Narfi's Life after EU: Chapter Four - FS17 a 17ft V-Hull Powerboat

August 18th, 2018

I coated all the supports with epoxy. Coated the undersides and edges of all the floor panels. Then layed out thickened epoxy on all the supports and laid the panels down and weighted them in place.

Got a farting sound from a corner of each bay when walking around on it. Seems it is sealed well and filleting in the sides will ensure that even more.
That also means there is a slight flex but a layer of glass I lay over should help with that as well.

Only 55f today, was hoping the sun would come out and bake it, but might be a day or two till I pull up the weights and sand the stuff squirted out between panels and lay in the fillets.

 

August 19th, 2018

Removed all the weights and sanded off my epoxy handprints and drips around the edges. Then filled in a fillet around the entire parimater and filled in the couple of areas between panels not filled when I first glued it down.

 

6" 12oz tapes layed around all the seams. This is structural and 'tabs' the floor to the hull.

 

Aug 25th 2018

Started sanding down the edges of the tapes last night and finished this afternoon.

Cut and layed out the first side of 6oz covering the sole, overlapping 2ft so will have 12oz(6+6) covering the heaviest foot traffic between the stringers.

Layed plastic over the boat and put an electric heater and the epoxy inside the hull for 2hrs.

Peeled back the plastic and with my wife mixing rolled down the epoxy.
Then recovered with plastic and put the heater back in. Will run it 3hrs and unplug it before bed.



This was my first attempt with rolling the epoxy and it went well.
The 6oz is woven and not biax, so it wrinkles really easy and I didnt want to fight trying to lay it out over the coated sole. So I layed it as smooth as possible and applied all epoxy from the top, poured it over and then using a left over 6in foam roller from when I was graphiting the bottom rolled it out as quickly as possible. Then touched up the corners with a 3" chip brush.

It went surprisingly fast! A combination of heating the epoxy first and using the roller I think works well and even though there are a few obvious "puddles" of waste I think I used less than I would have with 3in chip brushes which would have gone slower and given the epoxy time to cool before I finished.

 

Aug 26th 2018

Ran the heater 6 more hours today and it was cured enough to sand the edge down and rough up the center section I overlapped. Barely though, a couple of spots clogged up the paper, but it worked out ok.

Sweaped, vacuumed and blew it out, then laid down the other side of 6oz. Heated it all up for an hour with the epoxy bottles under the plastic with it then repeated yesterdays schedule with my wife mixing and me rolling. Landon came in to inspect when we were done.

 

Aug 30th, 2018

16, 12 and 10hr work days haven't left me much boattime this week. Hadn't rained in two days so last night I knocked down some of the hay field my lawn was turning into


Here you can see the angle gap is significant. I had been planning to make the tops level, hadnt thought of draining out with them, I'm not sure how much of an advantage that would be.... the slope might make it feel larger though? Maybe some sort of a compromise between level and square..... probably need to spend an evening staring at it.

I did peel back the plastic last night and the floor had cured well. Some air bubbles on the surface which I expected from heating it while the outside was cool. They all look to be on the surface though and no pockets under the glass.

 

Sept 2nd, 2018

Got the bulkheads cut out for the front deck and compartments.

I was going to do 3 compartments under the deck, a 24" wide the short rubbermaid totes could slide in and two triangles on the sides with hatch access on top.

Landon and momma asked for it to be one big compartment so we are going with that. Landon wanted to be able to crawl in and hide...... the front will be one big compartment all the way down with a hatch ontop.

The rear deck bulkhead is about 3" in front of the bulkhead underneath it. So I have approximately 36+36+36+3 inches between it and the motorwell bulkhead to fit everything else.

Ordered this fuel tank,
Moeller Marine Below Deck Permanent Fuel Tank (19-Gallon, 26" x 16" x 11.75") https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MT95C8/re ... JBbQBHFG8M

It will fit well under the passenger side console. How much extra room does it need for mounting? Can it touch the walls? 1/2" clearance? 2"???? What's standard?

How much room do I need between the rear face of the console and the front or back or center of the seat?

