Day 12 through 15: The Adventure Slows Down

Okay ... well .. we lost some momentum with that whole ziggyzaggy bow and stern thing. But Dave's reassurance gave us the heart we needed to press forward and take the plunge. We flattened down our copper wires, as instructed, and prepared the inside of the boat for fillets, Fiberglas tape, and 2 coats of unthickened epoxy. Fillets, by the way, are what the boatbuilders call the stuff that fills in the gaps and provides a thicker area along the "seams" where the bilge panels come together with the shear panels and the bottom of the boat. Fillets are also applied where the bulkheads meet the sides and bottom of the boat. How do you make fillets, you might wonder? It is actually epoxy that is thickened (by adding wood flour) to the consistency of peanut butter. That is applied with homemade tools (sort of a tongue depressor, actually; one with a 1/4" radius and one with a 1" radius). The Fiberglas tape is pressed down along the seam over the fillets. Then unthickened epoxy is applied over everything. The Fiberglas tape undergoes a fantastic reaction when the epoxy is applied over it - it turns from white to clear and you can see the fibers form along dried edges. Its way cool.

The Proper Attire and Attitude for Correct Fillet Application

Please note the vinyl-gloved hands, scarf to protect hair, thigh-high black pantyhose to protect arms (for that distinct Minnie Mouse appeal and charm), and a cheerful outlook on life. Ya just gotta love that wood-flour thickened epoxy... It's like peanut buttah! 

 

We started in the aft section and immediately fell victim to some small amount of panic. I (the Nubbish One) had my panties in a slight twist because the Dyslexic Lefty Carpenter had taken charge and was merrily applying fillets while I was still trying to get my plastic gloves on. In my best passive-aggressive way, I told him that he was using the wrong application stick on the fillets (he was using the 1" radius tool on the chines rather than the the 1/4" radius tool). This bought me enough time to grab the other filleting tool and have at it. I really wanted to spread that peanut-buttery stuff in the worst way! After a couple of minutes, we realized I was dead wrong and had to re-do part of it. We had only mixed up enough of the thickened epoxy to complete less than half of the job so there was more panic when we had to mix up more thickened epoxy a couple of times during the job, as well. Applying the glass tape was not bad but brushing on the unthickened epoxy proved to be somewhat of a challenge - it tended to make the tape "buckle" if applied with too much pressure. In the end, however, it ended up looking okay - don't you think? (That's the filleted and glass-taped aft section pictured above).
~posted by the Nubbery One 

The second attempt at filleting and glass-taping (this time in the fore section) was still unbelievably messy but the end produce looks a bit neater I think. (see below)

These are our fillets in the fore section (with the glass tape and clear epoxy applied overthem). 

Day 11: YIKES!

This is the bow and, as you can see from the plumb line, it is just a tiny bit out of vertical. So we don't know how big a deal this will be later on. Help?

Dave, as an experienced kayak builder - does the vertical line of the stern (below) look as bad to you as it does to us? How bad is TOO bad? Will we go in circles? How do we fix it? AAARRRGGGGHH! We've been messing around with this for 2 days now!

Two views of Meenk Meenkovitch

This is what Meenkovitch thinks of our boatbuilding activities ... 

This is what Meenkovitch does when she thinks we are out of the house ... 

Day 10: Highlights of the day

Not THESE hanging knees ... 

...THESE are the hanging knees of which we speak ... and the aft bulkhead is in the background ... 

...Mike's doma lines up perfectly with the hull... 

Looking pretty good on top but that little wiggle in the vertical line of the bow has us worried... 

Day 9 Photo Highlights

... the stern ... a little out of whack ... we are hoping that it will line up better after putting in bulkheads, hanging knees, and tightening up the wires ...

... cause for concern?... this is the bow on day 9, before inserting the bulkheads and hanging knees and before tightening up the "stitches"... 

inside view of the stern... 

...inside view of the bow ... 

..the bow, after being glued, screwed, and clamped ... 

Mike reads over the procedures for the gazillionth time ... 

Day 10:

Father day 2006. The day began with wiring the bulkheads both fore and aft. The bulkheads were installed with a “slip fit” not causing hull distortion or so the instructions proclaimed. The reality is that there was some hull distortion installing the fore bulkhead. The bulkhead was scribed and trimmed many times tying to find that “sweet fit”. The best thing about this effort was the skill I developed using a hand plane. I previously sharpened the plane iron to that of razor sharp and it proved to be time well spent. Anyway the aft bulkhead did not seem to fit as the instructions would have it but we had to settle for the best we could make it. The fore bulkhead went in much easier although I tried to measure it’s position incorrectly. The hanging knees were wired in next without much difficulty.The next phase had to do with tightening all the wires holding the panels together to form the final shape. This proved to be a pain as many of the wires broke while tightening them and each had to be replaced. The bilge panels are now wired correctly to the bottom panel and the sheer panel in wired correctly to the bilge panel. There is one looming problem. The bow seems destined to move in an easterly direction while the stern seems determined to move in a westerly direction. This is not good. “Absolutely vertical”, please! Maybe tomorrow.

Day 9 Cutting the sheer clamp bevels

This morning we cut the bevels for the sheer clamps at the bow and stern. Using a string line stretched from one end of the boat to the other made finding the angle fairly simple. Cutting the bevels and having them mate up proved to be a little bit of a problem but with a lot of sanding, filing and such the sheer clamp ends matched up fairly well. I could not get the ends to mate up perfectly and this is a source of frustration. The ends were glued, screwed, and clamped (just for good measure). I was quite leery to use a temporary screw to hold the sheer clamps ends together as it seemed to me that the screw would become covered in epoxy and not be easily removed. However, the screws were easily removed and the sheer clamps are now formed. We decided to glue the deck beam pieces together since we had extra epoxy and time. The cheap clamps purchased prior to beginning this project worked well for the deck beam.

A friend arrived armed with several amazing looking steaks and the new Ronnie Baker Brooks CD so we decided it was a good time to quit for the day. On a side note, the steaks grilled to perfection proved to be fantastic and the CD is great.

This is where we WON"T be launching our boat ....

... but it's so pretty to look at, yes?
 

Our weather forecast for Days 9 and 10:

Sat 8AM: 73F Wind S 10 Partly cloudy
Sat 10AM: 82F (Heat Index 83F) Wind SW 13 Partly cloudy
Sat 12PM: 87F (Heat Index 88F) Wind SW 14 Partly cloudy
Sat 2PM: 89F (Heat Index 90F) Wind SW 15 Partly clear
Sat 1PM: 89F (Heat Index 90F) Wind SW 14 Partly cloudy
Sat 7PM: 85F (Heat Index 86F) Wind SW 13 Cloudy
Sun 1AM: 72F Wind S 9 Cloudy
Sun 7AM: 72F Wind SW 10 Rain
Sun 1PM: 77F Wind SW 13 Rain
Sun 7PM: 74F Wind SW 10 Thunderstorm

Looks like another perfect Illinoi summer weekend

A few moments of Zen .....

 

 

 

The Perfect Ending to a Day 8

Mike kindly hangs up the hammock the hammock for moi, the lovely and slightly vaporized Nubbed One, after a hot afternoon and evening of wrestling with shear panels and getting gouged by copper wires. 

What a REAL kayak looks like!

Our nephew Dave is completing this in his South Carolina shop. Ain't she beeyooteefull? We grovel at your feet, Dave!  

Day 8: I just like this photo for some reason.

Mike contemplates the meaning of life.
~taken and posted by the Nubbed One