I've been hatching this idea...... and MAINE Boatbuilder's Show

I think my life has settled down a bit to where I might actually be able to get work started again on the boat, but only time will tell.  In the mean time, here are some updates as to what precious little I have accomplished in the last few weeks. 

I've been hatching this idea.....

I have been able to start on my cockpit lazarette hatches.  I did some work on them a few weeks ago, and never got around to posting what I accomplished.  I decided to go the composite route because I do not know enough about woodworking yet to make a nice, square, professional looking wood hatch.  Plus, I just need a quick and dirty hatch to get me water proof-ish so I can move aboard.  The fancy stuff can come later.  As a point of reference, the two pictures (left and right) are of one of the original wood hatches that came in all of their dis-repaired and abandoned glory.  As you can see from the left picture, they were very nice back in the day, and by being on the underside of the hatch, it still is in good shape.  The picture on the right is of the top of the hatch, and is a board screwed to the top of the hatch.  It was not varnished or otherwise coated to protect it from the elements, and therefore warped.  

 To start, my dad helped me to cut some 1/8" plywood cores for the hatches.  I could have done them myself, but father-son bonding is always good, and I know better than to get between a man and his power tools!  Originally I thought about making pure glass hatches, or maybe having a foam core, but was unable to find foam coring that was thin enough for what I needed, especially in a small enough quantity to make it worth the money.  I did find a sheet of 1/8" plywood for cheap, and decided to go that route instead.  Because I only have 3/4" thickness to make, I had to make the hatches strong, even though they are thin.  They will be regularly stood on, sat on, and generally abused.  Plywood is a pretty good place to start for that.  I took two cores, and used polyester resin to glue them together.  This will give more rigidity to the hatches.

 Because the plywood was so thin, I had to clamp, weight, and pray that they would glue together flat and square.  It would have been easy enough to trim them, had they not come out as I had hoped they would.  For this project I decided to switch to polyester resin almost purely for cost.  The hatches are not going to be permanent forever, so I can compromise a bit on the quality.  Plus, when you can get a gallon of polyester resin for $35, and the same amount of epoxy resin and hardener will run you about $150, it just doesn't make sense to spend more on an experiment. 

 When I got around to actually laying glass on the plywood cores, I used two different methods with greatly different results.  The first method was to wet the glass out and lay it on top of the core and drape it over the edges of the core.  When that set, I turned it over and glassed the back side, and butted it against the now upturned edges to make a full sandwich (see picture right).  Then out came the angle grinder and trimming ensued with a mass of dust, noise, and only a little itching. 

 When I finished the first hatch, I decided that it had not come out as well as I had wanted, so thought that I would try a new method.  I decided that I would make a mold for the hatch to try to get a better wrap-around on the core.  I made a wood frame, then laid a trashbag into the mold, as the polyester resin does not stick to the plastic.  I then started laying up layers of glass as I wet them out.  Once I had the appropriate number of layers of alternating glass and roving, I pressed the core into the mold and wrapped it glass around the edges.  While, yes, it wrapped better, the problems that it created were greater than the good edge wrap.  If you took a map of the Grand Canyon, or Sierra Nevada's, or the Alps and made a topographically accurate 3D view of it, this is what the top of the hatch looked like.  After 20 minutes of grinding, and half a pint of Bondo later, it is flat on top.  

Now here is the kicker:  I spent 2 days working on the hatches.  I took one of them to the boat after mounting the hinge and backing block to see how it fit.  Unfortunately, I did not account for the hinge and backing block, so the hatch hangs over by almost 3/4".  So, I have more glassing to do, once I remove the extra material from the hatch.

MAINE BOATBUILDER'S SHOW

Jenny and I went to the Portland held Maine Boatbuilder's Show this weekend.  I wanted to go talk to vendors, look at all the pretty boats, and try to get ideas for what I can do on my project.  It was also a great way for Jenny to see all that CAN be involved in boating.  It was also a great way to think about my project in regards to why I am working my ass off at 3 jobs and rebuilding a boat instead of buying a new one.  While I am not really interested so much in power boats, the price tag on the R27 Tug shows pretty clearly what new boats run.  This tug style cabin cruiser is only a foot longer than my Columbia 26, but even the boat show sale price tag would buy you a really decent house on a few acres in the country.  This is why I bought an $800 boat that needs several thousand dollars of work and refit, because in the long run, its still a hell of a lot cheaper than buying new and I will have marketable skills when I am done. 

In wondering about and talking to vendors, I found that there were a number of vendors that were live-aboards currently or formerly.  When I told them what I am doing, I got peppered with questions like "How are you going to have hot water? What are you using for a head?  Where are you keeping your boat? What are you doing for propulsion, or are you going motor-free?  You're going to live on a 26 footer year round?  Good luck!"  It was both somewhat overwhelming, but also very enlightening and heartening to see that others have done this, and were willing to help me puzzle though my project and give me recommendations on resources to help me along.  Being sales people, they also had many suggestions as to what I needed to buy to help my project along, but I feel that they were genuinely trying to help me, more than trying to sell me their products.  I hope I don't get them in trouble with their bosses for saying so, but when I get around to refitting, their willingness to help me puzzle through the live aboard fitting out will earn them a customer when I either move on to the next boat, or have the money to fix this one up more.  Sometimes a no pressure sales approach is better long term. 

 I hate to say it, but I decided that I needed ideas that might work for me, so the boat show was a way to do some reconnaissance.  There has been some discussion in the offshore cruising books I have read about skipping the liferaft and using your dingy as it's replacement.  The benefit of this is that you can make a rig to have a sail, lee boards, and rudder to try to make progress towards land or rescue, rather than sitting in a raft hoping someone knows to come look for you.  I saw two such ideas, one for a digny, and one on an Adorondac guide boat.  I think either can be adapted for my dingy when I get to that point in the project. 

My parting thought to you for today:  If you thought my project was massive and overly optimistic, check out this wooden boat project that was on display at the boat show.