The front deck is 15" high(frame is 14 5/8) and plan to have the seats on the fronts of the consoles the same height.(15" high and 15" deep) probably go with the same for the folding rear bench seat as well. Got some swivels ordered for the main 2 seats and will attempt to emulate Peter's wood seats to mount on the swivels on boxes.

Trying to get spacing and layout finalized so I can make sure I get everything together in the right order.

 

Sept 4th, 2018

Drew everything out on the floor, then cut out bulkheads for each of the lines.

The console with seat in the plans is 30", I will make these 27" inside (27 3/4 with the 3/8 front and rear bulkhead panels) to fit the 26" tank.

The front deck is 15" tall as is the console seats.
The captain and first mate seats will be swivel mounted on 12" tall 12" deep boxes with hopefully a 6" radius(12" circle) towards the center swing all the way around 8n the seat without hitting your knees on a corner. The idea is that with the swivel and seat it will also be around 15" once mounted on the 12" boxes.

The front of the console seat is a little tighter than I thought for the tank (all theoretical still waiting for it to arive) so thinking I may mount it on 1" blocks as I have 3 vertical inches to spare. Need to figure out a tie down for it as well once it arrives, was thinking a strap through the blocks epoxied to the floor and bolted together around the top? What is standard for securing tanks?

Tomorow if I get of work early enough to have energy I'll label all the bulkheads and pull them out and do a preliminary sanding of the sides and sole. The sole needs to be roughed up where taping the bulkheads down and there are some rough spots on the sides still I need to smooth up before it gets harder to access.

Figured out a name and emblem for it.
North Star
Emblem is the big dipper and north star same as the alaska state flag except I wont go with gold stars, just white on blue.

 

Sept 5th, 2018

Planed down a couple of high spots on the rubrail, sanded the edges of all the bulkheads I cut out yesterday. Layed everything out on plastic and installed a duct tape dam along the outer edge of the rubrails.

Heated up the epoxy and fast hardener in a hot water bath in the kitchen sink and then set them in front of an electric heater in the tent while I worked.

Brushed a coat of epoxy along the top of the rubrails, then glassed the first side of all the bulkheads with 6oz woven, then layed down a leveling layer of woodflour thickened epoxy along the tops of the rubrails against the dam.

No picture of it, but the bow bulkhead has a 2x3" triangle missing from the bottom, so I cut a scrap to fit and glassed it in. The hatch hole for the forward deck compartment is a bit wobbly still so I layed a scrap a strip along the bottom of the opening and glassed it in with it, I will cut it out once the bulkhead is glued in place.

(Dont mind the messy floor)

 

Sept 8th, 2018

Last night I glued the bow compartment bulkhead in place, then layed 6oz cloth over the motorwell bulkhead and the tops of the side panels where the 12oz does not reach.


I had intended to cut drain holes in the bulkhead before installing, but forgot

I guess that leaves me more options now though, I can keep it full depth as intended. Or I can put a raised floor in it for more floor space. There are arguments in favor of both, but I like the idea of full depth, I could probably fit a small folding step ladder in it and I dont really intend to put anything big and square in it, so floor space isnt as necessary as volume and height.

Any thoughts on how to safely cut the drain holes in place and end up with it still looking clean and round?

 

Sept 9th, 2018

Didnt work on the boat yesterday.
Flew out with Landon and a buddy for the evening and hiked a little and brought some berries home for momma. Low Bush cranberries and crow berries but not very many blueberries, I think maybe a bit late for them.

 

Sept 10th, 2018

Glued in all the bulkheads tonight.


Need to pull the clamps and run the fillets to the top and finish around the bow compartment bulkhead, then will be ready to tape it all together.

Not much woodflour left and I dumped all my partial bottles of hardener together mixing medium and fast, have about a half gal of hardener and 1gal of part A left so I'll need to be ordering more again, I've used alot more than the plans call for already and I still have a lot of fairing to do

 

Sept 12th, 2018

Didnt have time for much tonight, had to help transfer fuel to the powerplant tank farm.

Cut out the side panels for the console base boxes and kerfed the panels for the captains seat boxes.


