Decision Made

I have made my decision on what to do about the paint job on the hull. I'm going to do the interior of the boat and come back to it. Hopefully the primer will have sufficient time to cure so that I can get a good sanding.

That means it's time to flip the boat!

Last night I removed all but two of the molds. Here are views fore and aft from the underside.

If you'll notice, I put a cross member across the midship frame to give it extra support and maintain the proper shape of the hull until I can flip the boat and get a thwart in. 

Then I took frames 3 and 5 and marked them with the inverse of their respective measurements to form cradles for the righted hull. Here I am measuring and marking the two frames.

You can see on the first pic that I've drawn the shape of the hull on the frame. In the second pic you can see some math calculations because I was measuring from the "bottom" up. 

Here is a pic of the two cradles sitting on the hull. Not perfect fits, but I don't think they have to be. Once I turn the boat, if anything needs to be shaped up, I can tack some extra pieces to get a proper fit. Some guys make these early. I didn't. 

I only had once piece of foam. It is pipe covering. I'll get another one and they will cushion the hull against the cradles. 

 

Still Waiting

I'm still waiting to figure out what I'm going to do with the paint job. I went down tonight and sanded some more. The primer is sanding more finely than before.

Here's what it looked like a week or so ago:

Here's what it looked like tonight:

There is a difference. Perhaps it's close. 

I've sanded some of the areas so much, most of the primer has come off. Now I have to wonder if the paint will cover.

One minute I'm ready to settle and go ahead with the painting. The next I'm going to wait. We'll see what I'm feeling come Thursday. 

 

Doublers on Rudder Head

After checking several more times, I'm still unsure what to do with the paint job. Should I go ahead and settle? Should I wait longer for it to cure better so I can sand it smoother? Should I turn the hull now and come back to it when I finish the interior? I'm even thinking about putting the finish coats on the bottom 3 planks and see how it turns out. If it's too bad, it won't matter a whole lot. If it's decent, maybe I'll proceed.

I might go ahead and build my main sail from the Sailrite kit I ordered months ago. That would buy me a couple weeks to mull it over. Whatever I do, I want the hull to look as good as is reasonably possible.

I wanted to get something done, so I decided to cut out and glue up the doublers on the rudder head. I took some left over planking material to cut them out. They are only about 6"x14" at their widest points. I cut out two pieces, put them together, drilled two 1/8" holes and drove a dowel into them so they wouldn't move. I traced the two edges from the rudder head onto the blank and drew the two curves. I cut them out with the band saw and glued them up. I used the dowel holes to drill into the head and used them to line up the doublers with the head. The dowels will be under the tiller extensions. The doublers look pretty good.

Feels good to get something done.

I'm Encouraged!

Well, I have been fretting over it. I want a good finish!

I went down tonight to check to see if the primer has cured enough to sand. It's close. It's rolling up a bit but not clogging the sandpaper. And the surface is coming up fairly smooth! At least as far as I can tell. I went over a plank and a half. It's looking decent to my eye. 

I'm going to wait another couple days and then see if I can sand the whole boat (might leave the sheer strake). Maybe I can get a 5' boat after all!!! 

Update: I went down again. Things are still the same. The big problem is that, if one of the little rolls of paint gets caught under the sander, it smashes it into the surface leaving a hump of sorts which is proving not easy to sand or scrap out. 

This is going to be a long process. 

I think I'm going to build my sail and just give this primer more time to set up. 

Priming Done!

 A long time coming, but the priming is done! After 6 hours or more of sanding, I was able to get 3 coats of primer on between Thursday night and Friday.

Here she is ready to paint:

The blue tape is to mark off the gunwale and the rub strip which will go on the sheer plank once I turn the hull. I figured it would be better to glue them to the wood rather than primer.

Working on that first coat:

After one coat:

I pulled the tape off after 2 coats on the sheer plank. I wanted to do that while the paint was still soft so that none of it would pull up when the tape came off. The tape was .94" and hung over the next plank so I needed to remove it anyway to get to that lap. I was able to get two coats on that plank while doing the first coat on the rest of the hull. I did put more tape on for a third coat. 

And 3 coats:

The paint really shows the imperfections. There are areas where the epoxy did not sand down really smooth. I'm hoping that after a little sanding on the primer most of that will disappear. I also discovered a few nail holes not completely filled. I stuck a little thickened epoxy in them. Seems every coat revealed more holes. I wound up with a bump up by the stem. I have no idea how that got there. I must have dropped a small bit of epoxy that stuck there??? 

And the transom:

My fiberglass work leaves a little to be desired as well. It's on the bottom so it really doesn't matter.

 Can't fret over any of this. When she's done, she's going to be one pretty boat!!!! Not a show boat - but pretty nonetheless!