sheer. As a side note, I shortened the longest battens by about 2'' to decrease the chance of having another one break.

Build Time: 3+ Months

August was a pretty uneventful month for boat building. With moving out of my old apartment and into my new one for school and studying for summer finals while working there was little time for anything else. The total amount of time I have invested so far is about 3 months of actual labor. As it sits now the framing is complete as well as the fairing, except for where the stem meets the breast hook, and some plywood panels are cut. Below is a picture of the new batten that I had cut when the other one broke. In the picture you can see the side that was cut, which is all black from a dull blade on my table saw; a reminder that good equipment does make things easier.

The plan now is to wait until Christmas break, which is the next time I have a break for school, and get the plywood on then, that is if I can heat up our garage enough for the epoxy to set. If that doesn't work out then I'll finish it in May since I have school til the end of April.

 

Back To Work

It's been a while since I have had time to work on the boat but I'm excited to get back into it. The past week I was in Boyne City on vacation with my family and then this weekend I attended the Tough Mudder event in Wisconsin. Tough Mudder is a 10+ mile obstacle course with proceeds going to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. They are a group who are helping the service men and women of the United States who have been severely wounded.

Anyways, I was able to start the 1957 Evinrude 18 hp that I will be using for the Squirt. After I replaced the starter prawl I gave it a few pulls and got it start up. It sounded pretty choppy at first but after it quit and I read the instructions under the hood about the starting procedure I turned the dial for the high speed control nob and started it up again. This time it sounded great and ran a lot smoother. My dad and I took it out to the lake on our 13' Zodiac hard-bottom and again it ran great. It even got right up on plane with no problem.
More to come soon.

Looks Like More Fairing

After fitting the plywood and scratching my head a few times, concerning the joining of the side and bottom planking from the second frame forward, I went back to my trusty Boat-building With Plywood book. I thought that I understood the lap joint procedure and how the plywood would fit on the chine but once I had the side planking on I realized the bottom planking wouldn't have anything for the screws to fasten to. Everything fit well up until the second frame forward where I ran into this problem. I researched the topic in the book and after rereading it the procedure seemed to 'click'.

What I was suppose to do when fairing the chine from the second frame forward was too find a spot on the chine where the wood began to start to twist toward the stem, and then draw a line down the middle of the chine. On the lower side on the line would be where the side planking would lay and on the top of the line would be where the bottom planking laid. This meant I had to re-fair the chine and sheer; though most of the wood on the sheer had already been taken off so it was a quicker process than before. Overall this makes a lot more sense to me and makes me want to kick myself for not seeing what is the most obvious way to fasten the planking. I guess it all goes with your first build! The picture below shows the chine and the line drawn towards the center to which either side will be faired.

Re-Fairing Chines, Sheers, and Stem

 

Edit: Fairing (Not) Complete, Plywood Cut

Today I did the final fairing on the boat and was able to get everything ready for plywood. Once I went through all the transition points I realized I could improve in a few spots so I spent some time going back over the sheers and chines; it didn't take too long though. I have plywood pieces for the sides cut out and a few pieces for the bottom but I can start the bottom planking until I reinstall the batten that I had break. Below is a picture of the fairing I had to do and it shows how much wood I had to take off of the sheer. You can see a line through the wood and that is the space from the lamination I had done. This picture is from last week but it's hard to capture all of the fairing process.

Fairing Sheer