Bottom finished, boat turned and put on trailer, and oars roughly shaped.

The boat has been progressing pretty well this month. I managed to get 3 coats of paint on the bottom and I am happy with the finish. You can see imperfections clearly, but I had always intended on a "work boat finish."




I got some help from my friend Jacob, his dad Larry, and Larry's buddy Richard. Richard is about 4 feet 31/2 inches tall and Larry about 7 feet tall, and neither is very strong.

First we lifted the boat inside the shop, turned it up on it's side, and carried it out to the grass, with much moaning and groaning. Jacob was yelling at his dad, "Man up!" "Grab it and growl!"

Once we got it to the grass I took a minute to admire my work. I think it looks damn good with the paint on it.







Next we picked up my second hand boat trailer, turned it sideways and carried it through the shop door. The reason I'm going through all this trouble is: 1. I want to set the boat down on something that is not going to mar the paint; 2. I need to adjust the trailer to fit the boat and doing this inside the shop keeps me away from the gnats; and 3. I didn't really think it would be that difficult with 4 people.





Finally we carried the boat back into the shop and set it down on the trailer. Well, ole Sasquatch decided to give Willow the side that needed to come up the highest. So, we ended up rubbing the topsides on the steel fender of the boat trailer. So, I have some nice scratches to touch up.

It's not a big deal really because I am painting the interior the same color and have to touch up the transom and stem later anyhow.




I'm getting anxious to launch the boat.

































Here are some photos of the 8' spoon blade oars I made from cypress. The pictures don't show them very well. I'm not going to finish them completely until I launch the boat, that way I can make any necessary adjustments.

First coat of paint

I put the first coat of Rustoleum Marine Topsides Paint on Sunday. It's good to see the boat in a uniform color.

Bottom almost ready to paint

I put the second and last coat of epoxy on the outside of the hull this afternoon. The other day I fitted the keel and glued and screwed it on. I countersunk the screws and then filled the holes with thickened epoxy today before coating it all with epoxy. I will need to sand the filled holes once it cures. I probably ought to give the keel a second coat of epoxy too before I paint.

I bought a gallon of semi-gloss Rustoleum marine paint and one quart of bright red.

I also cut the pattern for my oars and cut the oars to their rough shape. Hopefully I'll have some photos of them next time. I think their going to turn out nicely.

My first boat

This is the best photo I have of the first boat I built. I'm ashamed I don't have one of her in the water. I've christened her "No. 1." She's a Sam Devlin Peeper, about 12', oars are cypress. She rows well, but I want something more substantial that I can stand up in and flounder gig from. I have a design in mind and probably have all the lumber I need to build it. I'm gonna finish Pelican before I get into that though.

Mast tube glassed and glued, hatches completed

I glued the kingplank in and installed the mast tube through it, gluing it at the kingplank and gluing and glassing it to the mast step. It seems plenty strong.











I found stainless steel piano hinges at my local hardware store. I don't know what quality of stainless they are, but I bought a 6' piece anyway and cut two pieces for my seat hatches. I got these fitted to my satisfaction and then removed them for epoxy sealing.








You can also see here the drain holes I drilled through the transom. I have two brass tubes to install after one more coat of epoxy in the holes.

Painted masts, turned hull again, installed last seat tops

I painted the masts with some Rustoleum latex paint I had kickin around. I think it was left by the previous homeowners. You can see clearly that the tops of the masts are dissimilar.










This shows the mast tube being dry fitted with the kingplank in the forward compartment.












This is a good picture showing the interior with the forward seat tops installed. You can also see that I put the first coat of epoxy on the interior bottom and up to the sides.











I think I took this photo to show the shearline. I like this view. I can't wait to see it fair and painted.

hull turned to glass bottom and masts shellaced

Last week I turned the hull so that I could fair the bottom in preparation for glassing. In this picture you can see that I've planed the bottom panels flush with the chine (where the bottom meets the side) and you will also notice some purple colored areas. The purple stuff is epoxy mixed with microballoons. This forms an easily sanded filler for low spots. The large section at the bow needed a lot and still not fair. I also had a spot along the port chine where the bottom panel was short of the chine slightly. I had to build this up as well. Since this photo I've done some glass work and turned the hull again to start sealing the inside because I ran out of glass before I was finished - I miscalculated how many yards of fiberglass I needed - twice. I get some more pics when I turn it back over to finish glassing the bottom.
















I finished sanding my masts and sealed them with two coats of shellac. They are far from perfect. They should be 3" in diameter but are 2 3/4" in some spots and are not perfectly round or perfectly tapered. I decided to go ahead and finish them as they are with the intention to make another set from scratch later. These will get me sailing. I have sat on them stretched between the saw horses and bounced on them with all my weight and they did not crack. So, I think they'll hold up for a while.


Shellac is a very interesting stuff. It comes from some Asian beetle and is used as a finish on wood, the candy shell on skittles, the coating on pills, among many other things.










This one was just for fun.