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fiberglass fishing boat plans

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Daggerboard case intallation spars

WELL Im on a schedule where Im home about 48 hrs a week, which means 47 hrs of boatbuilding, and 1 hour of laundry.  Not really.

So during my past 48 hrs home I got to it and was able to install the daggerboard case and I hit on a major find for my spars.

For starters, I dragged my boat out of the garage into the driveway and noticed a pronounced twist in the stern.  This.was.bad.news.  If the intrepid reader remembers, I glued down my rear seat last time, and gluing down the rear seat definitely locks in and twist into the hull.  Because of this I was super super careful to make sure there was no twist when I glued it in, using a level and some strategically placed buckets.  I ran outside and moved my boat... and the twist was still there.  There was no way I was going to get any work done if the boat was twisted.  Using some brute force and a rigid vacuum tube I rolled my boat to the pond and threw it in the water.... and she floated straight as a die.  No twist.  PHEW!!!  HOLY HOT HEART ATTACK BATMAN!

Back out of the water, I did some sanding in the interior of the hull to make it easier in the future, and went around installing the daggerboard case.  What is most important is that the case is straight.  If it comes off-kilter, Ive got a giant blade dragging me off into some obscure direction that Im going to counteract with the rudder, and its going to be drag city.  In order to make sure that the case is straight, I stretched a string from the center of BH2 to BH3 over the top of the case.

So here it is, mocked into position with my centerline string.  I tried at first to do this on the ground, but I got much better results up on the buckets.  I think the runners are slightly different and offering tweaked ground handling characteristics.

I cut the ribs for the front of the seat amidships.  They actually came out ever-so-slightly larger than needed- a mistake- that ended up helping me out in the end.  When I put the case into position it would slip around with the oversized rib, I could gently cajole the case into position which was verified by the string.  When everything was straight, I carefully clamped everything into position.  Youll notice the square behind the ribs next to the case to increase gluing area.  The port rib is a little higher than it should be (remember, they were a tad oversize) and Ill plane it down level for the seat installation.

This whole skeleton will be glued together by the center seat.  This, with BH3 and the forward ribs will create the lever that will hold the case in place.  Remember, when I capsize, Im going to be standing on the daggerboard to right the boat, with all my pressure on the case.  This massive gluing area will keep it from ripping out when Im in the water in the middle of nowhere.

Here are two shots of my daggerboard case lined up with my string.

In other news, I went over to Goose Bay Lumber to grab some Doug Fir 1x4s so I could glue up some spars.  I had come up with some crazy idea to put the spars together as a laminated structure since I didnt think Id find blanks that were large enough.  I did.  I found some finished 2x6 DF boards that were 20 feet long.  I had them cut to 12 feet.  A quick rip on my table saw, and I had two skinny blanks and one fat blank.

The spars are on average 40mm diameter.  I get 37mm with the blanks.  My spar is about 37mm x 40 mm or so.  Ill keep it like this for the length and not taper it.  Its kind of bendy, and I need some bendy up at the top of my sail, since I hear that the Duckworks sail can be a little flat.  This should help.  My boom will be 37mm x 50mm or so.  If these are too bendy, I can laminate some ply at key areas to stiffen it up.  This was a quick, easy, and totally suitable solution.  Easy!

Until next week, intrepid reader!

Sanding delays running rigging

Another 48 hours at home have come and gone, and my Goat Island Skiff languishes in the garage by itself.

Upon arrival at home I had big plans to drag the boat outside and give her a wash for amine blush and start the sanding process on the outside of the hull in preparation for finishing.  Heres my plan for the future:

-Wash the amine blush (if any) off the boat.  Amine blush is something that can occur during the curing of epoxy.  I use Marinepoxy from Duckworks, which does not usually blush.  Its not "non-blushing" epoxy, but its kind of "blush-resistant" if you will.  However, I have epoxied in about a million different temperature and humidity conditions, and seeing that paint wont stick to blush I might as well wash.  Its easy.  A pail of water, a scotch-brite pad, and scrub a dub-dub.
-Sand the boat down smooth
-Apply Quick Fair for fairing some ridges and bumps.  Quick Fair is an epoxy compound that will fill abnormalities and the extraneous Fair will sand away relatively easily.
-Sand again
-Primer, two coats or so.  Im planning on using Interluxs Pre-Kote which is a high-build primer to take care of smaller irregularities in the surface of the boat. 
-Sanding
-Paint.  More on paint later.

This is an ambitious list that will only be solved by time and hard work.  So when it rained and snowed both days I was home, I was pissed.  However, I cant change the weather!  So I spent some time tinkering with some other small items that needed to be done, primarily epoxy sealing the runners, some loose ply ends, the rudder cassette/box, and so on.  Not much, but stuff that needed to be done.

In bigger news, I received most of my running rigging from Duckworks!  This was a very exciting package, because it reminds me that Im coming to the end of my voyage here and its getting time to outfit the hull!  Yeah!

From top left, counter-clockwise:  Shock-cord for my rudder and daggerboard, three cleats for general purposes, the last cleat is for the halyard.  The fairlead for the halyard at the top of the mast, a clam cleat and another fairlead for the downhaul.  Next up, traveler blocks, two blocks for the boom, a small block for the spar and halyard, 1/4" low-stretch polyester rope for the traveler, mainsheet block yoke, sail tie-downs, and downhaul.  A nylon 3/8" mainsheet.  My super-low stretch dyneema line for the halyard is still on back-order and on its way.  Im still looking for a mainsheet main block.

Im super happy with the quality of the rigging.  Its all made in the USA, its made well, it will last forever, and it was cost effective.  Race-Lite and Sea Dog Line bring us freedom from the tyranny of West Marine and Harken.

Hello to those new readers sent here from Duckworks Extraordinary May Webwatch!  Welcome to my amateur madness!