If I fill the grooves with thickened epoxy and glass the outside, how much spring back will I end up with? Should I clamp it down an inch closer together before doing that or proceed as is? For now they are clamped(screwed to 3 batons each) within 1/8" of the right size. Just sitting there getting comfy for a day or so. One of them has a bit of a flat spot, not sure if I had a shallow kerf there or just natural wood stuborness.

 

Thanks :)
I like it. (other than the long work hours and bills etc... :P )

 

Sept 12, 2018

I dont have any 17oz, but covered the inside with 12oz.

Ran out of wood flour and finished filling with fairing mix from BBC. Not ideal but hopefully the glass makes up for it.

Ordered more flour and epoxy, should be the last of either I need for this project......

Taking inventory, I have 2 full sheets of 3/8" left. The front deck and bow lid will take one sheet. Which leaves one....

I have 4x full lengths of 3/8" 12inches wide I will use for the gunnal decks and 2 full lengths of 1/4" roughly 24" wide I will use for the inside face of the gunnels.

Enough scrap 3/8" to cover one of the console bottom boxes.

That leaves me the tops of the consoles, the floor of the motorwell and the floor and lids of the transom side compartments. Not sure If I can get that all out of the remaining sheet or not, but I'm going to try.....

Need to figure out plumbing, wiring, and controls before I get much further, should get that all done before closing in the gunnels.

Need to figure out what sort of hinges, latches, and assorted "bling" I will need as well.....

 

Sept 13, 2018

piperdown wrote: ↑
Thu Sep 13, 2018 6:28 am
That is very cool!
I know about kerfing wood but never done it myself. How far into the wood do you have to cut?

There were 2 layers of ply not cut. The outer layer grain wraps around the bend. It's my first time as well and it was marginal getting it to bend that sharp.... perhaps 2 layers of 1/4" kerfed would have been better.... I dont know, this did work though i think I got lucky.

 

Sept 13, 2018

I think it only takes a few things like that to really make a project look "personalized". But you are right, the look needs to be right for the effect to work.

Something else I did was kick the bottom of the front deck bulkhead forward 1-2" further forward than the top for more toe/leg room for the front seats.

Another way is well planned storage. I've toyed with the idea of wider gunnels by the front deck with compartments in them, not sure if it's worth the lost space though.

Cleats, flush rod holders and cup holders.....
99.99% of the time the boat will be beached or trailed, but there are times cleats can be useful. I've lashed a skiff to the side of a floatplane before to ferry it across the bay when the engine on the plane had been pickled and wasnt ready to run.

Flush mount cup holders and rod holders.... I'm not much of a fisherman, but Landon aspires to be. What is good placement for them? How many?

I did see a sweet propane grill designed to mount in a rod holder that would fit under the front deck... o.0

Electronics..... I'm clueless what is standard in the panel and what gives it that little bit of extra.

Upolstery. I plan to learn or have it done all matching, perhaps with the themed emblem stitched in it. (Alaska flag version of the big dipper and north star)

Paint stencils for the emblem as well, will need to figure out appropriate sizes for the hull and a few small ones on the interior in appropriate places without over doing it.

 

Sept 14, 2018

I am familiar with Garmin, but I also know they are overpriced and leverage lawyers to stay overpriced.

Raymarine - $730-1400 for 7 or 9 in screens - confusing about what their different transducer technologys are
https://www.amazon.com/Raymarine-Finder ... ducer&th=1

Garmin - $1000 for a 7in screen, dont think it includes a transducer
https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-ClearVu-T ... min+GPSMAP

Humminbird - $1000 for a 7in screen not clear on what if any transducer is included

Simrad GO7 - $700 for a 7in screen and TotalScan transducer
https://www.amazon.com/Simrad-Chartplot ... +totalscan

Simrad GO9 - $1100 for a 9in screen with TotalScan transducer
https://www.amazon.com/Simrad-GO9-Sonar ... simrad+go9

So..... not knowing anything about any of them,
the Simrad appears to give a little more for the dollar
the garmin gives a name i know
the humminbird comes in the ugliest package
the raymarine may be same value as the simrad but is more confusing.....

What sonar do I 'need', which of them has a better value for maps and user interfaces once it is purchased and installed?