Updates from Spring/ Summer and the bottom is glued on!

Work has continued despite the lack of blog posts, so here are the updates since January!

Early in the spring the transom was glued on and I was officially 3D (& added to the Goat Island Skiff map)

However a mistake was made, the transom was pushed forward to meet the chine logs instead of even with the aft-most edge of the side panels.  After some input from the GIS community on FB and the designer, Michael Storer, the edges were planed flush and my Goat will be about 1/2" shorter than the plans.  See the error before I planed the side panels flush with the transom:

Over a busy summer the inside of the bottom panel was sanded with a lot of extra help!

Then the chine logs & bulkheads were planed.  Some bulkheads were a few millimeters high so small nails were hammered in to create an "epoxy shim" when the bottom is glued on.

Finally caught up on updates, here is the most recent work that was completed just yesterday, glueing the bottom!

Before commencing the process with my dad, all chine logs, bulkhead faces, & inside/ outside ply edges were masked with packing tape.

Next, I made a marking guide (from Bruce Taylor's blog) that ensures each screw goes into the middle of the chine, using the side on the boat as a guide.  This proved useful not just for marking but also as a drill guide for the angle of the chine log.  Screws were spaced on 200mm centers.

After the boat was straightened with the bottom screwed on, we flipped the boat to check squareness and it was dead-on!

Then the marathon commenced; mixing SO much epoxy, batch after batch!  The epoxy was thickened with silica and applied using Michael Storer's "ziploc" sandwich bag method, which worked great!  Bow to stern, each batch got about 8 linear feet.

Everything was going smooth, so we were due a mistake.  Near the transom the drywall screws were wandering due to us forgetting to pull the rear into alignment.  We quickly reversed the operation and straightened the boat, however some of the screws came through the chines on the inside of the boat.

We used about 60 screws total, with good squeeze-out all around.   

Some things that helped lessen the pandemonium:

• packing tape to mask squeeze-out
• cleaning during the process as the epoxy goes "leathery"
• peanut butter consistency & non-sagging filler so that the epoxy doesn't run
• marking guide (also used as a drill guide)
• "ziploc" bag method allowed reaching into tight spots
• 1-2 extra people to assist